NIC Card disconnects frequently

Hi,

I have a WinXP Sp2 machine with P4-2.8Ghz 512MB and realtek 8139D network card. For the past 10-15 days I am facing issues with my network connections. It connects and disconnects very frequently. Initially I thought it could be an issue with the cable being lose or something. I tried plugging the cable to another Dell Laptop with Vista and the connection was better than perfect. Surfing and downloading has become a real hell for me. Can't download even 1MB file without P2P.
I also formatted my PC, nd it ran fine for 3-4 days(No disconnections) but after 3-4 days the problem became more painful. The frequency is close to every 10-15 secs.
Is it some hardware issue or is there a possibility of some kinda spyware or trojan?
Please help. Thanks in advance.

 

Since it ran ok for 3-4 days after formatting I think it won't be a hardware issue. However a malware could be involved & so could be the drivers. Go into Device Manager & rollback the driver of NIC [if you can]. See if it makes any difference.