Corrupt downloads

[Mazda81]

This machine is my number 3 computer & is only used for web browsing so performance is not a major issue though I hear what you say about 32 bit.
I’m wondering if there might be an issue with the network card. I would like to try a WiFi dongle or a usb network adapter. Would there be any compatibility issue with Linux?

[ColdBootII]

Well, if you already tried connecting one of the other machines through the same ethernet port and you noticed the same data corruption, that means there's no fault at your side and you should ask your ISP to replace the router.

[Mazda81]

I know it’s not the router because I had a new one about a year ago and this issue has been happening for way longer than that. I’m thinking it may be the network card. I ran ifconfig and nothing significant was found.

[ColdBootII]

Nothing significant as in all zeros like output on my machine always is?

Code: Select all

ether x:x:x:x  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 2427  bytes 2861992 (2.8 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1735  bytes 218919 (218.9 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

If not, buying a new network card (or wifi dongle) is all you can do.

[Mazda81]

Coldboot11 thanks for your help. I think this might finally be solved. Using my network card today Ifconfig reports 14 errors, 242 dropped & 9 overruns!
I have purchased a usb network adapter which shows no errors, so far. I have been trying to install a kernel update for about a week but wasn’t able to because the download was corrupted. I forced the machine to re-download the update which has installed successfully using the new adapter.
I’ll mark this as solved later if everything is good.

[ColdBootII]

Fingers crossed

Cheers

[Mazda81]

I was hoping this was solved but I'm still getting issues despite the new network adaptor. The kernel update installed successfully but the machine failed to boot which usually indicates a problem with the download of the update. Still showing errors in ifconfig although not as many as before. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do now apart from retire the machine.

[ColdBootII]

Sorry to hear that... It looked very promising at first but now it seems that the problem is bigger. Probably, the motherboard needs to be replaced but I can't say if that makes any sense given the age of the CPU.

[Mazda81]

Yes, it’s not worth spending any money on it. Fortunately it’s not my main computer. I might swap the ram modules to see if that makes any difference.

[trytip]

apt update <<< are there any errors or warnings?
then apt install speedtest-cli <<< install ISP speed test
and run it speedtest-cli in Terminal
are your results about the same speed as your ISP is providing?

be sure to remove personal connection info if you post results here

[Mazda81]

I ran speed test and the results are as expected. Bear in mind that I have two other computers using this broadband and they are not affected by this issue. It is only my desktop that's affected and I'm pretty sure it's hardware related.

[Mazda81]

The attachment shows what happened today when I tried to update Opera. This is despite using the new network adaptor. I get around this issue by replacing the corrupt deb file in archives with a clean version from another machine that doesn't suffer from this problem.

[trytip]

i know stressing hardware can cause further damage, but you can try to copy some large and small files to something external and back to see if you have same issues. include a few videos and some compressed files

[Mazda81]

I copy files all the time to and from this machine without problems. It seems to affect downloads only and is intermittent as proved today when I managed to successfully download and install a kernel update after three previous failed attempts due to the downloaded files being corrupted.

[BG405]

A shot in the dark .. it may be worth checking/replacing the CMOS backup cell as failing ones can cause strange issues (i.e. not keeping the BIOS settings correctly). It's usually a CR2032 coin cell, located near the BIOS flash chip. These don't tend to last much more than 10 years.

[Mazda81]

That's definitely worth doing, I think I might have one of those somewhere. I'll have a look at that tomorrow.

[Mazda81]

For anyone who has been following this thread the situation has improved significantly. Having re-seated my ram modules combined with using the new network adaptor I'm seeing hardly any errors now. Ifconfig often shows no errors or occasionally just the odd one. I was getting over 200 errors at one time so, although I can't claim the issue is solved, this is a big improvement.
I have just successfully downloaded and installed a kernel update which didn't always happen previously.