Every hardware which is connected to the internet has an IP (internet protocol) address. This alternately means that you cannot connect your device to the internet until you have a valid IP address. You might be thinking what’s that have to do with an ethernet cable? The thing is, DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) lets servers connect and assign our computer to the internet through an IP address. When your ethernet cable is not receiving the IP address from DHCP then it triggers “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration”.

This error will not allow your computer to get connected to the internet as it lacks an IP address. The causes behind the error could be multiple depending upon the component used in the network such as ethernet cable, modem or router, and the computer itself.

On the other side, this does not mean that you cannot fix the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” error. Thankfully some valid fixes are available, and you will learn how to resolve the same error by the end of this article.

Without wasting much of your time, let’s get started.

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Troubleshooting “Ethernet Doesn’t Have a Valid IP Configuration” Error

You cannot access your social media, nor you can communicate with other devices using your PC because your PC itself lacks an IP address. This could be a frustrating error especially when you don’t have basic knowledge about the issues related to the internet.

Follow the troubleshooting methods to fix network errors related to the ethernet mentioned below:

Restart Your PC

Remember, restarting your PC is the major thing you can do. This issue might be happening due to a small network glitch or a bug. When you perform a restart, it can also restart the whole network adapter driver which might fix the issue.

Just restart your PC and you are good to go, visit the start menu > click on the Power button > select Restart. This will restart your computer automatically.

Power Cycle your Router or Modem

Power cycling your router or modem often resolves network-related issues. Here’s how to do it in a proper way.

Step 1: Turn off your Wi-Fi router or modem.

Step 2: Unplug the power cable of the router or modem from the power socket.

Step 3: Now, we recommend you to wait for a while like 3-5 minutes for a proper restart.

Step 4: Plug back the power cables of the router or modem into the power socket, and turn it on, look at the LED lights that will indicate that the network hardware is turned on.

Now see if the “Ethernet Doesn’t Have a Valid IP Configuration” error has been resolved.

Switch Ethernet Cable

Sometimes, your ethernet cable itself turned out to be faulty. Faulty ethernet cable can impact your browsing experience bad such as providing you intermittent internet connection. If that’s the case, then you have to consider using a new ethernet cable.

Also, make sure that both ends of the ethernet cable are connected correctly, sometimes, people just connect or plug the cable in halfway causing some silly issues. If your motherboard has an extra ethernet port, try using that too because who knows the ethernet port might not working. Try every possible move here.

Turn Off Fast Startup Feature

The fast feature of Windows is set to default from the start, this feature allows our Windows 10 OS for faster recovery from shut down, it probably leams that it will power on the system faster. Turning off the Fast Startup Feature might help us to resolve the issue related to ethernet IP configuration.

Follow the steps mentioned below to do so:

Step 1: Open the Windows start menu, and type Control Panel and open it.

Step 2: Set the view mode to a small or large icon located at the upper right corner, and select Power Options.

Step 3: From the left sidebar, select Choose what the power buttons do.

Step 4: Now, click on the Change settings that are currently unavailable link, enter the administrator password if asked.

Step 5: Just untick the Turn on the fast startup (recommended) option under Shutdown settings in order to turn off Fast Startup Feature, and click on Save changes to save the settings.

Reset Network Adapters

When nothing is working out we should try to reset network adapters, this will alternately force to refresh IP address configurations. Here’s how to do that:

Step 1: Go to the start menu and open Settings.

Step 3: In the search bar, type “network status” and select choose the first option.

Step 4: Select Change adapter options, under Advanced network settings.

Step 5: Do a right-click on the Ethernet connection and select to choose Disable.

Step 6: Now, wait for a couple of minutes and then Enable it back.

This should configure your adapter settings, but worst cases it could fail. For that, we need to configure network adapter settings. Move on to the next method.

Configure Network Adapter Settings

Let’s configure the network adapter settings to see if this works. Follow the steps mentioned below:

Step 1: Press Windows + R key to open Run.

Step 2: Now type “ncpa.cpl“ and press enter.

Step 3: Ethernet Properties window will popup, now search for Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and double click on it.

Step 4: This will bring up the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties will appear, now you need to do the following options:

• Obtain an IP address automatically
• Obtain DNS server address automatically

If this doesn’t work out, then we recommend you add the IP address and DNS manually. Herre’s how to do that:

Follow the same steps as mentioned above to open Protocol Version, 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties. And select Use the following IP address: and enter the following details.

• IP address: 192.168.1.15
• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
• Default gateway 192.168.1.1

The next option is to enter the DNS server address, fill in the following numbers:

• Preferred DNS Server: 8.8.8.8
• Alternate DNS Server: 8.8.4.4

Click on OK to save the changes.

(DNS we have mentioned above are Google’s DNS settings.)

Reinstall and Update your Network Adapter Driver

Reinstalling or updating the network adapter driver can fix the “Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration” error.

How to Reinstall Network Adapter Driver

Step 1: Press Windows + R key to open Run.

Step 2: Type hdwwiz.cpl and press enter.

Step 3: Now, the Device Manager window will open up, search for Network Adapters and click on it to expand the list.

Step 4: Right-click on your network adapter and select Uninstall device.

Step 5: In the next window, tick Delete the driver software for the device, and click on Uninstall.

Step 6: Restart your PC, your system will automatically reinstall the required driver.

Step 7: In the next window, select to choose Search automatically for updated driver software.

How to Update Network Adapter Driver

Step 1: Press Windows + R key to open Run.

Step 2: Type hdwwiz.cpl and press enter.

Step 3: Now, the Device Manager window will open up, search for Network Adapters and click on it to expand the list.

Step 4: Right-click on your network adapter and select Update Driver.

Clear the Network Cache and Reset the Winsock

Clearing the network cache will allow your system to reset the DNS client cache and renew the DHCP configuration. Also, resetting Windows Socket known as “Winsock” will resolve the ethernet IP configuration issues, as it operates incoming and outgoing data.

This can be done by using the command prompt. Follow the steps mentioned below to do so:

Step 1: Do a right-click on the Windows icon, and select Command Prompt (Admin). This will open your command using Administrator.

Step 2: Once done, type the following and press enter after each command:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew
nbtstat –R
nbtstat –RR
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
netsh winsock reset

Step 3: Now, simply restart your computer and see if the works. 

Reset TCP/IP

Here we will use the command prompt again, resettings TCP/IP will update or change the network configuration of your Windows 10 OS.

Step 1: Do a right-click on the start menu, and select Command prompt (Admin).

Step 2: Now type the following Command Prompt and press enter after each command in order to execute them:

netsh Winsock

reset netsh int IP reset

Conclusion

All the troubleshooting methods mentioned above are valid fixes. At this point “Ethernet Doesn’t Have a Valid IP Configuration” error must get resolved. But if the issue still tends to persist even after you changed the ethernet cable. Then you can try to reset your Windows, or install a fresh copy instead.

That’s it for now, hope this helps! Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Till then stay tuned for more info.

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