Solved Since updating to W11, Ethernet is dropping

Good evening,

I am looking for an IT/Windows expert, who can help me with this weird issue, which I have been struggling with for a few weeks and I don't know what else to do...

In short: My Ethernet adapter is dropping. It seems to be completely random. You can see what it looks like when pinging here: IMGUR

Status (duration), in adapter details, when there is a failure in the Ethernet adapter, it resets to zero. I've been watching what the Ethernet adapter does in network connections when this occurs and it switches to the "Network cable has been disconnected" state for a few seconds and then jumps to "Identify"... and in a little while the internet is back up.

It all started with the move to Windows 11 (it NEVER happened to me on W10). I included my PC details in my profile, you can also check benchmark here: USERBENCHMARK

I am on Windows 11 22H2, I keep the system up to date. As well as the drivers for the network card (Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller). I have downloaded the latest drivers from Realtek's website as of 1/18/2023. I also did a clean install of them. I downloaded the latest BIOS from MSI's website (motherboard manufacturer), which I successfully updated. AMD Chipset drivers as well.

My internet connection is 1Gbit fiber optic from local provider. It's completely flawless, everything works fine on other devices. No drops. The outages are only on this PC.

I tried playing with the adapter settings, e.g. turn off IPv6 or try turning power saving on/off. No luck. A normal user wouldn't deal with this 'few seconds outage', but since I'm an online gamer, this problem really drives me crazy.

What I also tried (in total desperation), I bought an USB Ethernet 1Gbit adapter (from Axagon, network adapter is Realtek USB GbE Family Controller) . It did not help, drops are still here.

Any idea what else to try? Instead of doing clean install.
I would be really grateful for any advice.

Thank you very much,
Martin

Mine done that, and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why. I bought a new Ethernet Adapter and it still done it..........Then I tested the cord using an Ethernet Tester...........Problem Solved! Bad cord.

Hello and welcome to the forum. Things to try:

1. Run the troubleshooter. It might give you some indication what is happening in details. (You might want to do this the next time it happens.)
settings>system>troubleshoot>other troubleshooters>internet connections>Run

2. Reset network adapters Reset Network Adapters in Windows 11 Tutorial

3. Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

4. The next time it happens make note of exact time. Check event viewer for critical and error events taking place at the time of failure to see if anything might lead to the problem. Search for 'event' In search results click Event Viewer. Do not be overwhelmed by the amount of information there. It is normal. You would not be interested in information or audit events

5. Repair Install Windows 11. It's amazing how this can sometimes fix weird problems when one has exhausted other troubleshooting options. Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

JMedlock83 said:

Mine done that, and I couldn't figure out for the life of me why. I bought a new Ethernet Adapter and it still done it..........Then I tested the cord using an Ethernet Tester...........Problem Solved! Bad cord.

Click to expand...

Hey, thank you for reply.
Unfortunately I don't have any spare cords at my home now, but I don't think it's a cord issue. However, once I get some, I will try to replace it.
It all started on day 1 after I updated to Windows 11. I was thinking "hmmm, it will be an issue with network adapter driver, I will simply download newest driver from Realtek website and it should be ok" - and, no

glasskuter said:

Hello and welcome to the forum. Things to try:

1. Run the troubleshooter. It might give you some indication what is happening in details. (You might want to do this the next time it happens.)
settings>system>troubleshoot>other troubleshooters>internet connections>Run

2. Reset network adapters Reset Network Adapters in Windows 11 Tutorial

3. Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

4. The next time it happens make note of exact time. Check event viewer for critical and error events taking place at the time of failure to see if anything might lead to the problem. Search for 'event' In search results click Event Viewer. Do not be overwhelmed by the amount of information there. It is normal. You would not be interested in information or audit events

How to use Event Viewer on Windows 10

If Windows 10 or an app isn't behaving as expected, you can use the Event Viewer to understand and troubleshoot the issue, and in this guide, we'll show you how.

www.windowscentral.com

5. Repair Install Windows 11. It's amazing how this can sometimes fix weird problems when one has exhausted other troubleshooting options. Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

Click to expand...

Hello, thank you for reply, much appreciated.
I will go through all these steps later today and let you know the outcome.

It's weird that you posted this issue. The exact same thing happened to me last week. My problem proved to be a bad ethernet cable connection. I couldn't exchange it because its a 75 foot cable that goes thru the attic to the router at the other end of our house. I had to resort to using wireless. Mine started out dropping but ended up finally quitting altogether. That cable is at least 25 years old. I hope one of the suggestions I gave can help you.

Hello, so I did steps 1 to 4 and adapter keeps dropping. In the last like 15 minutes, I had three drops. So annoying
Here you can see two screenshots: First shows how it looks like when my connection is stable, second how sfc /scannow ended up.
Event Viewer is not showing anything related to network adapter. And network adapter reset did not help.
I will try to repair Windows 11, hopefully tonight....

0XEEr said:

Hello, so I did steps 1 to 4 and adapter keeps dropping. In the last like 15 minutes, I had three drops. So annoying
Here you can see two screenshots: First shows how it looks like when my connection is stable, second how sfc /scannow ended up.
Event Viewer is not showing anything related to network adapter. And network adapter reset did not help.
I will try to repair Windows 11, hopefully tonight....

Click to expand...

Heck I have like 20 or 30 Cords. . I'd be glad to mail you a couple

JMedlock83 said:

Heck I have like 20 or 30 Cords. . I'd be glad to mail you a couple

Click to expand...

Thanks man, but that would be very expensive for you, since I live in Central Europe I'll buy it by myself

0XEEr said:

Thanks man, but that would be very expensive for you, since I live in Central Europe I'll buy it by myself

Click to expand...

oh dang! lol Yeah, that might cost a bit. Hey it's the thought that counts though, right? lol

So reinstall using .iso finished successfully, I am now on 22H2 22621.525 and so far so good (now for 1 hour). I am very very curious if the issue got fixed or not... I will let you know.

Guys, second day without a single network adapter drop.... fingers crossed... will continue observing it.
(by the way, got updated to 22621.1265)

Resolved by repairing Windows 11 using .iso from MS website.
Thank you very much glasskuter

Get an ISO and do a repair install. Always worked for me for weird problems. Nothing is lost.

Sorry, the issue is completely back. After couple of days.
Any other tips what to do, please...

We could choose to prefer IPv4 over IPv6.
This will require some registry manipulation.

In regedit ,go to key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\
In the right pane, right click, New, DWORD 32, DisabledComponents (enter)
Double click on the newly created value and set it to Decimal 32
This will prefer IPv4 over IPv6 when connecting.
You will need to restart your system.

I am still leaning towards a hardware issue but this will add a piece to the puzzle.

Hello OAT,
I've just finished another Win11 repair using .iso image. I also stopped updates for 1 week to see if it makes any difference. I am on 22H2 22621.525 after the repair.
And thanks for your tip, I did that. After reboot, I can see that it prefers IPv4 now.
Also, how can it be a HW issue, if it behaved same when I used USB ethernet adapter?

0XEEr said:

Hello OAT,
I've just finished another Win11 repair using .iso image. I also stopped updates for 1 week to see if it makes any difference. I am on 22H2 22621.525 after the repair.
And thanks for your tip, I did that. After reboot, I can see that it prefers IPv4 now.
Also, how can it be a HW issue, if it behaved same when I used USB ethernet adapter?

Click to expand...

Very well.
-What is your Realtek adaptor model please?
- In %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\
Could you open your hosts file in notepad. (hidden/no extension) and paste its content?

OAT said:

Very well.
-What is your Realtek adaptor model please?
- In %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\
Could you open your hosts file in notepad. (hidden/no extension) and paste its content?

Click to expand...

- Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
127.0.0.1 www.easeus.com
127.0.0.1 activation.easeus.com
127.0.0.1 track.easeus.com
127.0.0.1 66.39.112.91
127.0.0.1 216.92.151.227
127.0.0.1 216.92.61.7
127.0.0.1 update.easeus.com

Can you show me this dual pane please? From your Realtek Adapter please: