New
#1
"Network Cable Unplugged" on Ethernet Connection
Let's start at the beginning...
In early November I broke my collarbone which resulted in my being out of work since. Being unable to really sit in my office at my desk (plugged directly into the modem as I typically am via ethernet), I moved my laptop downtairs and began using the built-in WiFi. For little things like checking e-mail, that was just fine, however, because the only good place to sit in my house had a crap signal, the connection would drop constantly and, being the built-in was only 3G, it was slow as dirt compared to what I was used to. After a couple weeks, I simply couldn't take it anymore and went to Amazon to pick up something that could handle 5G. I settled on an "LTERIVER" 1200Mpbs Dual Band Wi-Fi Adapter. The day it arrived was simultaneously fantastic and the bane of my existence since.
I plugged the little adapter into a USB 3.0 port and instantly Windows took care of the rest. STUPIDLY, however, I thought to myself "I wonder if it'd run even better if I installed the driver package that came with it." That was over a month ago and I've been quite literally troubleshooting since.
In short, the driver package (which it turns out is Realtek, just like the built-in Ethernet), included a Wi-Fi management utility. You know, the sort of software that attempts to take over for Windows in managing your connection. Thing is, it didn't work. When it'd launch, it would just blink over and over at me as if it was trying to refresh something but never could. "Ok," I thought. "I'll just kill it. The new adapter was working fine anyway." And thus, I removed it and all was right with the world... until the next day when I needed to plug into my modem via ethernet to do something and, despite my best efforts, the connection continued to say the cable was unplugged. No lights on either side lighting up, I immediately knew something had gotten mucked up in installing the software for the new adapter a couple days earlier. And thus began my personal hell...
The sheer list of things I've tried to resolve this could make the thread scroll for days so I'll summarize the first week of troubleshooting by saying that after everything that failed... I did a complete clean reinstall of Windows 10 (as in... killed the active partition completely so it'd start over fresh) with no change.
Here's what I've tried since (and don't be surprised if you suggest something and I reply that I have done that as well - I've honestly lost track of everything I've tried at this point):
1) Swapped cables (I've tried 4)
2) Plugged another laptop into the modem using the same cable now plugged into mine (with success)
3) Updated/Rolled Back the drivers (Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller btw) - I've tried 3 driver versions now
4) Went to Half Duplex
5) Enabled/Disabled the Adapter
6) Complete removed and reinstalled the adapter
7) Removed the back from my laptop and ensured there were no loose anythings, and blew things out while I was there
8) Downloaded the Realtek NIC Diagnostic Utility (which locks up or reboots my computer when I click on the "Diagnostics" option in the menu it provides)
9) Disabled all other Network Adapters, including the Microsoft ones (Wi-Fi Direct Virtual and Kernel Debug)
10) Booted into Safe Mode with Networking
11) Disabled the Energy Saving features of the adapter
As I said I'm sure there are other things I've tried but at this point have forgotten. I'd absolutely love it if anyone has some unique ideas. As a reminder, I am working with an absolutely clean install of Win 10 here so it's no longer related to installing the new WiFi adapter or the software associated. At this point I want to be convinced it's a hardware issue but, given I've been running on ethernet for 2+ years without any issues until this new adapter came along... that's a hard pill to swallow.
Help?