Resolved Having to restart every 5 min because losing internet

Having to do a restart every five minutes as I lose internet. A weird thing about this is that doing a complete shutdown and turning back on with the switch does not restore the internet. It must be a restart.

IPConfig /release reports it cannot be done as the media is disconnected.
IPConfig /renew reports a good IP and no errors but still no internet without a restart.

I have disabled power management for the network adapter. This all started recently after a Windows update and system restore is no help even when restored to a month before the update.

I have eliminated the cable modem and the switch as the cause because the laptop connected to the same switch never loses internet.

 

Is the laptop wireless and the one that looses the internet wired?

 

They are both wired.

Dell spent about forty minutes working on it after I had already spent two hours and finally (rightfully) blamed it on an unknown Windows update screw-up.

I fixed it but we will probably never know what caused it as I finally gave up and wiped the system clean and restored it back to factory out-of-the-box new settings.

Total time: just barely over seven hours.

Here's hoping the next Windows update doesn't

 

Of course they did. That's what Dell, and other clueless tech support sites do when they can't figure out why their "proprietary" hardware fails!

Consider this. Dell, the number three PC vendor in the world, selling over 40 million computers every year, probably uses that same NIC in 100s of 1000s, if not millions of Dell systems. And since Dell is not a NIC maker, that same OEM NIC is probably used on millions and millions of motherboards from other PC and motherboard makers too. And with over 1 billion Windows 10 systems out there, nearly all receiving the exact same Windows Updates, if WU was the actual culprit, wouldn't it make sense that that there would be 10s of millions of users complaining their computers were losing network connections every few minutes? Wouldn't forums like Windows BBS be inundated with these complaints?

I currently have 5 Ethernet connected Windows 10 computers here. I am the family, friends, and neighborhood "go-to computer guy" and I am contractually responsible for a few dozen more client systems. I ensure they all are up to date with the latest updates. My systems are not losing connection and none of my family, friends, neighbors or clients have called to complain they are losing connection.

Did your network connection break after a WU was applied? Perhaps. But was it the fault of the update itself? Probably not. But since you did a factory reset, wiping any evidence from the system, we will never know.

Since you did the factory reset, have you let Windows Update update the computer? If so, did it break your network connection again? Wouldn't it make sense if the Update was bad that it would break your connection again when installed?

It should be noted that Windows Update will update your hardware drivers if the maker makes a new driver available. The development and compatibility of these drivers are the responsibility of the maker, not MS. MS will test them but it is impossible to test every possible scenario.

While I personally have never found the need to block hardware driver updates (likely because I build my systems with ATX compliant hardware and not proprietary components) you can.

See:

How to Prevent Windows from Automatically Updating Specific Drivers
and
How to Prevent Windows from Automatically Updating Hardware Drivers​