Lost Internet Connection - Ethernet Adapter Problem

jmallard · 27 Jan 2020

Hi,

First, let me say I am using my wife's laptop computer to ask for help. System Info below is for my desktop computer, where my problem lies. The computer is a Dell XPS720 and I just re-installed Windows 10 for the 3rd time.

I have 4 hard drives (2 SSD and 2 WD1tb drives). I use "C" for programs and "D" for data. The other two are for back-up.
I am trying to get Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit, version: 10.0.18363 Build 18363, Installed. I was running Windows 7 prior to this. My router is an Arris, Model #: MVG468MQ. When I ping my IP address I get a General Failure.

At this point in time I'm not sure what I was doing when I lost my internet connection. I have been installing software on the desktop in my latest Win10 install. It has been a nightmare!!

I ran the internet troubleshooter and got the message below:
-----------------------------------
PrintWindows Network Diagnostics Publisher details

Issues found
There might be a problem with the driver for the Ethernet adapterThere might be a problem with the driver for the Ethernet adapter
Windows couldn't automatically bind the IP protocol stack to the network adapter. Not fixed Not Fixed
The wired network adapter is experiencing problems Failed
Set up the wired network adapter Completed

Issues found Detection details

6 There might be a problem with the driver for the Ethernet adapter Not fixed Not Fixed
Windows couldn't automatically bind the IP protocol stack to the network adapter.
The wired network adapter is experiencing problems Failed
Windows Help and Support can provide more information about resolving driver or hardware issues.
InformationalNetwork Diagnostics Log
File Name: 2C24067C-090F-42A4-9893-FDBF3D7ABC70.Repair.Admin.3.etl
Set up the wired network adapter Completed
Set up the network adapter to communicate with this network. This ensures that both Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) can be used on the network adapter.
InformationalNetwork Diagnostics Log
File Name: FCEBDBEC-5616-46D3-9CF4-F541392386FD.Repair.Admin.0.etl
--------------------------------------------------
The Ethernet Adapter shows Enabled in "Network Connections". The adapter is a Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigab...
----------------------------------------

I don't know what to do to get this resolved. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I do not have a current back up of the "C" (programs) drive.

Thanks.

Jerry

dalchina · 27 Jan 2020

Hi, don't know if this will help:
https://www.dell.com/community/Netwo...r/td-p/4677922

Quite a while back there were lots of reports of problems with Broadcom kit and Win 10.

Note these comments about your elderly PC:

XPS 720 – Windows 7 and 8.1 64 Bit

This system is a 2007 system and with some push can run Windows 7 64 Bit. It is not Windows 10 64 Bit Capable due to elevated Processor Requirements. It is not advised to spend any money upgrading this system, as it is cheaper to purchase a more capable Second Hand Business Desktop.

XPS 720 - Windows 7 and 8.1 64 Bit - Windows 10 Installation Guides

I note you say you are running a 64 bit O/S - note the above...

Published drivers for your PC:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/uk...ps-720/drivers
- only to Win 2k...

I do not have a current back up of the "C" (programs) drive.

Here's how I deal with installing an maintaining Windows:

a. Install Win 10
b. As soon as poosible create my first disk image to an external removable drive (not internal- think power issues, viruses, fire/theft/flood..)
c. Install programs, make configuration changes keeping a simple text record.
d. At a suitable point, create a differential disk image (smaller, faster than the first).
e. Repeat (c) and (d) until the next major upgrade- then start from (b) again creating a new disk image set.

Having a disk image (e.g. Macrium Reflect - free- paid) gives me a second chance to restore to various dates depending on image files available, and a full backup of partitions imaged.

Disk imaging is recommended time and again by members.

I just re-installed Windows 10 for the 3rd time.

It is now some years since I clean installed Windows...

jmallard · 29 Jan 2020

dalchina,

Sorry for my late reply. Been busy with my 4th install and had to pick up sister-in-law from the airport (coming out for a visit from Florida - we are in California).

At any rate, appreciate you taking time to respond to my post with some good links and information. On my 3rd install, my Ethernet Adapter was indeed disabled. Since I was not terribly far along in my install, I thought I'd just try again. This time it worked, my Ethernet Adapter installed just fine and I have internet on my desktop. Only 2 things did not work, my TEAC Card Reader and my Creative SB X-Fi sound card.

On my first install, I downloaded the latest driver for the sound card and it crashed my computer, putting it in a log-in - shut-down loop. I didn't think to make the computer boot from the DVD and run Windows Repair.

I read on another forum that other people were having trouble with this model of sound card and other Creative sound cards.

I'm getting so fuzzy on what happened on all these installs that I can't remember what all I've been through. Your link to the Dell support page gave me access to the Dell Support Assistant program, which I downloaded and installed. I then remembered that this software came on my computer back in 2008. The program diagnosed that the TEAC Card Reader was not working and repaired it.

However, it revealed two sound card devices. It displayed two icons representing the sound cards and one would not open, the other one opened to a display of a chair and two speakers with a test button. My computer failed the test. I supposed that was the on-board basic sound hardware.

I followed your advise on installing and maintaining Windows - I downloaded the Macrium Reflect and installed. After I got this install up and running I created a back-up file on one of my 1tb Hard Disks. I am making a list of each thing I do and at this point I will make another back-up. I have installed some of my basic programs, browsers, e-mail, etc. Everything seems stable.

So, I will check here and on other forums as to a reliable and less expensive sound card and buy one. Hopefully that will take care of my problems.

I know my machine is old, I have used this desktop since 2008. Used Windows XP and never had any problems until I had to upgrade to Windows 7 in April of 2014. Finally got used to Win 7 and now, I have to upgrade to Win 10 as of this month. If I can keep using this desktop until I'm able up upgrade systems, I'll be a happy camper. It is not real fast but it still does all the things I need to do. I hate the update game.

I'll let you know how the install ends up for me.

Thanks again for your help.

Jerry

dalchina · 29 Jan 2020

Hi, thanks, sounds good progress and a bit of luck.

Sometimes on older PCs you have to use the last available driver from the manufacturer if none supplied by MS- trial and error unless you can find parallel experience.

If you hate the update game, you'll come to hate it even more in Win 10- unless you use the features you have in Pro- which give you very good control.

- set upgrades to be deferred by up to 365 days
- set updates to 'Notify' - using the group policy editor (gpedit.msc). That means you choose when to download an update.
- use 'Active Hours' in Settings to control when your PC may restart after an update, if needed.

Note that 1909 introduced a file explorer search bug, widely documented, when MS changed this. 1903 is fine- I reverted to it.

Actually no one forced you to update to Win 10- you could just have kept '7. There's really no great risk for personal users provided you have a maintained security solution.. at least not yet.

And I like the idea of not discarding old machines- I keep my laptops until they break- which they have.

Appearance etc: try Open Shell start menu free- so much more familiar and easy to work with than Win 10's (you can use either or with it installed). Best of Win 7 and XP - and configurable search. Win 10 style start menus can't cope with large nested start menus.

Here's my Win 10 - with many Win 7 icons. Note the Orb I borrowed with Open shell, and colour and transparency.

Lost Internet Connection - Ethernet Adapter Problem-1.png

jmallard · 31 Jan 2020

dalchina,

I didn't expect a response this late (or early). It is 4:23am here and I am up way too late. I need to hit the rack. I will answer later today.

Thanks.

Jerry

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry I didn't get back sooner.

I know no one forced me to update, but I figured sooner or later I would have to update in order to be secure from hackers because we are on the www a lot and use the computers for banking and paying bills, etc.

I know what you mean about keeping stuff until it breaks. I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 Laptop that I bought in 2003 or 2004 and it was expensive!! (don't remember, but well over $1000.00). Anyway, I still have that laptop (used it while making a back-up with the desktop). It has Win XP and it was my favorite operating system. I never get BSOD with that computer. It is slower than molasses now, but it still works. I don't have anything important installed as far as personal stuff and I use it mostly to browse the internet once in a while and for recording with my guitar and "Audacity. I also have a 30 year old car and a 58 year old guitar.

I discovered that my desktop auto updated to 1909 (KB453695) - you mentioned a know problem and reverted to 1903. Should I remove 1909 and revert to 1903 ? How do you do that (revert) ?

Why do I need to defer updates for up to 365 days. I understand about setting updates to "Notify". I don't understand how to use the "Active Hours" yet.

I did make a back-up with Macrium Reflect, but I don't know how to use the software properly. I wanted to make an ISO back-up to one of my 1Tb Hard Drives. Instead it only backed up my "C" drive - you can see and access the files just like it was "C" drive. Here is a screen shot.

Lost Internet Connection - Ethernet Adapter Problem-macrium_disk_partition_listing_1.jpg

Don't know where the additional partition came from - the primary drive is only 250 MB.

Here's the other half of the display

Lost Internet Connection - Ethernet Adapter Problem-macrium_disk_partition_listing_2.jpg

You can see the questions (in red color) that I asked concerning this 1Tb Hard Disk. I think I would like to just format it for now and continue to use Acronis True Image software.

My 2010 version of Acronis would not install from my DVD. However, I had a copy in my download folder. I used the "Troubleshoot Compatibility" and it fixed the problem. I was able to install the software and it works. Here is a screen shot of my back-up. Note, it also shows the Macrium Reflect additional drives.

Lost Internet Connection - Ethernet Adapter Problem-acronis_backup_partitions_list.jpg

I also forgot to mention that the last install did not pick up the drivers for my Kensington Expert Mouse. I contacted their main website and went into Chat more. The nice guy gave me the link to update software. I downloaded, installed and my K Mouse works just fine now.

So, the only thing that still doesn't work is my sound card. I also went to the Creative website and went into Chat mode. The guy was nice but stated that my card was and End Of Service Lift and no more updates would be offered. He did offer me latest update software link. I downloaded, installed and no luck, it still doesn't work.

So, I think all I need to keep me going for a while is another sound card. Got any suggestions ? I don't need a gaming card or anything. I'm old (76) and wear hearing aids, so I don't need the best hi fi sounds.

Thanks again for helping me.

Jerry

dalchina · 31 Jan 2020

Should I remove 1909 and revert to 1903 ?

- That's a choice you can make- the 'enablement package' just looks like one of the updates listed e.g. in Control Panel, Programs and Features, Installed Updates. You can uninstall it.

Why do I need to defer updates for up to 365 days.

- This gives control- most upgrades are released with problems, some corrected by the next major update 2-3 months later. It means you can choose when to upgrade, and create a disk image just before doing so.

The bottom button should select all partitions created by your Windows installation. These are also all shown at the same time, and the ones which will be backed up have ticks in the boxes. You can add or remove partitions using those ticks.

However you have a MBR configuration- that might even just be 2 partitions- more usually 3. (UEFI = 4)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ive-partitions

You can see from that your 511Mb partition is probably a Recovery partition, supporting automated recovery and access to Advanced startup options including Safe Mode etc etc.

You may see something like this if you examine it:

Plenty of youtube videos around- a couple of older videos and basic tutorials on tenforums.

E: - you can easily delete data partitions with any partition manager or Disk Management- obviously check there's nothing there you need.

Note that backups - especially your most important disk images- are best written to external removable storage, separating them from things like
PSU failure, viruses and think fire/theft/flood.. keep separately.

jmallard · 31 Jan 2020

Ref 1903 update. I don't have that update in my Installed Updates. 1909 seems o.k. so far, so we will see.

The thing that is so odd for me is the Macrium program seems to have created partitions where they couldn't exist. The Macrium display shows MBR Disk 1 (C:) as 223.7 GB and 100.07 GB used. (C:) is a 250 MB SSD disk that is physically installed.
How can a 511.0 MB and 442.5 MB as used be created as NTFS Primary. It cannot be accessed by anything that I know of. I guess I'm going to have to read up on the partitions in the link you gave me.

Do you know if I used the regular format function in Win 10 (right click the drive icon in This PC display and click "Format") on my (E:) drive, would it only format the Active partition to a rough total of 249.9 GB ? Would it not format the # 2 (None) NTFS Primary 511.0 MB partition and the un-allocated portion ?

I did download the MiniTool Partition Wizard. Since you displayed it in your answer, I thought I' d grab a handy free program. Seems pretty powerful. Cool, you gave me a tip and didn't even try.

I do realize that backups are safer if they are done on external removal storage. The reason I have the two 1 TB Hard Drives is that I was going to use them to upgrade my computer a while back with those drives. A friend of mine told me about SSD drives. I was behind in my up to date knowledge on computers, drives, etc. Anyway, I got the two SSD drives and used them as "C" (for OS & programs) and "D" (for data). So, I went ahead and installed the 1TB drives and used Acronis True Image to ame complete backup of my computer on those drives. However, I do have an external 500 GB USB drive that I used for backup before. Thing is, it is a USB 2.0 and it is slow. Takes an hour and a half to back up my "D" drive. Backing up from SSD to the 1TB hard drive is much, much faster. Also, I just picked up another external storage unit, a 2 TB USB drive. I'm sure it is a USB 3.0 and I don't have any 3.0 ports on my computer. So, I am going to buy a PCIe USB 3.0 card. That with a new sound card and I should be good to go for a while. Sorry for my long winded response.

Thanks again for all your help. You certainly seem to know your stuff. :)

I will mark this solved but I may start another thread when I need help.

Jerry

dalchina · 31 Jan 2020

Hi, 1903-> 1909 - as per the News section e.g. you're looking not for 1903 but for this:

KB4517245 Feature Update via Windows 10 v1909 Enablement Package

Macrium reflect does not create partitions unless you use it to restore partitions in a particular way.
Disk Management does not show a couple of specific partitions (MBR/UEFI) by design, if you're comparing the two.

A competent 3rd party partition manager as you now have is a useful tool - normally only used infrequently.

Format will format exactly what you select, whether it be a drive, or a partition.

Yep, USB3 will make imaging a lot faster.

jmallard · 31 Jan 2020

Thanks again for your help in answering my questions.

I'll probably be back.

Jerry