Very Slow Internet Speeds on PC. Local Area Connection "Unplugged"

GNTSquid · 31 Mar 2020

For about 2 weeks now the download speeds for files on my desktop Windows 10 PC have been very very slow. Speed tests show an average of 8mb/s down and 8mb/s upload. My ISP plan is for 250mb/s down. The PC is the only device/computer in the house that is hardwired into the router. Everything else is on wifi. Anything connected to wifi has the 250mb/s download speed we're paying for.

I can still connect to the internet and webpages load fine, its only when trying to download files that its apparent. Anything I try to download hits a max speed of around 800kb/s.

ISP sent someone over today to look at things on their end and we determined the router, modem and connection coming into the house is fine. So its either the network card or Ethernet cable.

Ethernet cable physically looks fine. I tried another one we have, though much cheaper feeling and still no fix. Ethernet port on back is blinking orange, but I understand that means its picking up traffic.

Network Connections shows Local Area Connection with a red X next to it. "Network cable unplugged". If I run a trouble shoot it comes back saying the ethernet cable isn't plugged in. Disabling and Enabling doesn't work either.

I have tried to reset the network settings through Windows twice now.
If I open the command prompt and type in ping 127.0.0.1 it comes back with 0 packets lost.
I've updated all drivers and Windows 10 itself.

It might be entirely possible its something as stupid as a bad ethernet cable, but is their anything else to try to narrow down what the problem is before I go out and buy a new cable?

Windows 10 Pro ver. 1909 (OS Build 18363.752)
ISP is RCN if it matters.
Motherboard: MSI z97 Gaming 7 no dedicated network card.

oscer1 · 31 Mar 2020

Hi see if this is of any help Fix the Network is connecting but red cross mark on network icon problem

GNTSquid · 31 Mar 2020

oscer1 said:

Hi see if this is of any help Fix the Network is connecting but red cross mark on network icon problem

Thank you for the link. It might have been a combination of things, but I doubled checked the motherboards website for their LAN drivers and realized I didn't have the most up to date drivers. But I also did the process in your link and now I'm back to normal speeds.

As a side note I realized the Local Area Connection wasn't the issue. I don't know the proper way to describe it, but it was using a TAP Windows Adapter v9. I looked up what that was and I guess its related to VPNs? I had tried to install one when I first had speed issues to see if coming from a different location would give me faster downloads for a file. The VPN didn't work and I uninstalled it. So while that was an issue I don't know if it was what as causing the slow speeds.

Just as a note, the Local Area Connection icon is gone now and its only the Ethernet thats being controlled by the network manager on the motherboard. Don't know if thats normal, but its working regardless.

Thank you though, this or the drivers did it, or both.

oscer1 · 31 Mar 2020

glad you got it resolved