Windows 7 64bit Very Slow Download Speeds

Anonymous

I bought a new top-of-the line HP Pavilion when Win 7 came out - fastest proc they offer, 12GB RAM, Win 7 64bit preloaded. I've had it about 2 months. The machine itself is lightning fast - but the internet download speed is molassas slow. Would be faster to chisel in stone.

My home LAN has the Win7 box, my old HP running Vista (4GB RAM, about 3 years old) and an iMac (4 GB RAM, about a year old). All 3 machines are connected physically to the router (no wireless connections). It's a basic and no-frills network - I don't have a webserver, torrents, filesharing or anything like that. Basic connectivity between machines, and internet access. That's it.

My ISP is Comcast.

Here are my ul/dl speeds:

UPLOAD DOWNLOAD PING

Win 7 ~3 Mb/s > 1 Mb/s 88ms

Vista ~3 Mb/s 20 Mb/s 89ms

iMac ~3 Mb/s 20 Mb/s 88ms

(this according to speedtest.net)

The upload and download speeds on the old clunker Vista machine and on the iMac are as expected. The Win 7 box upload is the same as the other machines - the download speed is slooooow. Less than 1/20th of the Vista box or the iMac.

I also bought a new Linksys WRT210N Gigabit router. Updated the firmware last night. Updated the drivers for the Intel NIC in the Win 7 box. Problem persists.

Rebooted the router & cable model (and the Win 7 box). Problem persists.

Disabled IPv6, Discovery Mapper - basically everything except IPv4, QoS packet scheduler & file and print sharing. Problem persists.

Booted into Safe Mode. Problem persists.

Tried Firefox, Safari, Chrome & IE8 - no noticeable differences.

Disabled Norton A/V, Firewall, Win Defender. No change.

Swapped the ethernet cable. No change.

There is only one net device in Device Manager - the Intel 82567V-2 Gigabit NIC. No conflicts of any sort that I can see.

Ran Windows Update to get the latest stuff - then disabled it. No change.

Checked all the logs, ran diagnostics, and tried all the "netsh" tweaks I read about. No change.

So, ultimately, this machine I sunk about $3K into is performing (online) like a snail. It's almost unuseable, especially since 90% of my job involves online stuff.

I've read dozens - no, hundreds - of similar threads all over the internet, with people reporting the EXACT same conditions - expected upload speed, awful download speed. So, this is obviously not an isolated problem, and it's not a problem with my ISP, router, modem, NIC, drivers, firewall, A/V or anything else. It looks like a Win 7 problem - my question is, what is the solution??

Ferris? Anyone?

Thanks!

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Hi KevinW2112,

I would suggest you to bypass the router and then try connecting to the internet directly and check. There have been instances where the router for Linksys has been an issue for slow download speed.

Also, slow downloads can be caused by any one of the following conditions:

• Poor line quality or excessive line noise

• Defective filters, telephone line cord, splitters, or inside wiring problems

• An incorrectly configured digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM)

• Routing problems from the Internet service provider (ISP) to the Internet

• Problems in transmission from the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) to the ISP (The ILEC is the local phone company.)

You may refer to the link below for assistance on the issue -

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/Windows7/Why-is-my-Internet-connection-so-slow

If you still face the same issue, I would suggest you to contact the Internet Service Provider (ISP) for assistance on the issue.

Hope this helps. Let us know the results.

Thanks,

Meghmala – Microsoft Support

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43 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-03-28T04:41:27+00:00

Thank you thank you thank you. i had just bought a top of the line dell with i7 win 7 64 bit and the download speed was killing me. I thought I had purchased a lemon. Your answer fixed the issue. I was killing me that my 4 yeat old HP was performing better than my brand new laptop.
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Anonymous

2010-03-29T21:08:19+00:00

Hi, I am using chrome and i do not get these options, my internet download speed is slower and I am running windows 7 pro, please can you help me
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Anonymous

2010-04-21T02:35:09+00:00

I was having the same issues... On the Network card I disabled IPV6 and my speed went from ~2MB to 18MB. This was pretty good, but then I read to disable the QoS (which I did) and I went from 18MB to 21MB. I don't know why this helped, but it did. Good Luck.
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Anonymous

2010-05-26T07:35:25+00:00

Wel, the same thing happen on me. I have a USB wireless card. I use my HP destop(Win7 P-64bit) and my netbook(window 7 starter)at the same room with the same wireless network. The downloading speed sometimes can as low as 0.2Mbps(20-30K),sometimes goes to 4, while my netbook stand on 7Mbps all the time. the upload speed stand on 2Mbps, same with my netbook. I thought it might be my new coming USB wireless card on my destop got some problem, so I took the card out and put it onto my netbook, replace my netbook wireless card. Than run the test again.....my netbook still can be 7Mbps downloading! So, the my wireless card is fine, it must be some problem with Win7. I will try to use this card on another computer, because same of my friends use same tpyes their on 64 win7 have no problem.

My HP is new coming one, I did not change any windows setting, just put the UBS card on it and get it to work.
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