WiFi/Networking issue when connected to docking station

Anonymous

Hi,

I recently bought the new Surface Pro 4 (i7, 512 GB SSD) along with the new docking station. I've experienced some of the general issues that various other people have mentioned (such as the power management/sleep issue) but I'm also seeing an issue that does not yet seem reported.

When I have the new docking station connected, if it's connected to a monitor, the network connectivity sometimes drops. I have been using it without any issues for about 2 weeks, but today I had a lot of trouble connecting to the office WiFi network. The network itself was definitely working properly as it was quick and reliable for several other users, including my own phone. Nonetheless, I rebooted the router to make sure.

Windows simply would not connect to the WiFi network (even though it has always been a saved connection). Trying to connect caused it to sometimes fail and sometimes ask for the network password (and entering it correctly would still fail - but that's another long-standing Windows bug!). Connecting to alternative networks did exactly the same; it would attempt to connect to my phone's portable hotspot, connect and disconnect in a few seconds, retry, and then stop (in a disconnected state). Intermittently it would connect to the network, but sometimes with 'No Internet' and clearly lots of DNS issues in trying to resolve google.com. It sometimes took 30-60 seconds to load google.com.

Troubleshooting steps

Tried disabling and re-enabling the WiFi adapter
Tried restarting Windows 10
Tried disabling all other network adapters (the Ethernet port from the dock and two created by VirtualBox)
Tried removing dock connection
- This is the first time the connection issues were resolved and google.com was loaded (and could be reloaded) within milliseconds
Re-attached dock and tried removing Logitech unifying receiver (the only USB device plugged in)
Tried removing monitor
- Everything back to normal, was able to browse very quickly again
Tried re-attaching monitor
- Network issues again where loading google.com would take around 20 seconds and refreshing the page would also take several seconds

Clearly there is an issue with the external display. The display is a 1080p monitor which is connected via a HDMI cable and a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. The strange part is that this problem has never come up before, though in hindsight I would say that browsing at the office has been generally a little bit slower than at home.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? I might try to get an older pre-1.4 spec HDMI cable to see if this has an effect.

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116 answers

Anonymous

2017-05-31T10:55:24+00:00

I just experienced it and got the 100% analog solution from a Microsoft technician online. It sounds as a prank but it worked perfectly for me. I quote:

"the Surface tablet is thin, small device and the Usb port is very close to the wifi adapter, this is a known issue for all the Surface devices and our engineers are working on solving the issue, also this is happening on other non Surface devices as well. What we can do to fix this for the moment is to wrap the HDMI cable in aluminium foil, this will stop it interfering with the wifi connection."

It doesn't look really nice, but trust me it works!
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Anonymous

2017-05-10T12:11:07+00:00

I rang MS help line after months of loosing WIFI at docking, after replacing the Docking station on warranty it wo

worked for 2 months, then it did it again. I rang MS again and they changed the Surface Pro 4 on warranty - no questions asked and its been working fine. Now I can dock with NO ISSUES..... Just saying

Maybe its your Laptop at fault and NOT the docking station......
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Anonymous

2017-05-10T11:45:22+00:00

Me also when undocking and then re-docking it looses connection,

this is driving me crazy.
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Anonymous

2017-05-10T06:56:30+00:00

Look for the Surface Ethernet Adapter and disable it, now My SP4 works fine with WIFI and 2 monitors. connects fine and its now fast as it was without the dock.:)

Unfortunately this didn't work for long. Like a number of the solutions on this thread, it might work initially (circa 5 days in my case) then it stops again.

I've no idea what's wrong with this hardware (the dock connected to DP monitors), but it definitely isn't right.
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Anonymous

2017-05-08T21:48:30+00:00

Hi Guys,

The above solutions did not work.

I found a work around though.

If I connect my monitor Display port directly to surface pro 4 (i.e. instead of Surface pro 4 dock station) the problem is solved, but the purpose of docking station is lost.

So I guess the issue is with display adapter in docking station.

At-least till the problem is solved by Microsoft , I will have to use this work around.

I feel being cheated for buying the docking station. I will pursue Microsoft support to find a solution.

Guys let me know if the work around helps.

Hi Guys,

The above solutions did not work.

I found a work around though.

If I connect my monitor Display port directly to surface pro 4 (i.e. instead of Surface pro 4 dock station) the problem is solved, but the purpose of docking station is lost.

So I guess the issue is with display adapter in docking station.

At-least till the problem is solved by Microsoft , I will have to use this work around.

I feel being cheated for buying the docking station. I will pursue Microsoft support to find a solution.

Guys let me know if the work around helps.

I've done exactly as suggested, i.e. unplug the mini display cable from the dock and connected it directly to sp4 and the internet connections works perfectly. Please note, the sp4 is still connected to the sp4 dock only the display cable is removed from the dock and connected to sp4 directly.

My internet connection problem started yesterday on Sunday 7th May 2017 before this day it has been working perfectly since the purchase of the hardware approximately 1 year ago (my sp4 is i7, 16GB, 1TB).
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