Marvell Avatar wireless network controller turns off

Hi Daniel

Welcome to the Microsoft Community. We apologize to hear you're experiencing issues with your Surface device regarding your Marvell Avatar Wireless network controller turns off with no reason.

Possible Cause:

Driver corruption or incompatibility (especially after Windows updates).

Power management settings that disable the adapter to save power.

Hardware degradation in older Surface models.

Please follow this troubleshooting steps to try and fix the problem.

Option 1: Disable Power saving for the adapter

Step 1: Open Device Manager > Click Start > enter "Run" > enter "Devmgmt.msc

Step 2: Find the Network Adapter

>Expand the Network adapters section

>Look for Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC 

Network Controller.

Step 3: Open Properties > Right-click on the Marvell adapter > Select Properties.

Step 4: Adjust Power Management Settings

Go to the Power Management tab > Uncheck the box:

“Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.

Step 5: Click OK to save changes.

Option 2: Roll Back the Driver.

Step 1: Open Device Manager > Click Start > enter "Run" > enter "Devmgmt.msc

Step 2: Find the Marvell Adapter.

>Expand Network adapters.

>Right-click Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC 

Network Controller → Properties.

Step 3: Roll Back Driver.

>Go to the Driver tab.

>Click Roll Back Driver (if available).

Follow the prompts and restart your device.

Option 3: Check for Windows Update Conflicts.

Recent updates (like Windows 11 23H2) have caused Wi-Fi issues on Surface devices.

If this started after an update:

Step 1: Go to Settings → Windows Update → Update History

Step 2: Consider rolling back the update if the issue began immediately after

Option 4: Use Surface Recovery Drivers

If the adapter still fails, download the official recovery driver pack for your Surface model:

Step 1: Visit Microsoft Surface Drivers & Firmware https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface-recovery-image

Step 2: Log in using your Microsoft Account.

Step 3: Enter your Surface details (model, Serial, etc.).

Step 4: Download and Extract the ZIP file.

Step 5: Prepare a USB Drive

>Use a USB drive (at least 16 GB) formatted 	as FAT32.

>Copy the extracted recovery files to the 	USB drive.

Step 6. Boot from USB

Step 7: Shut down your Surface (Hold Volume Down and press Power).

Step 8: Release Volume Down when the Surface logo appears.

Step 9: Your Surface will boot into the recovery environment follow the step to recover the Surface Drivers.

I hope this information helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Warm Regards,

Jansher | Microsoft Community Support

The problem is specifically related to the latest Avastar Marvell driver released by Microsoft, version 15.68.17022.122 - As this is the driver in the driver pack, listed, it will not solve the problem.

You need a previous driver that works. The driver from 2015, however, has issues with 5g signals.

The driver 15.68.17021.121 is from a few months before 122, and that does seem to work, but I don't know what other issues 121 may cause.

You can download a .cab of the previous drivers from the following Microsoft website.

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=marvell%20semiconductors%20

Choose the 121 driver, or other previous driver. Download the cab. Double click on the cab to open it, and move the files out of the cab into a folder on your computer.

Open Device manager and choose to update the driver, with files on your disk. Then choose the folder where you placed these extracted files.

NOTE: the driver IS signed by Microsoft, so you won't get any errors. This is an official previous release, from a Microsoft website.

In addition to complaining to Microsoft, please go to the Marvell website and click, "Talk to us" and fill out the form to submit a complaint about driver 122 for the Marvell Avastar wifi card.

https://www.marvell.com/support.html

Perhaps someone will pay attention to this problem.

I suspect it's the disabling of fast start-up that fixes this.