After hard drive repair, "Network cable unplugged" "Limited Connection"

[HaydonM]

Hi,

I am typing this on my phone at the moment. I'll just start at the beginning. This morning I booted up my computer and found that my task bar was not working, this has happened before and usually fixes with a restart. After restarting, Windows needed to repair my hard drive after apparently finding an error. This has happened before and has worked fine afterwards.

Once it restarted, it gave me the annoying yellow triangle next to my wired connection icon giving me the "Limited Connection" error. I decided to check my wired adapters and it was labeled as "Network Cable Unplugged" under my Ethernet adapter name. This issue has never happened before, which proved to me it was not my router or ISP's issue, but a local issue. After power cycling and resetting for hours I decided to make my own post.

I believe the error may be something went wrong during my hard drive repair and messed with my network adapter. (Yes I made sure all cords were securely connected in every place, and no my cord is not torn in any section)

I am using Windows 10 and have a built-in adapter card for wired connections in my Z97 Mobo.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated, thanks!

(EDIT: I think a VPN program I have installed may have messed something up, I've disabled the adapter BUT I cannot delete the files it says: "You need administrative permissions to edit this file" and I cannot change or delete it... rip)

(EDIT 2: I deleted the vpn files and still have the problem, I'll try testing to see if the cable is faulty. )

 

[hang-the-9]

You don't want to just delete the files, you need to uninstall the program. Check in Device Manager for any errors in the network section, also open the Network and sharing center and see what network adapters show up there and if any are disabled or missing.