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Greetings,
I thought I found what I needed from StarTech.com : model ST10GSPEXNB
But, after several trials and as many errors, I was unable to fix this error:
“Windows cannot verify the digital signature”
That adapter works AOK in an HP Z220 workstation with Windows 10.
So, the problem appears to be a faulty Windows 7 x64 device driver.
Anybody have any ideas where to find a 10GbE adapter for Windows 7, PCIe 2.0 slot?
My thoughts exactly, when I ran into this two months ago.
But it may effect Win10 as well, if there is old hardware involved.
Windows 7 ultimate move to windows 10 pro seems the only option.
no cert driver signing, no play, game over!
The easiest way is to check the catalogue file itself. Open the .cat file included with the driver and go to the Security Catalogue tab, click any tag and scroll down in the Entry details box below it. OSAttr will show the Windows versions that the driver is signed for, note that this is the kernel version so Windows 7 would show up as 6.1 for example. It’s probably 10 only.
You need to disable Driver Signature enforcement in Group Policy.
Open Group Policy and goto User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System > Driver Installation.
In the right-hand panel select Code Signing for Device Drivers and click policy setting.
Select Enabled and set the drop-down to Ignore.
Click OK to apply the setting and reboot your PC.
You should now be able to install the “unsigned” driver.
FYI, the same Group Policy also applies for Win10 but requires the following “additional” steps to actual install the unsigned driver after you’ve set it.
Boot into recovery mode, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Start-up Settings > Restart and then select Disable driver signature enforcement (press 7 or F7.)
Yes, you can install the driver that way.
But Group Policy is not available for Home Edition.
And, the caveat is that it leaves the computer exposed with an insecure setting.
But Group Policy is not available for Home Edition.
Windows 7 Ultimate does not have Group Policy? I thought 7 Ultimate had everything.
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake as soon as you make it again.
Windows 7 Ultimate is what’s mentioned in the name of this topic. So it would seem that’s what version you were referring to.
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake as soon as you make it again.
The explanation above seems (to me, at least) to be the leading theory: MS is disabling device drivers as a way to “motivate” PC Users AWAY from Windows 7 entirely.
I had an almost identical experience this past year, evaluating 2.5GbE USB 3.0 “dongles”: vendor websites almost always listed compatibility with XP, but their downloaded drivers NEVER WORKED!
They’re all in spare parts now, because we found the Sabrent 5GbE dongle w/ Aquantia controller to be much more reliable with our USB 3.0 ports — either integrated at rear I/O panel, or PCIe x1 add-in cards.
So, here we are, trying to install a 10GbE add-in card in an available PCIe 2.0 x16 expansion slot, and Windows 7 does detect that device i.e. it shows up in Device Manager with a yellow bang sign (“!”).
If you haven’t see the error messages, I’ll attach them again.
I’m referring to the reply #2480894 from alejr which describes a work around using Group Policy. PKCano replied to it saying it would leave the driver vulnerable.
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake as soon as you make it again.
The problem about this method is you have to do that every time you boot up Windows and if you forget to select this option, you won’t get to load the unsigned drivers and the software that needs the driver won’t work.
Not true, you only need to do it once per driver!
Once the unsigned driver is installed and working, Windows will not disable it during subsequent reboots and/or updates (BTDT for various different drivers on both Win 7 Pro and Win10 Pro.)
I presume restoring default settings requires reversing “Ignore“, yes?
Actually, to restore the “default” setting, you need to change the state from Enabled to Not Configured.
You could also leave it Enabled and change “Ignore” to “Warn” which will cause a popup notification like this whenever you try to install an “unsigned” driver
Which allows you to decide whether you really want to install it or not.
BTW, that’s how I have it set for my PC but, unlike Win7, for Win10 the popup only appears if I use the Recovery Mode method I mentioned above to install an unsigned driver.
If I try to install it without going the Recovery Mode route, there’s no warning or any other sort of notification, the driver simply doesn’t get installed!
Also, as I also indicated above, once a driver is successfully installed and working, Windows will load and use it regardless of whether it’s signed or not (i.e signature enforcement only happens during the installation process.)
gpedit.msc in my version of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 shows this list of OS “supported on”:
see text inside green rectangle:
our version of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 does not support this sequence:
do I launch gpedit.msc again to change the settings back to defaults?
Personally, I left it set as indicated in my post #2481262 in case I need to install other “unsigned” drivers.
Win10 always uses signature enforcement when installing drivers unless you take the Recovery Mode detour, so leaving it set that way isn’t really a problem.
Win7 only gives the warning if a driver is unsigned which “should” mean it also uses signature enforcement when installing other drivers, so leaving it set that way also shouldn’t be a problem.
BTW, having it set to give the warning popup is a good way of ensuring “unsigned” drivers don’t sneak onto your PC without your specific approval.
see text inside green rectangle
see also second paragraph:
“Users can use System in Control Panel to select a more secure setting”
So, I thought I could increase (2) by installing a 10GbE adapter
This will not fix the issue.
A 1Gb card will happily download at 950Mbps if everything else is running at full speed.
Your 5Gb card is not running at full speed, probably because the USB adapter is slow. You need to test it on the LAN to find out what speed it will run before testing the internet.
LAN speed test software
Also, what do you think you need to download from the internet faster than 350Mb on that PC? (That’s about 11 seconds for a Windows image.)
cheers, Paul
Many MANY thanks for the link to “LAN Speed Test” (I LUV useful tools like that!)
here’s my first measurement:
both PCs have Sabrent 5GbE USB dongles,
but the target PC also has a USB 3.0 add-in card (no integrated USB 3.0 ports):
test was run from an HP workstation with integrated USB 3.0 port + Windows 10 x64:
second “LAN Speed Test” changed target NIC
to an integrated 1G NIC hard-wired to our 1G router
(Sabrent 5GbE dongle is bypassed on target PC):
path to target is now:
HP workstation integrated USB 3.0 port –> Sabrent 5GbE dongle –> 10G port on QNAP switch –> 2.5G port on QNAP switch –> 1G router –> integrated 1G NIC on target PC
Try Amazon… and people answer questions.
Your motherboard seems to have a Marvel Yukon 1Gb adapter that has W7 drivers. Try that adapter in your LAN test and see what you get without the USB adapter in the way.
cheers, Paul
“LAN Speed Test” 3 bypasses 5GbE USB 3.0 dongle and
connects to StarTech ST10GSPEXNB on Win7 Ultimate x64 @ 10G:
lights on QNAP switch confirm 10G speed on 10G port 1 of 2 on that switch:
numerical details for “LAN Speed Test” 3 above:
The integrated 1Gb card is 600/260Mb and the 10Gb is 850/280.
Seems to me like you have gained very little, certainly less than I would be happy with given the complexity of the new setup. 🙂
cheers, Paul
just to be absolutely sure I have not erred somewhere, I triple-checked all of the cable connections:
QNAP 10G port 1 of 2 is wired to StarTech 10G NIC on Windows 7 PC
QNAP 10G port 2 of 2 is wired to Sabrent 5GbE USB 3.0 dongle, which is wired to integrated USB 3.0 port on Windows 10 PC
“LAN Speed Test” STILL measures only ~950 Mbps !!!
HP Z220 SFF PCIe expansion slots:
HP Z240 Tower PCIe expansion slots:
the socket inside green rectangle is a real sweet option:
it supports a standard x4 M.2 NVMe SSD, which is a great place to host an OS
the PC experts at https://pcserverandparts.com/ will pre-load Windows 10 to that drive, before shipping = VERY NICE!! This requires ordering a “custom configuration” from them.
Samsung 960 Pro installed in socket 22:
next “LAN Speed Test” targets a different Windows 10 workstation, an HP Z220 Tower with 2.5GbE Realtec NIC in x1 PCIe 2.o expansion slot;
NTFS file system is a RAID-0 on Highpoint SSD7103 in PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slot;
“LAN Speed Test” was changed to READ and WRITE a 1GB file:
more good news:
Spectrum Speed Test w/ HP Z220 Tower workstation, Windows 10 x64 and 2.5GbE NIC with Realtec controller in x1 PCIe 2.0 slot, cabled to 2.5G switch ports:
At present, my theory reduced to 3 suspects: either the difference now is due to different Operating Systems (where exactly, I still can’t say), most probably in the device drivers or the difference is due to an ISP policy that detects and “throttles” download speed when a WAN client is running Windows 7 or the difference is due to a very inefficient driver for the Tehuti controller in the StarTech ST10GSPEXNB x4 NIC:
When you run the speed tests, have a Task Manager window open and monitor CPU/disk/Network activity. You’ll probably find a CPU bottleneck.
ISPs don’t throttle per Window version because they can’t reliably know what the OS is. The only way to know machine details is from a browser session and if it’s https then the ISP can’t read it anyway.
It also can’t be the switch contacting the ISP – that’s not how networks/switches work. Once a switch knows what IP maps to what MAC then all traffic is sent to the correct port without intervention.
Have you managed to get a NIC into the PCIe port of the slow machine, instead of the USB3 adapter?
cheers, Paul
Spectrum Speed Test / Windows 7 Ultimate x64 / Intel Q9550 CPU overclocked to 3.4GHz
StarTech ST10GSPEXNB 10GbE adapter installed with drivers supplied on CD-ROM
latter adapter is cabled directly to QNAP 10G switch w/ CAT-6 cable
switch is cabled directly to Cisco router w/ CAT-5e cable
router is cabled directly to brand new 1G Spectrum cable modem
see full screen shot:
that’s a LOT of overhead for an overclocked 4-core Intel Q9550
(400 MHz clock x 8.5 multiplier / max SpeedStep)!
One other thought occurred to me this morning: chipset overhead
the ASUS P5Q Premium has 4 PCIe x16 expansion slots,
but the chipset does not assign x16 lanes to all 4 slots.
The StarTech NIC is installed in the first black x16 slot
designated “PCIe x16_2” and the chipset assigns max x4 links
which matches the x4 edge connector on the NIC:
Now go back to the internal 1Gb adapter and check the CPU while running the test.
cheers, Paul
screenshot of Spectrum Speed Test w/ internal 1G adapter:
and, the motherboard manual has a table which confirms x4 lanes are always assigned to the second x16 slot, regardless of how other x16 slots are populated;
but, I would prefer to avoid trial-and-error costing another $200, only to confirm that the problem I’ve been fighting originates deeper in the chipset and/or Windows 7 internals!
Looks like the CPU load is mainly the test software. To confirm that, copy a large file to and from the PC and watch the CPU.
I’d save my pennies and stick with the simplest configuration – cabling and network switches as well as PC software and hardware. Your speeds are more than enough for real world work.
cheers, Paul
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