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

2016-01-27T18:34:39+00:00

Falken,

An interesting find that you may already know, but one I feel needs highlighting. Now that we've purchased a USB wifi adaptor, one may assume that its ok to 'disable' the UN-marvel-LOUS adaptor, because why would you need both running - right? I mean, we wouldn't want to confuse the surface anymore than necessary. WRONG! It turns out, the wifi adaptor also controls the bluetooth adaptor, so in device manager if you disable the marvel adaptor, watch your bluetooth disappear!!

However, in devices>settings>network and internet, if both Wifi adaptors are enabled you can see them there and you can turn them off individually, get the marvel one and it wont affect the bluetooth adaptor (get the TP-Link one on mine is 'wifi-2' and enjoy slow speeds again!)

I only noticed when clicking my pen top didnt initiate Notes as normal!

Joe
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Anonymous

2016-01-27T23:54:45+00:00
Falken,

An interesting find that you may already know, but one I feel needs highlighting. Now that we've purchased a USB wifi adaptor, one may assume that its ok to 'disable' the UN-marvel-LOUS adaptor, because why would you need both running - right? I mean, we wouldn't want to confuse the surface anymore than necessary. WRONG! It turns out, the wifi adaptor also controls the bluetooth adaptor, so in device manager if you disable the marvel adaptor, watch your bluetooth disappear!!

However, in devices>settings>network and internet, if both Wifi adaptors are enabled you can see them there and you can turn them off individually, get the marvel one and it wont affect the bluetooth adaptor (get the TP-Link one on mine is 'wifi-2' and enjoy slow speeds again!)

I only noticed when clicking my pen top didnt initiate Notes as normal!

Joe

Does anybody know if Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book has the same UN-marvel-LOUS (lol) SoC? Is it Microsoft repeating itself?

EDIT: Surface Pro 4 uses the EXACT SAME Marvell **** SoC - 88W8897: (http://www.marvell.com/wireless/avastar/88W8897/):

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+3+Teardown/26595

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+4+Teardown/51568

SP4 / Surface Books users also complaining.

https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/microsoft-surface/62432/firmware-updates-for-surface-book-and-surface-pro-4-address-reliability-issues (almost 700 posts at the time of writing).

Its the network! Its your router! Its your broadband connection! Its the density of the air around you! Be sure of one thing....its never MS! :)
- correct it is Marvell, doing Marvellous things. :p
I am not really sure why Microsoft execs persistently keeps adding this **** Marvell Avastar chip - customers are upset, tonnes of support, lost revenue, etc... what is the point with this madness???
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