Strange Network Activity

[Update] The issue seems to have been cause by a cheap or just bad switch (it was cheap so I assume that's why), after it seemed to be dead I tested it and the same thing happened in the lab!
Be ware of bad switches!

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Recently I have noticed a strange network activity in a workstation PC. It is an older IBM model running Windows XP, the issue has not occoured to me until I opened the Local Area Connection Status window and saw the amount of sent packets under the Activity section (figure 1)



There are probably several possible causes but right now it seems to boil down to a bad connection on the wire or connectors. I have re-installed windows since I have noticed this originally, I also don't remember this PC having issues before it has been moved to the current location but the 'problem' keeps coming back.

The strange thing about this is that the group policies get affected every now and than.

It doesn't seem to have any issues with internet, application, bandwidth or any of the other network components including itself so not a big issue, I guess "if it ain't broke don't fix it"?

But anyway, if anyone has any ideas let me know.