Surface Pro 7 Slow WiFi

--Slow WiFi SOLVED--

Wifi speed on my Surface Pro 7 became quite slow around early November 2020. After this I used other machines, as speed was needed. 

That happened after updating Win 10 to the 20H2 version due to a newer driver installed for the Intel 6 AX201 160 MHz card.

Connected to my 5G network at home (802.11ac), before such 20H2 update, the tested Pro 7 download speed was around 400+Mbps and the upload speed about 300 Mbps.

After the 20H2 update, download plummeted to a meager 25-30 Mbps while upload remained at some 300 Mbps, suggesting no hardware failure.

Other machines at home, including an older Surface Pro 3, didn't suffer any slowing down and this excluded router or settings issues.

I had tried tweaking various driver advanced parameters, download/install the latest 22.40.0.7 version by Intel, and several other older driver versions. I also contacted Intel for support to no avail (they suggested to contact Microsoft). I had read somewhere that the Pro 7 was originally equipped with a custom driver version by Microsoft.

An expensive, forlorn Pro 7. After months unused, the other day I decided to take another look.

Luckily, after several Win 10 updates and uninstalling/deleting driver versions, the "good" driver version by Microsoft was still in the disk and I found it by manually searching. Tried it and this one SOLVED the issue although not forever, as a more recent undesired driver is being installed at the first occurring automatic update. It happened already and I'm now looking for possible ways to selectively block future driver updates for good.

Hope this helps other users.

Needless to say, it's tiring. A little effort by Microsoft would be highly appreciated to keep customers happy at least on their own branded hardware. 

Regards,

Ant

2.4MHz? That’s the slowest WiFi band, great range (with more interference and only three “true channels”) but dire throughout.

5GHz is much faster.

I have now sold my SP7 and bought an M1 MacBook Air, but the fix I posted at top of thread worked for me and I never had the issue again.

I had the same problem; found a suggestion on another thread that solved the problem for me. This was to go to Device Manager, rightclick on wireless network controller (mine was Marvell AVASTAR), go to advanced, select "band" and set that to 2.4KHz only (instead of Auto).

Hope this helps!

Strange then that this is an issue for you. I’m using a complete Unifi setup, no wifi 6 though, the SP7 primarily connects via UAP Pro HD APs, though theres two Flex HDs also.

When testing WLAN transfer speeds, they’re averaging 650 Mbps. (SP7 on Wifi to a Macbook Pro connected (wired) via a Cal-Digit 10Gbe TB3 adapter.)

So if you made the suggested changes, then I’m at a loss as to why you’re experiencing such low speeds. I do have the intel driver utility installed though and i recall a driver update, which might be significant. But i have had good wifi speeds for around 12 months ownership of the SP7. 

Here are my wifi settings just in case something jumps out as different.

DTIM (5G) =3

minimum data rate = 54Mbps

Beacons =6Mbps

iGMPv3=on

Fast Roaming=on

GTK=3600

Transmit power 24dBm

channel width VHT80

Minimum RSSI=-76

Cell size tuning =-90

Band steering=prefer 5GHz

Network details

total of 4APs, 7 switches, all on v5.43.24 

10GBe backhaul via Cat 8 cabling

Cloudkey G2+ on v6.1.26

Unifi Security Gateway Pro (upgraded to 4GB) on v4.4.52 with IPS on and DPI on.

Good luck solving this, if you can go wired take a look at the plugable 2.5 Gbe usb adapter, its pretty damn good ?i use it when the sp7 is connected to display etc. Lots of value at around £30

Hi, thank you for your quick awnser.

This didn't don it .

Same problem , download not above 5 Mbps .

Ps : i am an network installer , know all about 2.4 , 5Ghz etc etc ...no problem here !

Using Engenius WiFi6 equipment ,all other dives above 500Mbps .

Its something in wlan driver i think.

Alit of people have same problems , community is full of this .