Hi wb,
1) i tried disabling Receive side scaling, unfortunately this doesn't help.
2) yes this issue is caused by wait for link, we need this setting, because otherwise the driver reports that it has link but it hasn't yet :s, so other services may fail to start in our setup
if i disable wait for link this doesn't happen, but we need to keep this enabled, we have tried all powersaving settings. Can you clarify what you mean by Windows Network Service is not starting properly? This is tested to out-of-the-box windows 8.1 installation and our own base image.
3) we tried with cisco 3560 and 3560x poe, also with poe disabled, it only happens on 100mbit ports, not on gigabit, currently we have no other brands
4) dell has no reports of similar issues, i guess because this happens only with the waitforlink setting to enabled, and most people don't need this
i have an HP here with the same nic, will test this soon.
this really sounds like a driver bug.
thanks!