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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.

1. 
   Jerome Samuelson September 26, 2007 6:52 am
   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
2. 
   Emmanuel Camil June 24, 2008 8:14 pm
   Hi I have wireless internet and I wonder if the NIC is substancial for it.
3. 
   JPOLDO July 5, 2008 6:59 pm
   WOW...this fix really works ! Thank you very much as I spent 3 hours trying every other recommendation on the web. Just delete your network adapter including driver in device manaager, then use search icon to find the adapter and locate a replacement driver. My download speed went from 250 kbps to 8800 kbps !
4. 
   nick July 14, 2008 9:30 am
   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.
5. 
   J.P. Morgan September 19, 2008 6:01 am
   This worked on a USB wireless card that was preforming poorly. My download speed jumped from 130Kb/s to 360Kb/s. Thank you!
6. 
   Sven October 14, 2008 9:01 pm
   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!
7. 
   Johnny October 29, 2008 4:10 am
   DUDE U ROCK:)..MY DOWNLOAD SPEED WENT FROM 500KBPS TO LIKE 50KBPS...AFTER I REINSTALLED THE DRIVER IT NOW DOWNLOADS AT 900KBPS:)
8. 
   Common November 20, 2008 3:18 am
   Really works, Thanks a lot. now my speed go back to 400 KB/sec from 25 KB/sec..
9. 
   kevin November 26, 2008 8:01 pm
   I did what you said and after reinstalled my NIC device it said the divice was not successfully installed . Can you give me a solution to this plz .
10. 
    kevin November 26, 2008 8:08 pm
    My problem is solved . Ignore my request . Thanks
11. 
    Scott January 1, 2009 11:46 am
    Stupid Vista! Thanks for the tip, I've run into this issue on 2 separate computers and this appears to fix the problem. I've got a Broadcom 802.11g network adapter.
12. 
    ssssssssss January 14, 2009 10:09 am
    i need higt speed internat
13. 
    rsalazar1 February 1, 2009 7:00 pm
    thanks a lot. i work for a phone company, customer care. was able to help out a cust having this particular LAN issue. thanks!
14. 
    lol February 13, 2009 2:42 am
    HOLY CRAP IT WORKs
15. 
    David February 22, 2009 11:18 pm
    Unfortunately this did not work for me.
16. 
    Chris February 28, 2009 4:00 pm
    You are BIG!!! THX
17. 
    Dataneto May 6, 2009 11:12 am
    Just great. It also works with Vista in Hebrew. Went back to 700 kb dowload.
    
    Thank you.
18. 
    Christy June 15, 2009 7:36 pm
    Hey what kevin said happened to me! how do i fix it? thanks in advance
19. 
    Christy June 15, 2009 7:38 pm
    nope didnt work(btw i just updated driver software) i still have the same! jeez this sucks
20. 
    Chris July 16, 2009 9:32 pm
    I have a Dell XPS420 Vista SP2 connected to Fios with and ethernet connection directly to my Actiontec Router. My average speed tests are 6mbps to 10mpbs. I ran the test and my lowest speed was 2mbps this evening. I restarted my system and had a 8mbps speed test result. I am paying for the 15MB Down and 2 MB up. With my laptop, connect through wifi, I am getting my full 15.3 MBps running the exact same OS. This issue is fairly recent with my Dell.
    
    
    Un-installed the driver as stated above. Issues solved. Thanks
21. 
    sean July 21, 2009 8:41 am
    Hey, thanks man, I have been arguing with my ISP for like 6 months now, and it was all my PC the whole time. I did step by step what you did, and now i get 20mgbt DL, thats WAY better than .2mgbt DL.
    Thanks alot:)
22. 
    Hosting Reviews July 23, 2009 6:33 am
    Where were you with this post about a month ago when I had the problems you listed with speeds in Vista?
    
    I managed to do this same procedure on a whim and it also fixed my speed issues.
23. 
    Jure September 29, 2009 3:44 pm
    Didn't work... Unfortunately. I'm still at 6 Mbit per second download speed as opposed to 20 Mbit. I know, it's fast, but should be much faster. HP tech support had me do all these crazy things on my computer to try to help but nothing changed. I tried this, no change. Makes me think my ISP really did lower the download speed (I live in South Korea, so calling the ISP isn't that easy because of languagee issues ;)
24. 
    Jeff Honeyager December 30, 2009 11:52 am
    I have wireless and ethernet - first tried the wireless - no luck and now I can't connect via wireless after deleting the driver and reinstalling it.
    
    Tried the ethernet - hard wired - now it gets 90Kbs (I'm paying for 10Mbs) - and now my vonage modem is not working.
    
    Vista stinks.
    
    I don't want to get Windows 7 - I may have to...