Having trouble accessing certain websites—what’s going on?

I've been running into annoying issues when trying to access some popular sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Lichess. Often, the pages won't load at all; I just get a blank screen with a spinning wheel, or they load halfway. Occasionally, I can watch a video for a bit before it buffers endlessly. This problem doesn't occur on other websites such as Twitch or Reddit, so it seems limited to just a few.

To give you some background, I faced a similar issue about a year ago, which I resolved by switching my DNS settings on my WiFi adapter to Google DNS. However, after a recent Windows update, it seems that my DNS settings reverted back to default, and I'm back at square one.

Here's what I've tried so far:
- The problem doesn't happen on other devices; my phone and work PC on the same network can access these websites without issues.
- I tried tethering to my phone, and the problem persisted, so it looks like it's just my PC that's affected, not the network or my ISP.
- I've switched to Google DNS and turned off IPv6 as suggested in some forums.
- I also tried using Cloudflare DNS.
- I've flushed and renewed my DNS, but no luck there.
- I even uninstalled my recent Windows updates in hopes of reverting the settings, but that didn't work either.

One thing I haven't tried yet is using an Ethernet cable, but I don't have one on hand. Do you think this problem might be related to my WiFi adapter? I'm willing to buy a cable to test it if there's a chance it could solve the issue. I could really use some help here!