Question Windows says my Ethernet Cable is Unplugged ?

[haydenr34]

Started my computer like normal today and suddenly it says my Ethernet cable is ‘unplugged’. I have tried a second cable and had the same issue so I know it's not the cable itself, also tried plugging the Ethernet cable into my laptop and it works on there. I haven't moved or done anything with my computer, simply turned it off when going to bed last night and then the issue started when turning it on today.

I have tried restarting both my computer and my modem several times, disabling and then re-enabling my network device in device manager, reset my network settings and turning my computer off and unplugging the power cable for 10 minutes. Not sure what else to do as I can’t really use wifi as the connection is horrible.

PC has an ASUS B650M-E Wifi motherboard, 4080 super, 7800x3D, 32gb of ram and I’m on Windows 11.

Thanks in advance.

 

[KingLoki]

Open a command prompt and check if windows is recognising it as a working Ethetnet adapter while plugged in.

Type: ipconfig /all

 

[haydenr34]

Open a command prompt and check if windows is recognising it as a working Ethetnet adapter while plugged in.

Type: ipconfig /all

It comes up in there and says 'media disconnected'

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

[KingLoki]

You could try disabling the ethernet adapter and then re-enabling in the bios, with a reboot with each save & exit.

If that fails, have you tried another port on your modem?

Then do an ipconfig /all for each change.

 

[haydenr34]

You could try disabling the ethernet adapter and then re-enabling in the bios, with a reboot with each save & exit.

If that fails, have you tried another port on your modem?

Then do an ipconfig /all for each change.

Is this an easy thing to do? Never touched BIOS as I don't want to end up somehow touching things I shouldn't lol

Yes tried all 4 ethernet ports on my modem

 

[KingLoki]

The BIOS has an advanced section that you can enable to access more settings.
Normally it's Settings>Advanced>Integrated Peripherals>Onboard LAN Controller.
Clicking on the LAN Controller lets you enable or disable it.
Then click Settings and click Save & Exit.
Not familiar with the bios layout of your board.

 

[bill001g]

This most the time is a bad cable. Even though you have tested a different one I would buy a new one. You need nothing special only has to be CAT5e but be very sure the cable is pure copper with wire size 22-24. Do not use those flat cables the wires are far too small.

Ethernet cable that are "bad" are very strange they can work on some machine and not others.

Mostly you try a brand new cable first because it is very cheap and easy to try compared to everything else.

So once you rule out the cable you have very little left. Although very unlikely maybe some windows update happened. Microsoft has not messed up ethernet drivers in a very long time. You could try a USB linux boot image. These are testing and trouble shooting versions of linux that run purely from a USB stick. They have simple browser pre loaded so you really don't have to know anything about linux to do very basic tests. If you can surf the internet from the linux system it means your hardware is good.

At this point it leaves a bad port. You can look at the port and see if there is dirt or maybe one of the wire inside is damaged. I really doubt it but you might as well check and see if you get lucky.

Hopefully your pc has a empty PCIE slot. You can get ethernet cards for not a lot of money. Even 2.5g ones are not really expensive. If this is not a option you can use USB ethernet. You need to buy USB 3 devices and have a USB3 port on your machine to get full gigabit speeds. I have never used faster usb devices than 1gbit so I can't say if you can get more.

 

[KingLoki]

@bill001g, the cable was used on his laptop and confirmed as working. 🙂

 

[bill001g]

@bill001g, the cable was used on his laptop and confirmed as working. 🙂

means nothing really. Sometimes a cable will be just below specs and some ethernet ports tolerate cables out of spec more than others. 2.5g ports tend to be more picky about having quality cables so if the laptop is 1gbit it might work.

The only way to confirm a cable is good or not is to test it with a special meter. Much cheaper to just buy a new cable than to go out and buy a $1000 fluke cable certification meter.

 

[KingLoki]

It's was also confirmed to work with the problem pc. It worked, turned off, went to bed and it it didn't work next day. If the cable wasn't handled, it's very rare for cable failure. We can agree to disagree. 🙂

 

[Ralston18]

And I will add the suggestion to look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Just to look for something else that may be happening that corresponds with the cited connection/cable failures.

OP needs to update post to include full system hardware specs: including PSU.

And I am not sure that the full "ipconfig /all" results were posted. The full results need to be seen.

 

[haydenr34]

Hello guys thanks for the replies. Have been at work so will try some of the things you have mentioned shortly and let you know.

Also forgot to say, not sure if this is anything but my Ethernet light on my modem is solid green, then the moment I power up my pc (the only device in the house using Ethernet), the green light turns off instantly. Then when turning the computer back off, green light comes back on.

Wifi connection is also really poor on my computer, barely being able to load any web pages, however in the same room in the house, the laptop and my PS5 both have no issues with wifi connection.

 

[Ralston18]

Quick response/question:

On the computer are both wired and wireless enabled?

Run "ipconfig /all" when you can and post the full results.

 

[haydenr34]

Quick response/question:

On the computer are both wired and wireless enabled?

Run "ipconfig /all" when you can and post the full results.

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DESKTOP-AGLGUJJ
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : gateway

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 1:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 96-BB-43-88-71-F0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 2:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 96-BB-43-88-61-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : CC-28-AA-77-56-52
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter WiFi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : gateway
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MediaTek Wi-Fi 6 MT7902LEN Wireless LAN Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 94-BB-43-88-51-D0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:8003:d849:1900:56e5:5a07:e57b:378a(Preferred)
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2001:8003:d849:1900:a921:4348:c652:b85d(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3cb0:b69e:53b4:27af%13(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.85(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, 5 December 2024 4:30:49 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, 5 December 2024 5:31:05 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::3291:8fff:fed2:2b6%13
10.0.0.138
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.138
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 227851075
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-2E-A2-AC-34-CC-28-AA-77-56-52
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:8003:d849:1900::1
10.0.0.138
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
Connection-specific DNS Suffix Search List :
gateway

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 94-BB-43-88-51-D1
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

[haydenr34]

And I will add the suggestion to look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Just to look for something else that may be happening that corresponds with the cited connection/cable failures.

OP needs to update post to include full system hardware specs: including PSU.

And I am not sure that the full "ipconfig /all" results were posted. The full results need to be seen.

Full ipconfig /all results above.

Reliability history has 1 hardware error but nothing else. Hardware error has this information if it means anything to you.

Description
A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Code: 141
Parameter 1: ffff9484ff544010
Parameter 2: fffff804b1f961d0
Parameter 3: 0
Parameter 4: 2c14
OS version: 10_0_22631
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
OS Version: 10.0.22631.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 3081

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: LKD_0x141_Tdr:6_IMAGE_amdkmdag.sys
Server information: ae821eaa-48af-477f-8e9e-6d665740d933

 

[bill001g]

Also forgot to say, not sure if this is anything but my Ethernet light on my modem is solid green, then the moment I power up my pc (the only device in the house using Ethernet), the green light turns off instantly. Then when turning the computer back off, green light comes back on.

Unfortunately there is no standard to what lights mean on modem/routers. What do the lights do when you do something similar with the laptop.

Does the light change if you unplug the cable with the pc off.

Some times pc have standby power to a ethernet port even when the pc is off/shutdown. Mine the router thinks the port is running at 100mbps and it switches back to 1gbit when I boot the machine. If you turn off the power switch then the ethernet port is really off.

In general if the port is in a "disconnected" status even thought you have a cable plugged into your router it is some kind of hardware failure. This is a rather simple function done at the chip level. It is very different than if the port is connected but just does not function properly.

 

[Ralston18]

To start:

Make and model modem, router, or modem/router if combined?

Who has full admin rights to the router?

"ipconfig /all" shows that your PC is making a wireless connection with at Router at 10.0.0.138 and being assigned (at the time of the boot) a DHCP IP address of 10.0.0.85 using subnet masking 255.255.255.0

As would be expected for that part.

DHCP least time is just one hour - technically not an issue but longer lease times should be used.

Also IPv6 is enabled. IPv6 can be problematic and can be disabled if so. Some people disable IPv6 altogether and just use IPv4.

Also change the DNS servers to Google at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 - there are other choices. Google being a good start.

There may be other ideas and suggestions.