Trouble shooting Fatal1ty H97 Performance Ethernet

I could use some help troubleshooting problems with my internet. I am having connectivity issues. I can only load text based content, anything video or picture related won't load (or will take minutes to load).

Setup: I have a router that has a cat 6 cable that connects to my ethernet port.

Trouble shooting: I have plugged the ethernet cable into my laptop (and disabled wifi) and am able to watch youtube/twitch. I have used compressed air to clean out any dust on the ports of my desktop.

This problem appears to be related to my PC and not my ethernet cable or router/ISP.

Poor internet connectivity has happened before but I was able to  fix it by just bending the ethernet cable which I assume made the metal contacts better.  This time the trick hasn't worked.

I guess I can try to update the drivers, it looks like the ones i have are outdated by 2 months.

I'll also run a couple virus scans in case.

Any other suggestions before I request an RMA?

You have an Intel I218V network chip, which is just an interface to the Intel network support in the H97 chipset.

Intel networking hardware is the best there is IMO, and no chance it is a driver issue, even with an automatically installed Windows 10 network driver.

For now, keep your network cable attached to your mother board. If you have the Intel network driver installed, open Device Manager, find the I218 in Network adapters, and double click on it to open its Properties.

In the Link Speed tab, find the Diagnostics button, and click it. Start with the Cable tab, and click as many test boxes as you can find. You may get up to six test results back.

If it tells you your cable is Ok, try the Connection and Hardware tests.

Grab a flash light and remove the network cable from the board's IO panel. Look inside the network RJ45 jack. You should see eight nice straight metal connections inside. If those are bent or damaged, you may need to RMA the board, or try carefully bending them yourself.

But as wardog said, get yourself a decent cable if there is the slightest question the cable is bad. They are cheap, but buy a decent one or two.

This doesn't even begin to check your network connection, but it really sounds like it is just the cable.

Next time this one looses connectivity, before jiggling the cable(s), re-run the tests.

I hear ya on crawl spaces. Not my fav place either.