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

Anonymous
2014-06-21T05:48:07+00:00

I have an Apple Airport Extreme 802.11ac wireless router at home and am only connecting at a max of speed of 72Mbps (usually closer to 11Mbps if I'm more than 20 feet away from the WAP). I have two other 802.11ac laptops at home (Samsung AB9+ and rMBP) and my two other computers are connecting up at 800Mbps+ and pulling down the same on Internet speed tests; yes, I have real GigE connectivity. Is anyone else having these problems?

Surface | Surface Pro | Network

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-10-06T03:07:37+00:00

    "Randy, have you tried the side-by-side test on multiple networks? . . . I had some problems with my Surface Pro 3 and used a separate dongle for awhile, but have no such problems now."

    No, but:  (a) my router works fine with other computers, (b) my Surface works fine with a dongle on the Surface, but not with the built-in Surface wifi; (c) other Surface users get poor performance on their routers too.  Barb, active in this forum, has recommended that people with this problem simply give up and go shop for a different router (bite the bullet and buy other hardware to compensate for the problem in the Surface), and someone else points out that that does not solve the problem when you take your Surface out in the real world and the router happens to be one with which the Surface does not work well.

    I've no doubt that I could go to Fry's and start rotating routers into my house until I found one that the Surface would accept, but it seems unfair to Fry's for me to do this (in real life I could get a recommendation beforehand and likely succeed on the first try).  It is clear that there is a problem in the Surface, and I just would like it fixed.  A dongle is not the answer for me, and all of us customers with the problem should not have to go out and buy new routers.

    I repost because Zach_T does not say Microsoft is continuing to look at this. He implies that 2.4GHz problems were fixed in the September 9 release (although 2.4 plus 5 GHz dual-band issues remain), but they were not for me.

    Absolutely agree that while substituting alternative wireless hardware COULD fix the issue, it really shouldn't be required; it's ridiculous that customers even have to consider doing this for such a basic function. I've never had to consider doing this for any other phone or laptop - why is the SP3 so special/broken?

    I've used my SP3 in 3+ corporate sites in the last month, all of which have showed an incredibly slow connection (today my SP3 is connectedat 6mbps-19mbps while my phone and laptop with an Intel wireless card are connecting in excess of 100mbps+).

    Of course, it's not feasible to ask each corporate IT team to tweak their settings so my semi-functional SP3 can connect at usable speeds. Very poor especially considering Microsoft's footprint in the enterprise market. 

    Microsoft - the slow wifi problem has NOT been resolved. Please keep working on this issue urgently.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-05T22:40:28+00:00

    Sure, Randy,

    I am not asking you to put up with problems, but what I am asking you to do is help to understand why things are different.

    Trying experiments and documenting the results may help to isolate where the problem is.   This is a very complex system and there are a lot of variables to be considered.

    You also could say "the surface has a problem so they should just fix it.", but not everyone has the same problem. 

    It becomes necessary to define "what" problem you have that needs to be fixed.  We can see from the efforts of Microsoft so far that they are attempting to solve our problems.  It will unfortunately fall to us, however, to define them in great detail, so they can be duplicated, and THEN corrected.

    -thanks

    -e

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-10-05T21:55:03+00:00

    "Randy, have you tried the side-by-side test on multiple networks? . . . I had some problems with my Surface Pro 3 and used a separate dongle for awhile, but have no such problems now."

    No, but:  (a) my router works fine with other computers, (b) my Surface works fine with a dongle on the Surface, but not with the built-in Surface wifi; (c) other Surface users get poor performance on their routers too.  Barb, active in this forum, has recommended that people with this problem simply give up and go shop for a different router (bite the bullet and buy other hardware to compensate for the problem in the Surface), and someone else points out that that does not solve the problem when you take your Surface out in the real world and the router happens to be one with which the Surface does not work well.

    I've no doubt that I could go to Fry's and start rotating routers into my house until I found one that the Surface would accept, but it seems unfair to Fry's for me to do this (in real life I could get a recommendation beforehand and likely succeed on the first try).  It is clear that there is a problem in the Surface, and I just would like it fixed.  A dongle is not the answer for me, and all of us customers with the problem should not have to go out and buy new routers.

    I repost because Zach_T does not say Microsoft is continuing to look at this. He implies that 2.4GHz problems were fixed in the September 9 release (although 2.4 plus 5 GHz dual-band issues remain), but they were not for me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-10-04T21:15:38+00:00

    Randy, have you tried the side-by-side test on multiple networks? (forgive me if this has been answered before)

    I had some problems with my Surface Pro 3 and used a separate dongle for awhile, but have no such problems now.

    There are a lot of differences in wifi networks and different adapters can act differently.

    If you can duplicate this on multiple networks, if you have a Microsoft store near you, I'd go there and show them.

    -later

    -e

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-10-03T22:19:53+00:00

    You're experiencing the first issue Zack_T described. Very slow wifi performance using the 2.4GHz wireless band. I've personally given up on my Surface Pro 3. It's just not the reliable portable that I need for everyday work. I'm back to using my Sony VAIO Pro. I just don't understand why on earth did Microsoft get into the computer hardware game if they don't have the ability to resolve issues like this in a timely fashion. It would be more understandable if Microsoft were dealing with multiple products but there is only 1 Surface Pro 3 (with different CPU, memory and storage options). I'll keep monitoring these threads but I won't be a Surface Pro return customer in the future.

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