Webpages won't load even though I'm connected to the internet

So, for the last couple of weeks, my internet on my PC has been acting super flaky. I'm running Windows 7.
It happens maybe once a day or every other day—it just flat-out refuses to load any website at all. Like, nothing!

My computer is hardwired to the router, and honestly, I've never had any issues with the connection or the speed before this.

At the same time, the Wi-Fi is working perfectly fine; my phone connects to the Wi-Fi and gets online without a hitch, so I know the modem isn't the culprit.
I also have this little USB Wi-Fi adapter I plug into the PC, which sees the network and connects just fine, but guess what? Still can't open a single webpage!

I've already tried using both Chrome and Firefox, but neither one will load anything.
If I check the Control Panel under the Network and Sharing Center, it shows that I actually have an active connection.

The weird thing is, if I just restart the PC, everything works normally again. But then, after a day or two, the whole mess starts all over again.

Does anyone have any clue what might be causing this headache?

My screen just froze up on me... the blue loading circle is spinning endlessly and my computer keeps letting out this constant "beep beep" sound. Any idea what kind of hardware failure I'm looking at here?

Try pinging some website when it happens

lonepilot24 said:Try pinging some website when it happens

Like this?

Yeah. Ping is fine. Something else is clearly broken. Just do a Windows reinstallation 🙂

lonepilot24 said:Yeah. Ping is fine. Something else is clearly broken. Just do a Windows reinstallation 🙂

A full reinstall? Ugh, that's my absolute last resort! I really want to dig in and actually figure out what's going on first, you know?

@Amy Baker83

Whoever told you a Windows reinstallation was the answer clearly hasn't a clue what they're doing. Forget them.
Download
https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/

Run it and wipe out everything it finds.
Once you've rebooted, grab this:
https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds

Select CCleaner - Portable
Unpack it and clear out all the junk from your system...
One more restart and everything should run perfectly.

I run CCleaner on a regular basis.
Honestly, that Malwarebytes adwcleaner is the real deal!
It flagged 66 suspicious files and wiped them all out,
and so far, everything is running smooth—no connection drops at all.

Big thanks to Noah Miller6 👍