topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 8:29 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: Slightly warm computer killing my internet speeds...I have no idea why.  (Read 3870 times)

KynloStephen66515

  • Animated Giffer in Chief
  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2010
  • **
  • Posts: 3,741
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
So, I've finally found the cause of my internet running slowly:

Whenever my internal temp is 30c+, my internet speed starts to drop dramatically...to the point I'm losing about 50% of my available speeds.

With the internal temp below 30c, I'm running around 500-550Mbps, but when I hit anything over 30c it starts to slow down to around 200-250  :tellme: :tellme: :tellme:

It's not like 30-35c is abnormally hot so I can't work out wtf is going on.

Anybody else had an issue like this?

-Stephen

Shades

  • Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 2,922
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Remove dust from every computing device. Laptops are famous for collecting lots of dust that is not visible on the outside.
Pets and carpet? You have dust issues in your computer equipment. And don't forget shed human skin.
Use a laptop in bed? You have serious dust issues in your computer equipment. Really, the worst place to use a laptop is in bed.

In my place of employment there is a tile floor, desktops and no pets. Yet, every 6 months I take out servers and desktops and remove dust. And I'm still amazed by the amount of dust being sucked up by these computers. You clean your computers less frequently? You have dust issues in your computer equipment.

Have a non-tech partner that (compulsively) cleans? You have dust issues in your computer equipment.

Any mix of scenarios described here apply to you/your environment? You have serious dust issues in your computer equipment.

Once you eliminate your dust issues, you can look further. Especially older electronics used to be sensitive for changes in environment. I have worked in a company with an electronics lab containing an old 286 computer. If there was a storm front within 10 kilometers of that computer, it would fail. Most reliable weather computer I have ever seen...

Nowadays electronics do not have that many issues with changes in barometric pressure changes, humidity levels and/or temperatures. But it is still possible you have an electronically "worn" unit. When the room temperature goes beyond a certain level, do you turn on AC? There is a chance that this unit drops the power in your house just below a certain threshold that makes your computer environment behave as it does.

There are lots of weird scenarios to think of. But always go for dust elimination first. Electronics attract dust and lots of it. Even if you think you have a very clean environment, do that dust check. 

KynloStephen66515

  • Animated Giffer in Chief
  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2010
  • **
  • Posts: 3,741
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Remove dust from every computing device. Laptops are famous for collecting lots of dust that is not visible on the outside.
Pets and carpet? You have dust issues in your computer equipment. And don't forget shed human skin.
Use a laptop in bed? You have serious dust issues in your computer equipment. Really, the worst place to use a laptop is in bed.

In my place of employment there is a tile floor, desktops and no pets. Yet, every 6 months I take out servers and desktops and remove dust. And I'm still amazed by the amount of dust being sucked up by these computers. You clean your computers less frequently? You have dust issues in your computer equipment.

Have a non-tech partner that (compulsively) cleans? You have dust issues in your computer equipment.

Any mix of scenarios described here apply to you/your environment? You have serious dust issues in your computer equipment.

Once you eliminate your dust issues, you can look further. Especially older electronics used to be sensitive for changes in environment. I have worked in a company with an electronics lab containing an old 286 computer. If there was a storm front within 10 kilometers of that computer, it would fail. Most reliable weather computer I have ever seen...

Nowadays electronics do not have that many issues with changes in barometric pressure changes, humidity levels and/or temperatures. But it is still possible you have an electronically "worn" unit. When the room temperature goes beyond a certain level, do you turn on AC? There is a chance that this unit drops the power in your house just below a certain threshold that makes your computer environment behave as it does.

There are lots of weird scenarios to think of. But always go for dust elimination first. Electronics attract dust and lots of it. Even if you think you have a very clean environment, do that dust check. 


I should have mentioned this is a wired connection on my desktop (which has just been cleaned today) xD


x16wda

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 888
  • what am I doing in this handbasket?
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
I should have mentioned this is a wired connection on my desktop (which has just been cleaned today) xD

So where does the wire go once it leaves your desktop? Do you have a router or using your provider's router? Is it cable, fiber? (Not DSL! heh)

Can you have someone with a laptop come over and see if they get the same speeds? That would be helpful to narrow down what end of the wire is the problem!
vi vi vi - editor of the beast

KynloStephen66515

  • Animated Giffer in Chief
  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2010
  • **
  • Posts: 3,741
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
The Cat 6 goes straight into the router (tried multiple wires).  Internet is full speed when computer is cool...slow when it starts getting warmer

It's very odd lol

Target

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,832
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
+1 for trying it with another PC/laptop.

failing that, got a spare nic by any chance?   

4wd

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 5,641
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
The Cat 6 goes straight into the router (tried multiple wires).  Internet is full speed when computer is cool...slow when it starts getting warmer

Internal or add-on NIC?

How old is it?

If it's internal, plug a NIC in and see if it's the same.
  • If it isn't then the likely cause is temp. sensitive components or solder joints in that sub-system, live with the NIC.  I'd probably reflow the solder for the onboard socket ... but that's me :P
  • If it does the same thing then you most likely have other problems on the motherboard.


EDIT: Beaten by Target  :Thmbsup:

Target

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,832
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
and when you say temp, I assume you mean the ambient temp?  If thats the case, what are your system temps like (Mobo, CPU, etc).  Worth having a look regardless as it could be indicative of a larger issue

KynloStephen66515

  • Animated Giffer in Chief
  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2010
  • **
  • Posts: 3,741
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
and when you say temp, I assume you mean the ambient temp?  If thats the case, what are your system temps like (Mobo, CPU, etc).  Worth having a look regardless as it could be indicative of a larger issue

I've checked individual component temps and all seem fine - internal temp is via a sensor on my fan controller and I've mainly been basing it off that.

I've tried it on another machine (laptop) but not able to reproduce at all on there. 

I'm gonna experiment with a few things once my chest infection clears up and I can concentrate enoug to care about it haha

x16wda

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 888
  • what am I doing in this handbasket?
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
I've tried it on another machine (laptop) but not able to reproduce at all on there. 

Definitely try another nic if you have a slot, or a usb nic otherwise. They're cheap and it's good to have a spare anyway, the USB ones especially. Maybe it's old enough to have been affected by the 2011 floods in Thailand, or e-caps degrade over time anyway.
vi vi vi - editor of the beast