Stupid, infuriating router issue

Stupid, infuriating router issue

Author
Discussion

flatlandsman

Original Poster:

764 posts

13 months

Saturday 23rd December 2023
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Router is fine, PC is fine, everything is fine. UNTIL I plug something in, unplug something, or even start the PC without the router settling. If I say take out a peripheral, it basically says there is no connection, if I change from speakers to a headphone set, it sometimes unplugs the connection. If I unplug a steering wheel and plug in a gamepad, it can sometimes do it too, but not ALWAYS which only makes it more infuriating

This is bloody hard wired into a socket, there is no way it should be this damn flaky, I think it must be some stupid hardware clash. As it has always been flaky, and I have only carried over a few items into this new build.

Just now had to reboot, reboot Router several times, took about 15 minutes and it is simply a USB or plugin issue that if I plug something in the router just say, no way I am not here anymore

So damn stupid, pathetic and annoying.

anonymous-user

60 months

Saturday 23rd December 2023
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flatlandsman said:
If I unplug a steering wheel and plug in a gamepad, it can sometimes do it too, but not ALWAYS which only makes it more infuriating
Perhaps it’s time to go to the pub?

flatlandsman

Original Poster:

764 posts

13 months

Saturday 23rd December 2023
quotequote all
Perhaps you could just answer instead of well, nothing

normalbloke

7,623 posts

225 months

Saturday 23rd December 2023
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flatlandsman said:
Perhaps you could just answer instead of well, nothing
What exactly, was the question?

ten200

214 posts

98 months

Saturday 23rd December 2023
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Are you saying that the PC loses connection to the router when you connect a USB device to the PC?

Is the PC connected to the router with a USB cable? Ethernet cable or wifi is the most common connections. If you're using wifi, is your PC's wifi adapter connected to the PC via USB?

Peanut Gallery

2,497 posts

116 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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That sounds like a cable issue, possibly a wire in an end is broken and the movement of changing anything is causing it to short or drop connection? Could any of the cables also be wired wrong, so any electrical pulse is not cleared by a paired wire, giving the computer something odd, causing it to drop?

Randomly my work laptop would drop its Wi-Fi connection if it was angled up (put on a stand so the screen was higher and the keys were facing me) and a vga screen was plugged in to the hdmi slot. A USB Wi-Fi adaptor worked fine, but the internal receiver would drop to connected no Internet. (I have since run a wire through the wall)

I am definitely not a expert by any means!

flatlandsman

Original Poster:

764 posts

13 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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It is incredibly frustrating.

if you read, you will see I mention it is hard wired, no wireless. But for instance if I am away turn everything off at the wall, if I start the machine and it sits waiting for the router to settle it will stay disconnected and I will have to reboot. So I have to turn on the router first, wait for the lights to be green, THEN turn on the PC and it will be fine! effing weird

If I say unplug something and move something around it will sometimes disconnect and I will have to reboot several times.

This a new machine but my PC's have done this for bloody years! I guess it could be the old sound card I have or speakers causing a problem as they are the only things I have taken and added to each new machine over the last 10 years or so!

You can see why people get frustrated by PC's at times with little issues like this, I have always had niggly USB issues, you know a thing not working if you move it from one port to another or you use the top ports instead of the ones at the back, the clashes seem to really bug out some machines.

xeny

4,587 posts

84 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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You're routinely turning the router off? What is this the middle ages?

If you've swapped PCs and the issue is consistent, why not replace the router?

Captain_Morgan

1,243 posts

65 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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Why are you powering off the router?

Do you mean something else, such as a switch etc?

Have you tried a new network cable?

How long have you had the “router” for?

Have you tried a new one?

Have you tried another device connected to the “router” to see if connectivity also drops or not?

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Sunday 24th December 09:53

RD-1

1,129 posts

167 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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Sounds like a DHCP issue or IP clash to me, but you need to be a bit more logical with your troubleshooting approach.

Is the router configured as a DHCP server? Can you ping the default gateway? Can you resolve DNS?

Try ipconfig from the command line as a first step.

flatlandsman

Original Poster:

764 posts

13 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
quotequote all
I power the router off as I am out of the house for 10 hours a day! new cable, no issues with that.

It just seems flaky and for no reason I can understand!

Mr Pointy

11,684 posts

165 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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flatlandsman said:
I power the router off as I am out of the house for 10 hours a day! new cable, no issues with that.

It just seems flaky and for no reason I can understand!
What model is the router & how old is it? You don't need to power it off every time you leave the house.

monthou

4,790 posts

56 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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flatlandsman said:
I power the router off as I am out of the house for 10 hours a day! new cable, no issues with that.

It just seems flaky and for no reason I can understand!
If it were me I'd live with the 2p_ish per day extra cost of leaving your router on for an easy life.

Big_Dog

980 posts

191 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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If you really have to turn your router off when you leave, then configuring a static IP on your PC will probably solve the issue.
Looks like your PC times out while waiting for an IP address. Your router will not assign an address (DHCP) until it has finished booting.
So for "settling" perhaps you should think booting.

anonymous-user

60 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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flatlandsman said:
I power the router off as I am out of the house for 10 hours a day!

It just seems flaky and for no reason I can understand!
Try switching off empty power sockets, it’ll stop the electricity from leaking out whilst you’re away.

JimbobVFR

2,720 posts

150 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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What sort of Interest connection do you have? If it's stil a DSL connection you may actually be causing potential problems with your connection as a system called DLM (Dynamic Line Management) can I interpret this as instability and lower your speed to try and compensate.

OldGermanHeaps

4,107 posts

184 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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Is it the same ethernet cable? If it is improperly terminated or has a faulty pair you can get crosstalk issues or interference issues despite passing a continuity test. Is it losing link at all, or is it retaining a link but not passing data?
Have you tried a usb nic?
A power supply in the pc or router that is only just beginning to fail can cause strangeness like this.
Do you have another pc to substitute with for testing?
Have you tried a gigabit switch between the pc and router?
There could be an internal pc resource conflict, have you tried watching device manager while the problem occurs?
And as above, unless you are on fttp switching your router off every day will be impacting performance by quite a bit, leaving it on all the time is strongly recommended, and if you have been switching it off frequently it can take up to 9 days until dlm fully resets and you get the performace your line is capable.

Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Sunday 24th December 14:46

dickymint

25,542 posts

264 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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If I turned my router off every day for ten hours my house would die yikes

maffski

1,878 posts

165 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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RD-1 said:
Sounds like a DHCP issue or IP clash to me...
Quite possibly this, DHCP is not designed for the server (your router in this case) to be unavailable and most basic routers are not designed to be switched on/off so don't permanently store their DHCP issues. Why not leave your router on for a week and see if the problem goes away?

snuffy

10,298 posts

290 months

Sunday 24th December 2023
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monthou said:
If it were me I'd live with the 2p_ish per day extra cost of leaving your router on for an easy life.
Did you work that out? Because I just have, and it does actually come out at just under 2p for 10 hours (assuming a power draw of 6w).

Edited by snuffy on Sunday 24th December 16:03