Ethernet connection stopped working

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

My wired internet stopped working this morning. I have been gaming last night with no issue whatsoever regarding my internet. Since this morning, the PC is just unable to connect. I'm getting "Unidentified network - No internet" instead. The WiFi works fine though. The light on the router corresponding to the Ethernet port only lights up very briefly every once in a while. The ones on the PC are quite random: sometimes only the green light, sometimes both, sometimes none. The message on the screen remains the same though.

 

I tried another router and the result is quite the same. Then I tried using an Ethernet to USB adapter and the IP I'm assigned is 169.254.205.1 so it looks like a handshake issue. I did make sure that DHCP was set to automatic on the computer.

 

I tried updating the network drivers but have been told that I already have the latest drivers. Oddly enough, these drivers are from 2015.

 

Windows ran an update earlier this week and another one last night before my gaming session. Do oou think this is a software or a hardware issue? What else can I try to troubleshoot this issue?

[RageTester]

Most likely driver, try another, even if it's older...or maybe disabling driver signature enforcement can help.

Might try System rollback to before the update if you have that enabled.

Ofcourse it can be hardware too, but I never had a broken ethernet port myself...

[Windows7ge]

169.254.X.X/16 is a Windows self-assignable address. Basically it sent out a DHCP request and got no reply so it gave itself an IP to communicate with other machines.

 

I'd check the cable, try a different port on the network switch, and try booting another OS just to verify that is isn't Windows doing something dumb again.

[IAmAndre]

4 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I'd check the cable, try a different port on the network switch, and try booting another OS just to verify that is isn't Windows doing something dumb again.

Already tried the first two, even tried another router as I said in the OP. I'll now booting a Linux distro and see what happens.

[IAmAndre]

28 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

169.254.X.X/16 is a Windows self-assignable address. Basically it sent out a DHCP request and got no reply so it gave itself an IP to communicate with other machines.

 

I'd check the cable, try a different port on the network switch, and try booting another OS just to verify that is isn't Windows doing something dumb again.

Not sure what happened but it has managed to connect to the wired internet. I had a normal IP and was able to ping the router. However I couldn't open any web page. This is a big mess. I've restarted my download of Ubuntu. I'll test it out shortly.

[Windows7ge]

16 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

Not sure what happened but it has managed to connect to the wired internet. I had a normal IP and was able to ping the router. However I couldn't open any web page. This is a big mess. I've restarted my download of Ubuntu. I'll test it out shortly.

Did you verify your DNS? That'll do it.

[IAmAndre]

5 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Did you verify your DNS? That'll do it.

Well, no. I unplugged so I can stay on WiFi to download Ubuntu. Now I just plugged it again and it's doing the same thing. So what happens now is when I plug the cable, it just tries over and over to establish a connection and fails. Apparently if I let it do it thing it might be able to after 20-30 minutes (possibly with no DNS). I'll boot on Ubuntu now and see what happens.

[IAmAndre]

17 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Did you verify your DNS? That'll do it.

As I suspected, no connection issue on Ubuntu. Everything is super smooth.

Oh gosh I miss Linux. If it wasn't for my work requirements I'd definitely go back.

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, IAmAndre said:

As I suspected, no connection issue on Ubuntu. Everything is super smooth.

So it's Windows doing something dumb again.

 

Can't say I know where to begin besides:

1. Restarting the adapter
2. Reinstalling the driver
3. It's possible to reset the TCP/IP network stack (Id have to re-lookup the CLI command)
4. You can request a new IP
5. You can flush DNS

[IAmAndre]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

So it's Windows doing something dumb again.

 

Can't say I know where to begin besides:

1. Restarting the adapter
2. Reinstalling the driver
3. It's possible to reset the TCP/IP network stack (Id have to re-lookup the CLI command)
4. You can request a new IP
5. You can flush DNS

Things are getting even weirder. Now after booting on Windows everything seems to be back to normal. I also tried rebooting and plugging/unplugging the cable to see if it would fuck up again but apparently it's not. I have no idea what happened or if it's a coincidence but it seems like booting on Linux "fixed" the issue.

 

It's still even more frustrating in some way to not be able to reproduce the issue. I work remotely and I really hope it won't happen again on a Monday morning or during a meeting.