Surface Book not connecting to mobile hotspot

Question

I have just become the proud owner of a surface book.

It looks great. But it cannot connect to a mobile wifi hotspot.... making it pretty useless as that is how I am regularly connecting to the net.

I am running windows 10 and have downloaded all of the available updates.

I have my old (trusty) HP Pavilion laptop from 2013 running along side me. It is also running windows 10 and is connecting to my mobile hotspot without any fuss.

When i attempt to connect the surface to the hotspot I get the 1st message "checking network requirement" then I get the conclusion "unable to connect to this network". The laptop does work when USB tethered to the same phone.

Steps completed so far:

1. checked for automatic updates and installed them all.
2. found the Marvel AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network controller and tried all three versions of the driver that are currently installed.
3. Done a full system restore (!!!)
4. Manually downloaded and installed the latest surface msi kit from microsoft
5. Phoned my mobile phone provided to check there are no restrictions at there end.
6. Changed the name and password of the Hotspot to simple things with no capitals or characters.

Is anyone else having this problem?.... have i just got a dud SB?

Any help or ideas would be appreciated. 

Cheers,

Dan.

Answer 1

There are definitely issues with wireless networking with the SB.  For one, Microsoft changed some of the fundamentals in networking for Windows 10, which can cause things not to work.  As an example, we have a Cisco-based WiFi network here in the office that is on the old side.  No matter what I try, I cannot get the SB to connect to it.  I've spent countless hours with tech support and many hours on my own all to no avail.

So, in other words, from my own experience and what I've read, yes the Surface's can be finicky about wireless connections.

Perhaps if you change some of the security settings on your hotspot you might be able to make it work.  Are you using, WEP, WPA, or WPA2?  Have you tried it without a password just to see if you can connect that way (not that you'd want to do that normally, but just for troubleshooting).  There is also a method for copying the wireless profile/configuration from your old laptop to the SB that might be helpful, too, though it is fairly complicated.

Answer 2

did you ever open a support case on the IT Pro Side or did you just use the

Answer Desk? If on the IT Pro side, was is the Service Request #?

>> I've spent countless hours with tech support and many hours on my own all to no avail.

Answer 3

This is a personal device, so no IT Pro support is available to me.  All that was available to me was Surface support and since I'm now over 90 days, that's gone, too.

Answer 4

Thanks the comments BanditoB1.

I didn't log my issues with IT Pro Slide... hadn't heard of that. But I was engaged with "know how" which is a technical service provided by PC World (UK). After all the steps I had already taken it was concluded to be a network adapter issue.

I have just been out and changed the surface book. I'm a bit over my surface issues for now but I will try again tomorrow and see if this one is any better. Hopefully it was just a rogue piece of kit. I'll update my progress tomorrow.

Answer 5

Here's wishing you all the best in your wireless networking endeavors!