Surface Pro 3 Slow WiFi - 72Mbps Max (driver)

This thread has about 8000 views and almost 300 replies but still no updates from Microsoft regarding this issue. I was under the impression that the Surface Pro 3 was a premium product but this Marvell wifi component is terrible. I get the impression that Microsoft engineers are sacrificing wifi/bluetooth  performance for increased battery life. I use a pair of bluetooth headphones that work great on everything BUT the SP3. On the SP3 if there is no audio for about 5 seconds the bluetooth headphones disconnect. That's ridiculous.

On Mon, 1 Sep 2014 20:56:36 +0000, kpspell wrote:

>>I have the WRT1900AC. It would take a reboot to connect again. I looked further and found that speed on the 2.4GHz was 65Mbps to the router, and speedtest would register a meager 2Mb(another laptop next to it did 30 which is typical for Comcast here). On the 5Ghz channel, the connection to the router was 866(ac) and speedtest was 30. This is a serious issue

Yes, it is a serious issue that MS needs to fix. The 1900AC config out of the

box is to use the SAME SSiD for both the 2.4 and 5GHz channels. If you didn't

change this to specify different SSID names for each, you would see this

problem. For now, it's best to use completely different names and connect

explicitly to the 5GHz channel.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barb

Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

Please mark as answered if this answers your question

Just adding my experience here. I bought my daughter the Surface Pro 3 2 days ago. All updates installed. She keeps complaining about losing Wifi connection. I have the WRT1900AC. It would take a reboot to connect again. I looked further and found that speed on the 2.4GHz was 65Mbps to the router, and speedtest would register a meager 2Mb(another laptop next to it did 30 which is typical for Comcast here). On the 5Ghz channel, the connection to the router was 866(ac) and speedtest was 30. This is a serious issue. We have a large house and the 5Ghz signal is not nearly as good at long distances. Come on Microsoft! It's hard to be supportive when you don't provide support!

From what I know, this has to do with BT/Wifi interference in the 2.4ghz band. From my original Surface Pro, wifi speeds would cap out near 65mbps if BT was turned on (for my Arc Touch Mouse). Turning off BT would raise speeds back up to near 133mbps (the original Surface Pro's max). This is because of the integrated BT/wifi radio in the device, which is why plugging in a separate usb wifi dongle gets around the speed issues. Nothing we can really do about it except for changing our routers' SSID for the 5ghz band to something else and specifically connecting to that SSID. On the SP3, turning off BT would neuter the pen's functionality. On the other hand, Microsoft could really stand to update that driver to set a preference for connecting at the 5ghz band over the 2.4ghz band.....

Get a nano USB WiFi adapter until Microsoft fixes the issues. For me that solved the problem with the same router you have.

Just adding my experience here. I bought my daughter the Surface Pro 3 2 days ago. All updates installed. She keeps complaining about losing Wifi connection. I have the WRT1900AC. It would take a reboot to connect again. I looked further and found that speed on the 2.4GHz was 65Mbps to the router, and speedtest would register a meager 2Mb(another laptop next to it did 30 which is typical for Comcast here). On the 5Ghz channel, the connection to the router was 866(ac) and speedtest was 30. This is a serious issue. We have a large house and the 5Ghz signal is not nearly as good at long distances. Come on Microsoft! It's hard to be supportive when you don't provide support!