My internet briefly froze today. I could still hear my friend in voice chat, but they couldn't hear me, and Fortnite completely stopped responding. It only recovered after I unplugged the Ethernet cable from my PC and plugged it back in. I also get occasional minor stutters despite using a Ryzen 7 5700X, RTX 3060, 16 GB of RAM, and an ASUS Prime B550M-K motherboard. An AI suggested that the motherboard's built-in network adapter might be failing and that I should install a dedicated internal network card. I recently changed ISPs, replaced the Ethernet cable, reinstalled Windows, and updated the drivers. Could the network adapter really be the cause, or should I test something else first?
2 Answers
A useful diagnostic is to temporarily use your phone's USB tethering or Wi-Fi hotspot as the PC's network connection. If the problem disappears, the Ethernet adapter, its driver, or the cable path becomes more suspicious. If the game still stutters or freezes, the cause is probably elsewhere in the system.
I wouldn't assume the onboard network adapter is the problem yet. Check the drive's health and run system stress tests with tools such as AIDA64 or OCCT. Those can help show whether the freeze happens under CPU, memory, storage, or power load. Pay attention to which test triggers the issue before buying new hardware.
That makes sense. I'll try using my phone as the network connection and compare it with the Ethernet setup before replacing anything.