WiFi/Networking issue when connected to docking station

Anonymous
2015-12-16T10:29:24+00:00

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.

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-09-07T10:44:23+00:00

    Hi all

    I had the same problem and found the SOLUTION.

    When I plug in the Surface Dock I need to plug it in so that the wire is hanging on top (so plug the cable with the head of the cable facing down). This way the Wi-Fi works when connected to the new surface dock. If plugged differently it does not work.

    This solution works for me - please try and see if it solves the problem.

    Bersant

    I can hardly believe it, this actually worked for me!

    If I connect the docking cable to the Surface with the cable hanging down then the WiFi stops working (no internett connection) - but if I connect it with the cable pointing up, then all is just fine.

    Strange thing.

    Microsoft, you ought to fix this...   and; inform your customers!

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-08T07:05:17+00:00

    Hi Bersant,

    A few people have mentioned this potential solution, and while it seems to work at times, it's not a reliable solution as it doesn't always work.

    I think the cause of the issues are coming to light now. There's a key issue with the Intel Skylake architecture that has some major issues around power. A lot of us know all about the power leakage issues when putting the Surface to sleep, but also this WiFi issue is probably being caused by a power/bus fault. The problem is that all of these interfaces are using USB. That includes everything on the dock but also the way that Intel Skylake chips seem to handle WiFi is through the USB as well. This would also explain how sometimes having a USB 3.0 flash/hard drive connected and being heavily used starts to really affect the throughput of the WiFi.

    Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be something that can be resolved in software as it is starting to look like a hardware issue down to the chip level. What is an absolute joke is the way that Microsoft have remained completely quiet on the topic instead of offering their highest paying customers an insight, recommendation and/or advice.

    I call on Microsoft to fix the issues between themselves and Intel, and make a recall of all Surface devices with the Intel Skylake chips when the new ones come out. Call it a marketing stunt, public relations, whatever. Just don't leave your customers with a below-par product when they've forked up £2,000 on a laptop!

    Best regards,

    Imtiaz

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-09-09T18:15:56+00:00

    Hello.

    I just bought a Microsoft dock for my Surface Pro 4. Upon returning home I plugged the thing in and nothing happened. My 23" Samsung DVI monitor would stay dark. This puzzled me since I had already been trying to connect it to the SP4 mini-display port and it had worked a treat, thus allowing me to extend my desktop to both panels.

    I Googled for a while and found a registry update on the Microsoft site, applied it, restarted and... now not only would the external monitor not work, but even my wifi connection would drop upon plugging the dock.

    Long story short I Googled some more and dropped on here. Upon reading Bersant's post I tried to plug the connector to the SP4 with its head hanging down. BINGO! The external monitor immediately came to life and so did my wifi connection.... go figure...

    Anyway thanks a lot Bersant for finding out this neat trick, since it would have never ever occurred to me to think of it.

    :D

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-09-11T10:27:54+00:00

    Thanks for suggesting this.  I've also found it works if I set it to 5 Ghz, which is fine for my main router, but not the other devlo wifi extenders or when tethering to my phone.  In those cases they won't work when docked on either the 2.4 Ghz band or when set to auto.  Yet all connections work fine when undocked. 

    Very frustrating because this problem has only started to happen in the last 3 weeks.  The dock was working fine prior to that.

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