Question Ethernet dodgy after m.2 installation???

[meharp7224]

Got a secondary 1tb drive for storage and installed it today, and now something's gone off with my ethernet connectivity? Everything else is working fine, but periodically my ethernet connection will disconnect and troubleshooting either: restores it by resolving an unavailable default gateway; or, is unable to resolve the issue. It also always connects immediately every time I re-plug in the ethernet cable to the PC.

The only other things I touched while installing the drive was reseating the cpu cables (it was a little dusty inside the case, and they were particularly dusty) and blowing compressed air around the capacitors (also a bit dusty).

Advice would be appreciated, because I am at a total loss here. WiFi works fine, all the other ports in the io are working properly, and the drive is functioning. Also tried a different ethernet cable, which is functional.

Mobo: ASRock B550 PG Velocita
Processor: Ryzen 5500
Ram: x2 HyperX 16GB (32GB overall)
Graphics: Radeon RX 5700 XT
Drives: x2 WD Black SN770 1TB (Primary and storage)

 

[KingLoki]

An installation of a hard drive shouldn't affect your network connection....strange timing??
Seeing it started when you installed the new drive, have you unplugged the new drive and checked the network again??

Another option is to Reset your Network, open a command window (As Administrator)...
Type commands below, press "Enter" after each command......(no quotes on any typing)

"ipconfig /all" ( to see all connection /gateway info!
"ping 192.198.0.1" (or whatever your gateway address is....also try to ping your ipv4 pc address in the list.

Press Enter for each command!

"netsh winsock reset"
"netsh int ip reset"
"netsh advfirewall reset"
"ipconfig /flushdns"
"ipconfig /release"
"ipconfig /renew"

After this close cmd window and reboot to try network connection.

Check that the network adapter is showing in windows Device Manager and has no yellow exclamation marks next to it, and try updating the driver, by right-clicking on it to access the menu.

 

[Ralston18]

Agree with the preceding post.

However, from the original post I noted:

"but periodically my ethernet connection will disconnect"

and

"WiFi works fine".

Ensure that only network adapter is enabled on the system in question. Not both wired and wireless at the same time.

 

[meharp7224]

How embarrassing to not see the forest for the trees. :I Thought it didn't make sense for this specific hardware change to mess up the connection, but I always get so stressed out changing components haha

An installation of a hard drive shouldn't affect your network connection....strange timing??
Seeing it started when you installed the new drive, have you unplugged the new drive and checked the network again??

Another option is to Reset your Network, open a command window (As Administrator)...
Type commands below, press "Enter" after each command......(no quotes on any typing)

"ipconfig /all" ( to see all connection /gateway info!
"ping 192.198.0.1" (or whatever your gateway address is....also try to ping your ipv4 pc address in the list.

Press Enter for each command!

"netsh winsock reset"
"netsh int ip reset"
"netsh advfirewall reset"
"ipconfig /flushdns"
"ipconfig / release"
"ipconfig / renew"

After this close cmd window and reboot to try network connection.

Check that the network adapter is showing in windows Device Manager and has no yellow exclamation marks next to it, and try updating the driver, by right-clicking on it to access the menu.

Initially, while it wasn't working, ipconfig showed initially that there was no assigned default gateway, and then that the router wasn't assigning an ip based on the address. I then ran the commands through the command prompt, reset, and while it seems to be happening less frequently than it was yesterday (~7 times over the course of 5 hours), it has still 'shut down' twice in the past 4 hours. However, the default gateway is now showing up as the initial ip address for the router.

Also, no yellow flags from device manager, and individually clicking through every single adapter entry says they're all functioning and up to date.

Agree with the preceding post.

However, from the original post I noted:

"but periodically my ethernet connection will disconnect"

and

"WiFi works fine".

Ensure that only network adapter is enabled on the system in question. Not both wired and wireless at the same time.

I didn't have WiFi connected at the time of the initial issue, but I inserted my dongle when I couldn't get ethernet connection. (No network card, btw.) I didn't think having it still inserted would be an issue, but should I disconnect it while I'm troubleshooting?

 

[KingLoki]

You should remove it to troubleshoot further. Glad you have resolved some issues intermittently.
Have you tried a different modem/router for the ethernet side of things if you have access to one?

 

[Ralston18]

And look for more information.

Use Reliability History/.Monitor and Event Viewer to look for error codes, warnings, or even informational events just before or at the time that connections are lost.

Reliability History/Monitor (End-user friendly) presents a timeline format that may reveal some pattern.

Event Viewer is not as user friendly and requires more time and effort to understand.

To help:

How To - How to use Windows 10 Event Viewer | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

Use both tools while troubleshooting and making troubleshooting changes as suggested by @KingLoki.

Selecting any given entry can provide more details about what happened. Unfortunately the details may or may not be helpful.

 

[KingLoki]

Just a thought re:ethernet only drop out problem....Add to the list of possibles, the actual ethernet connection, where you plug in your ethernet cable from pc. I know you mentioned that you tried another cable. In regards to possibly being hardware related, ethernet wall plate (or similar) modem/router, mobo ethernet port or network card as well. Good Luck