wifi issues

Anonymous
2012-10-28T18:24:01+00:00

I had an issue this morning where Surface couldn't find any wifi networks (when 5 were in the area) and it was connected the previous night. I solved this issue by searching windows rt for Network. Open Network Connections, find the wifi device and then disable this connection. After a minute - I re-enabled the connection and then it started to work.

Just wanted to share my experience if anyone runs into the same issue. Thanks!

Nate

Surface | Other

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-02-19T00:22:07+00:00

Greetings all,

We are working on a solution for the Limited WiFi issue. Please refer to the following thread for potential workarounds while we are working on the WiFi issue:

http://answers.microsoft.com/thread/c593dff8-61b3-496c-b8f2-f9deb3e4b35e

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Anonymous
2013-07-26T22:53:04+00:00

Greetings everyone,

Thank you for your continued interest, feedback and assistance in investigating the Limited WiFi issue on the Surface.

Not all limited connectivity scenarios have solutions that can be controlled by the Wi-Fi drivers of a given device. Limited connectivity scenarios result from a complex interaction of device Wi-Fi drivers, access point firmware, access point configuration, and other environmental factors.

If following the steps in the provided links below fail to resolve your Wi-Fi issue I encourage you to create a new thread.

Connect to a wireless network

Can’t connect to a wireless network?

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Anonymous
2013-08-20T01:28:23+00:00

You will most likely have to do a REFRESH.  Most of us has had to do that.  For some reason or another the driver gets corrupted.  You may also do a trick that most others have done as well as long as you don't have the 8.1 Preview of Windows 8 RT installed.

That trick is to open the Control Panel and go do Device Manager.  Look for the Marvel WiFi adapter and "Uninstall" the driver but "DO NOT DELETE IT".  When finished, reboot the tablet and it should connect.

Try that trick first and if it doesn't work, then do a REFRESH.

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Anonymous
2013-05-26T21:44:35+00:00

Hello priscillaodendaal,

Sorry to hear you are having problems connecting to WiFi.

You should be able to connect to WiFi. Are you getting any errors when trying to connect? Are you able to see the networks and not connect to them?

Let us know.

Best regards.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-12-31T18:17:03+00:00

    I thought that it may be useful to summarize some of the changes that have helped to some users to fix this issue. In my case I did not apply the registry changes because I have an AP with dual band 2.4 and 5GHz and both bands identified with different SSID and I'm forcing Surface to connect to 5Ghz.

    In Metro, swipe your finger from the bottom of the screen up, select from the bar All Apps, locate the Command Prompt application, select it by dragging down the icon, select from the bar Run as Administrator, OK the warning message, the system will switch to Desktop mode. In the command prompt type the following commands:

    • netsh int tcp set heuristics disabled
    • netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
    • netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled

    At this point reboot your Surface RT. After reboot proceed with this commands:

    • netsh interface ipv4 set address "Wi-Fi" dhcp (if this gave you an error check the name of your connection, it may not be "Wi-Fi")
    • ipconfig /renew

    If you still have problems apply the following registry changes:

    Open Desktop -> Search -> regedit

    Open regedit. Select menu Edit -> Find...

    Enter "AutoUse40Mhz" -> do search.

    There are 2 such entries in registry. We need to change one, located under

       "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class" branch.

      - Set "AutoUse40Mhz" to "0" (it has value "1" by default)(This limits the channel bandwidth to use 20MHz, this reduce the speed and it's the recommended setting when you are experiencing issues with  n connectivity)

      -  Set "Band" to "4" (it has value "6" by default)(for what I understand this change may force some devices to  connect g)(I would recommend to apply the first registry change, reboot and see what happens before applying this other change).

    Reboot the Surface. Some users believe that these registry changes will make the Surface to connect using the g connection instead of n. That's not the case. Your Surface still be connected using the n protocol but using a slower bandwidth.

    To achieve maximum output, a pure 802.11n 5 GHz network is recommended. If you have a 5GHz AP these registry changes should not be needed at all. To know what ratio are you using check the connection status to find the connection speed. If your speed is greater than 130Mbps, its 802.11N otherwise not. Some standard values for 802.11N are 150Mbps & 300Mbps. In my case, its 802.11g as speed is 54Mbps.

    In your AP, WMM is required to be on for any Wi-Fi Alliance Certified N product. By default WMM is already on but many users disable it which may prevent N rates or lower throughput.

    Useful links:

    From <http://superuser.com/questions/381963/how-to-tell-if-my-wi-fi-is-connecting-using-802-11n>

    From <http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless-N_Configuration>

    From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009>

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