Download Speed on Windows Vista Has Dropped Dramatically
The Problem
The download speed on my Windows Vista have dropped from 300kb/s to around 20kb/s. It took me several attempts to find out what the problem was.
It first seemed to me that my ISP was in a technical difficulty state. I am on a dual-boot system with both XP and Vista. In order to verify that Vista was not the cause of the problem, I booted into Xp and did some speed throughput test. Surprisingly my download speed in XP was normal (300kb/s). Clearly the cause for my slow download in Vista was the Vista itself.
Now it comes the tough part: Which part of the Vista caused the problem? I've tried to uninstall/reinstall programs in my computer and used msconfig to disable startup programs. Zone Alarm was kind of suspicious since it was beta version (stable version was not available for Vista at that time), so I ran the uninstaller. That didn't help either. I have even tried to boot to the safe mode. None of which did any good.
The Solution
After exhaustive diagnoses, and without getting the problem fixed, I decided to uninstalled my NIC (Network Interface Card) driver, which was an onboard Realtek Ethernet card. So I removed it from the Device Manager. A popup prompted me whether to delete the driver software for this device, I chose Yes. After uninstalling, I issued an "Scan for hardware changes" command to the Device Manager, it reinstalled my NIC. As soon as my NIC is installed, I tested my internet connection speed. It mysteriously went back to the normal (300kb/s).
Uninstalling NIC:
Make sure Delete driver software is checked:
Conclusion
I have no idea what has happened, I guess it was a problem with the NIC driver. The important thing is the problem now is resolved. If you have similar problem and run out of solutions, it worth to give it a try.
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I had Vista download problems with any file that had sound...movie or music. 25-30 Kb/sec on wireless. Hard cable connection was much better. Speeds varied slightly with the local router (I toured coffee houses to try to define wireless problem). Other stuff seemed OK, software etc. General Internet navigation was OK.
Local Geek squad was baffled. I returned the computer and am having my ancient Toshiba machine repaired. It has XP, an OS with which I've had no problems. I may order a new PC with XP rather than Vista, or go Mac (except its business and financial software is not too welcoming to my Windows Quicken files).
Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks
Hi I have wireless internet and I wonder if the NIC is substancial for it.
WOW...this fix really works
hey thanks, this really did work for me. i have 5Mb/s internet yet my network is really old so i usually get around 300kb/s on my XP. i just got a vista laptop and the loading speeds were fine but the download speed was 25-45 kb/s.
this worked, now i can finally stream videos again.
This worked on a USB wireless card that was preforming poorly. My download speed jumped from 130Kb/s to 360Kb/s. Thank you!
Dude your my Hero. i tried everything to get my net speed back to normal after intalling vista ultimate, was about to give up when i came across your thread. Thanks a lot, you saved my computer from the trashcan :D!
DUDE U ROCK:)..MY DOWNLOAD SPEED WENT FROM 500KBPS TO LIKE 50KBPS...AFTER I REINSTALLED THE DRIVER IT NOW DOWNLOADS AT 900KBPS:)