Windows 10: Why does it say my Laptop needs an ethernet cable?

I have just went onto my laptop and the wifi symbol was not there and i went into my settings and no wifi appeared there either. I trouble shooted my network only for it to say i needed an ethernet cable. I have absolutely no idea what it is so im sure i dont have one and i know i have never needed one. I also found out i had a problem with my Wireless-AC 9461 and i went to youtube and followed videos i tried commands ect and nothing has worked i have disabled the AC and turned it back on and still nothing has worked please help!!!

:)

 

Ethernet cable settings

Hi Campbell,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

Please reply to the follow questions to get a better understanding on the issue:

• What is the model number of your laptop?
  
• Do you have a yellow exclamation on the network icon after connecting the cat 7 cable?
  

However, you can follow the troubleshooting steps from
Fix network connection issues in Windows.

Also, I suggest you to check the laptop manual or laptop manufacturer to know whether the Ethernet port of your laptop supports cat 7 cable.

Hope it helps.

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Ethernet cable not working.

You need to solve your problem one step at a time, e.g. like so:

• Connect your CAT5 cable directly to your router. If it does not work, replace the cable.
• Connect the cable to your TP-Link wall plug. If it does not work, reconfigure or replace the wall plug.

 

Computer not recognizing Ethernet cable

Hi Vijay, I appreciate your help.

I will try each step even if I've already done it, just to make sure, and post my results.

A. When I troubleshoot internet connections, it tells me “Plug an ethernet cable into this computer” and says my cable might be broken or disconnected. However of course i have tried a different working cable with no luck.

when I troubleshoot network adapter, it says “plug an Ethernet cable into the network adapter ‘Ethernet’” which of course has already been done so it is not recognizing it.

B. I tried every suggestion/step listed (except for the wifi troubleshooting since my computer doesn't have wifi) and none of them worked.

C. When I run the windows update troubleshooter, it tells me “download and install pending updates” (Maybe it is not up to date because I tried reinstalling windows 10 to see if that would fix the internet, but it did not. I updated it like last week or
something like that) but of course I can't download the updates without internet. If I click “apply this fix” it tells me to plug in an Ethernet cable. But i believe windows 10 was up to date before this issue even began because I updated it just a week ago.

D. I do not understand this step. The guide is confusing to me. It also appears that I have to download tools in order to do this repair. I cannot download anything because my computer cannot connect to the internet. I don't have a USB flashdrive. I did
try reinstalling Windows 10 though and it did not help.