New board with wonky ethernet jack

[jrork]

I received a new board last week that I finally had the opportunity to try for the first time last night and ran into issues with the ethernet jack.

Rev B. made in China
HDMI monitor
USB keyboard with mouse attached thru keyboard hub
Samsung brand charger with .7 AMP output
Raspbian Wheezy on newly purchased and formatted Sandisk 8GB SD card
Good Ethernet cable plugged directly into a 10/100/1000 switch in a good tested port
Network has DHCP enabled

Hooked everything except ethernet, booted properly, logged into system, tried out scratch, perl games, etc. Plugged in ethernet cable and the entire machine slowed then stopped.

In my research I found some issues that appeared to have happened to old boards with resistors missing, etc and was unable to detect any of those same issues.

I did several troubleshooting steps, but I'll share the last one that I *believe* points to a hardware issue. Booted the board with no ethernet plugged in, got to login prompt.
Logged in without issue, able to use the system normal.
Powered down, plugged in ethernet jack, booted system.
With the network lights on the board, attempted to log in. The keyboard would either become completely unresponsive or would latch onto and repeat key presses, like 'pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp'
The usb mouse light would go on and off
Eventually all of the networking lights go off, the keyboard becomes responsive momentarily, then all of the network lights come on again and the entire process repeats.

A friend has another board but I haven't had the chance to simply replace the board and try again. In the meantime, what is the consensus of the community? If it is a problem with the hardware, who do I contact for replacement, the Foundation or the vendor?

Thanks for the help.

[rpdom]

Possibly a power supply issue? That is the most common reason for instability on a Pi.

0.7A is the lowest recommended value for powering a Pi. It could be that your supply level is borderline and connecting the network causes it to become unstable.

Could you try

a) Measure the voltage between TP1 and TP2 on the Pi when running with, and without network connected.

b) Try another supply, if you can. Ideally something rated a bit 1A or above. Many phone chargers are rated 0.85A now, they would be worth trying too.

I hope this helps and you don't have to restort to returning your Pi.

[edit] You would contact the vendor for a return/replacement, if needed.

[jrork]

Thanks for the reply. I now know that it is a problem somewhere in my setup and I'm thinking it may be my mouse. I got access to a totally different environment and hooked it up with a fresh software load and it worked just fine, so I can safely rule out the board itself, which was the main concern.

Thanks again. I'll post when I find a working configuration.

[Mobius]

Thanks for the reply. I now know that it is a problem somewhere in my setup and I'm thinking it may be my mouse. I got access to a totally different environment and hooked it up with a fresh software load and it worked just fine, so I can safely rule out the board itself, which was the main concern.

Thanks again. I'll post when I find a working configuration.

That's good, but do pay attention to the post regarding your marginal power supply. That is the number one issue with new users having problems. The more things you attach to the Pi, the more current drawn and the more voltage dropped across the input polyfuse. I've bridged mine with a glass fuse and use a 2 amp supply. I'm now able to run ethernet, wireless, mouse, keyboard, unpowered 4-port USB hub, and HDMI to VGA converter with no issues. Even plugged in a USB webcam for awhile with success.

[jrork]

In the end, it was the only component that I kept constant thru all of the issues, the USB->Micro USB cable I used for power. Once I replaced that I had no issues, even with the .7A power supply.

Thanks for the assistance!