Surface Pro 3 - Windows 10 - WiFi (slow or limited connectivity )

Anonymous

Have a Surface Pro 3 that worked fine till I updated to Win10. Now the wireless connection seems to randomly go to a "limited connectivity" mode. Fortunately was purchased from Costco a coupe of weeks ago so it is going back there if we can't get this figured out by Sunday.

The Surface Pro3 is a flagship device - why in the world would you subject your customers to have to resort to looking for help in forums like this?

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Anonymous

Everyone,

Build 10586 - the November Windows 10 update - was released yesterday, and it contains a newer Marvell wireless driver 15.68.9032.47 - people are reporting that this greatly improves wireless connectivity. Please download the large update, and if you used the registry hack, reverse it as follows:

Press Windows button. Search for regedit. Open it

Navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\mrvlpcie8897

Find the item labeled “TXAMSDU”. Double tap and modify the value from 0 to 1
Restart the machine

Then test your connectivity, and post results.

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Anonymous

Fred,

the November Windows 10 update to build 10586 has new wireless drivers. Can you download and install the update (it should be offered via WU) and let us know if this changes your connectivity?

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Anonymous

Penny,

These kinds of issues WERE present on 8.1 for months but they mostly all cleared after several driver updates.

And that particular router is not one known to exhibit slow wifi. I'm suggesting you trade it because it is SP new and you can now get one with 10 pre-installed and not have to go through an upgrade AND because you have this issue. Getting it swapped will rule out a hardware issue and would be a step forward.

This is what *I* would do if in this situation.

For what it's worth - Microsoft needs to fix the driver and any underlying Win 10 OS issues. It took them 9 months to get a "good" Windows 8.1 wireless driver. For now, consider an external USB wireless adapter. I carry around a http://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811UTC-Dual-Band-Connectivity-Exceeding/dp/B00FW6T36Y

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417 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-09-20T17:31:31+00:00

I am not sure this is the same problem, but I have my 5G Wifi issue fixed - by purchasing a new router that offer the suitable Wifi channels for local use.

It appears that, from certain point of time (probably around the beginning of 2015), device markers are pushed (by FCC?) to lock down the channels that is not supposed to be available in that region. As a result, if you use a device (notebook/tablet/AP) imported from other regions, depending on the Wifi channels allowed, you CAN start to have problems you did not have before.

The reason that the Surface Wifi problem only start to show with Win10 can be that Microsoft updated firmware/device driver as requested alongside with Win10 release. Because the new drivers now block the illegit channels, configurations or APs utilizing those channels would fail.

This should affect 5G more but can also affect 2.4G, depending on the configurations.

If this is indeed the issue - I am sure Microsoft can fix it, but I am not sure they can legally do so. For the time being, an updated AP, an USB Wifi dongle, or a combination of both, should do the quick fix.

Just my two cent. Good luck.
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Anonymous

2015-09-20T09:36:03+00:00

I just bought my Surface Pro 3 yesterday and updated it to Windows 10. I have the same problem with the wifi as everyone else. I read every page through this whole forum.

My question is: Does anyone know if its worth exchanging my Surface Pro 3 to a pre-install Windows 10 at the microsoft store? Are there any advantages in doing that? Or just wait for updates or buy a

Edimax EW-7811UTC AC600 Dual-Band USB Adapter?

Thanks

some people have found a bit of relief by searching the web and installing the older .151 Marvell wireless driver.

chances are that you will have the same issue with a pre-installed SP3, but there are other reasons to exchange for one with SP3 - to avoid being stuck with the 8.1 downloadable recovery image if you need that in the future.

the Edimax would work and avoid the issue until such time as there is a fix (whenever that might be, could be a long long long time).
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