Windows 8 continously loses wifi connection

It is now august 2014 and they still have no solution. Microsoft this Is a great way to show you care about your consumers. Won't be buying from Microsoft ever again. 

Agreed..

Try this !!

This worked for me an since a few months I never lose my wifi connection.

Go to Energy settings in Control Panel (not sure about the exact English options as I use a Swedish interface).

On Energy settings click Change settings on the Energy option you use.

Choose Change Advanced Options

Click the + forWireless Network Card

Click the + for Energy settings and choose highest possible Energy option

Save this !

As said it works perfectly for me. Hope all of you get the same success

I've tried all of it, no avail

Hi,

Follow these 4 methods which could help you solve your Windows 8.1 connectivity issues. The majority of them seem to be driver based, but some issues are solved by simply disabling all connections and re-enabling them. Whatever your issue is, it is our sincere hope that any one of these methods has helped resolve it.

Method #1: Disable ‘Selective Suspend’

Selective suspend is a way of saving power. If a hardware device is left idling for long enough, the computer automatically reduces the power sent to that device which results in the device essentially ‘hibernating’. Disabling this option allows full power to be sent to the device at all times, but remember that it can negatively affect your battery life.

The problem you may be experiencing in Windows 8.1 is that the drivers are failing to execute the command that wakes your Wi-Fi receiver from selective suspension, thereby causing limited connectivity issues. Disabling it should therefore provide you with a much more stable connection.

How to disable selective suspend on your Windows 8.1

Step 1. Swipe from the right edge of the screen to bring up Windows 8.1 Charms

Step 2. Select ‘Settings’

Step 3. Select ‘Control Panel’

Step 4. Select ‘Hardware and Sound’

Step 5. Select ‘Power Options’

Step 6. On your selected power plans, select ‘Change Plan Settings’

Step 7. Select ‘Advanced Power Settings’

Step 8. Expand ‘USB settings’

Step 9. Expand ‘USB selective suspend setting’

Step 10. Disable selective suspend.

That should help. You may also want to tweak your wireless router settings to use a single channel too as other devices have had Wi-Fi issues resolved through this simple method (In other words, turn off Wireless ‘N’ on your router). Unfortunately you’ll need to contact the router manufacturer or consult the router user manual to find out how you do this as it varies from one router to the next.

Method #2: Driver reinstallation.

Another way around the issue of poor or limited Wi-Fi connectivity is to simply uninstall the new drivers that come with Windows 8.1 and reinstall the old drivers you once had before the upgrade.

How to Re-install old drivers

Step 1: Download the old Surface Pro driver from here and save file to desktop.

Step 2. Bring up Charms by swiping from the right edge of the screen

Step 3. Select the ‘Settings Charm’

Step 4. Select ‘Control Panel’

Step 5. Select ‘Hardware and Sound’

Step 6. Under ‘Devices and Printers’, select ‘Device Manager’.

Step 7. Expand ‘Network adapters’ and right click where it says ‘Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-N Network Controller’

Step 8. Select ‘Uninstall driver’ and reboot.

Step 9. Go back into device manager and you’ll see the wireless adapter being listed as a ‘problematic device’ with a yellow exclamation mark on it.

Step 10. Select the problematic device and then select ‘action’ from the device manager menu bar. Choose ‘Add Legacy Hardware’ from the dropdown menu.

Step 11. The ‘Add Hardware Wizard’ will take you through the steps and it will ask you how you want to install the driver. It usually says ‘How do you want to search for driver software’. Select ‘Browse my computer for driver software’. Navigate to your desktop and select the driver you downloaded and installed.

Method #3 – Re-enabling your wireless adapter.

Another issue being witnessed is that during the installation of Windows 8.1, the network adapter is being somehow disabled and not being re-enabled. This could well be linked to selective suspend, but re-enabling it is easy enough.

How to re-enable the network adapter.

Step 1. Bring up Windows 8.1 charms by swiping from the right edge of your screen.

Step 2. Select ‘Control Panel’

Step 3. Select ‘Network and Internet’

Step 4. Select ‘Network and Sharing Center’

Step 5. Select ‘Change adapter settings’

Step 6. Double tap on your Wi-Fi connection and select ‘Enable’.

If this does not work, you’ll probably need to uninstall and re-install the drivers as highlighted in Method #2.

Method #4 – Flight Mode

This issue is not affecting every single Windows 8.1 user so sometimes, your limited connectivity can be fixed by simply disabling all connections and re-enabling them again. You do this by putting your device in ‘flight mode’ and disabling flight mode once again to see if that helps. As simple as it is, it could solve the issue you have and get you back online.

Step 1 – Bring up Windows 8.1 Charms

Step 2 – Select ‘Settings’

Step 3 – At the bottom you’ll see signal bars for your wireless connections. Select those.

Step 4 – This will bring up your wireless networks menu showing other networks your Surface can detect. Sweep the flight mode bar to the right to activate it.

Step 5 – Wait 30 seconds and disable flight mode by swiping in the opposite direction.

Hope this helps. If you need further assistance with Windows, let us know and will be glad to help.

Hi,

Follow these 4 methods which could help you solve your Windows 8.1 connectivity issues. The majority of them seem to be driver based, but some issues are solved by simply disabling all connections and re-enabling them. Whatever your issue is, it is our sincere hope that any one of these methods has helped resolve it.

Method #1: Disable ‘Selective Suspend’

Selective suspend is a way of saving power. If a hardware device is left idling for long enough, the computer automatically reduces the power sent to that device which results in the device essentially ‘hibernating’. Disabling this option allows full power to be sent to the device at all times, but remember that it can negatively affect your battery life.

The problem you may be experiencing in Windows 8.1 is that the drivers are failing to execute the command that wakes your Wi-Fi receiver from selective suspension, thereby causing limited connectivity issues. Disabling it should therefore provide you with a much more stable connection.

How to disable selective suspend on your Windows 8.1

Step 1. Swipe from the right edge of the screen to bring up Windows 8.1 Charms

Step 2. Select ‘Settings’

Step 3. Select ‘Control Panel’

Step 4. Select ‘Hardware and Sound’

Step 5. Select ‘Power Options’

Step 6. On your selected power plans, select ‘Change Plan Settings’

Step 7. Select ‘Advanced Power Settings’

Step 8. Expand ‘USB settings’

Step 9. Expand ‘USB selective suspend setting’

Step 10. Disable selective suspend.

That should help. You may also want to tweak your wireless router settings to use a single channel too as other devices have had Wi-Fi issues resolved through this simple method (In other words, turn off Wireless ‘N’ on your router). Unfortunately you’ll need to contact the router manufacturer or consult the router user manual to find out how you do this as it varies from one router to the next.

Method #2: Driver reinstallation.

Another way around the issue of poor or limited Wi-Fi connectivity is to simply uninstall the new drivers that come with Windows 8.1 and reinstall the old drivers you once had before the upgrade.

How to Re-install old drivers

Step 1: Download the old Surface Pro driver from here and save file to desktop.

Step 2. Bring up Charms by swiping from the right edge of the screen

Step 3. Select the ‘Settings Charm’

Step 4. Select ‘Control Panel’

Step 5. Select ‘Hardware and Sound’

Step 6. Under ‘Devices and Printers’, select ‘Device Manager’.

Step 7. Expand ‘Network adapters’ and right click where it says ‘Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-N Network Controller’

Step 8. Select ‘Uninstall driver’ and reboot.

Step 9. Go back into device manager and you’ll see the wireless adapter being listed as a ‘problematic device’ with a yellow exclamation mark on it.

Step 10. Select the problematic device and then select ‘action’ from the device manager menu bar. Choose ‘Add Legacy Hardware’ from the dropdown menu.

Step 11. The ‘Add Hardware Wizard’ will take you through the steps and it will ask you how you want to install the driver. It usually says ‘How do you want to search for driver software’. Select ‘Browse my computer for driver software’. Navigate to your desktop and select the driver you downloaded and installed.

Method #3 – Re-enabling your wireless adapter.

Another issue being witnessed is that during the installation of Windows 8.1, the network adapter is being somehow disabled and not being re-enabled. This could well be linked to selective suspend, but re-enabling it is easy enough.

How to re-enable the network adapter.

Step 1. Bring up Windows 8.1 charms by swiping from the right edge of your screen.

Step 2. Select ‘Control Panel’

Step 3. Select ‘Network and Internet’

Step 4. Select ‘Network and Sharing Center’

Step 5. Select ‘Change adapter settings’

Step 6. Double tap on your Wi-Fi connection and select ‘Enable’.

If this does not work, you’ll probably need to uninstall and re-install the drivers as highlighted in Method #2.

Method #4 – Flight Mode

This issue is not affecting every single Windows 8.1 user so sometimes, your limited connectivity can be fixed by simply disabling all connections and re-enabling them again. You do this by putting your device in ‘flight mode’ and disabling flight mode once again to see if that helps. As simple as it is, it could solve the issue you have and get you back online.

Step 1 – Bring up Windows 8.1 Charms

Step 2 – Select ‘Settings’

Step 3 – At the bottom you’ll see signal bars for your wireless connections. Select those.

Step 4 – This will bring up your wireless networks menu showing other networks your Surface can detect. Sweep the flight mode bar to the right to activate it.

Step 5 – Wait 30 seconds and disable flight mode by swiping in the opposite direction.

Hope this helps. If you need further assistance with Windows, let us know and will be glad to help.

Hello John!

thanks for this lengthy reply. This looks like a well-researched set of solutions to the problem, so I'm going to give it another go! Thanks for your efforts! :)

Method 1: I have now implemented this solutions as instructed

Method 2: I will wait to do this; first see if method 1 works

Method 3: In my case, this hasn't been the problem; wireless adapter is always enabled, also when experiencing connectivity issues.

Method 4: this is the work-around I've been using for about half a year now. i.e. if I notice I've got connectivity problems I enable flight mode - wait a few sec- disable flight mod. This reduces the problem to "annoying" (takes 5-10s in total to solve per instance) but I prefer this solution over using ethernet cable, while waiting for a final solution provided by Windows...

Some observations that may be useful to you when researching the issue:

1. the frequency of connectivity issues varies a lot from a few times per week to several times per hour. It seems to be completely random although I have the impression it is at least partially linked to download/upload volume.
2. You mention to check router settings. I doubt this is relevant as in my case, I've experiencing the problem on at least 4 different locations, with different wifi routers and I have already changed the router at home. It's clearly an issue with my windows 8.1 device.

So that's it for me. Let's see if method 1 works; if it doesn't I'll try method 2. I'll report back soon!

Alright, John, I have now disabled selective suspend.

But here's an idea, Microsoft;

HOW ABOUT MAKING SOFTWARE THAT JUST KEEPS THE CONNECTION WITHOUT HAVING TO BECOME A TECH GENIUS TO FIGURE IT OUT.

My fuming two cents.

Yoplait.