Surface Pro 6 slow WiFi

Question

I just purchased a Surface Pro 6 and the WiFi performance on it is incredibly bad.  

I just ran a speed test on my Dell laptop (using only WiFi) and achieved 18.4 Mbps download and 7.8 Mbps upload.

The same test on my Surface gives me either incredibly low numbers (e.g. 0.03 Mbps download) or it times out because it can't access the remote server.

I have updated everything; current Marvell driver is 15.68.17015.112

I'm connecting both devices through a NetGear WAC104 dual-band WiFi on the 2.4GHz band, running 802.11n protocol.  I am running the latest FW on this WAP.

It's very frustrating to have purchased a brand new PC and have this kind of fundamental access issue.  Any suggestions, please???

Thank you,

Bryan

Answer 1

I received my new WAP, installed it, and the difference was significant:

So this seems to solve it.  I'd really like to understand what was going on with the old WAP and why the Surface was fine on uploads but hated downloads.  I guess we just chock it up to the mysteries of WiFi...

Bryan

Answer 2

Hi BryanCowger,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community.

Please do these steps first to troubleshoot the issue on your Surface Pro 6:

1: Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check Windows Update

2: Update drivers and firmware

                               Check what is the current OS Build of your Windows version by going to Settings > System > About.

                               Go to Download driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Pro 6 then click Download on the next page.

                               Choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next.

                               After downloading, run and install the .msi then Restart.

3: Run System File Checker Tool in Windows 10

4: Uninstall/Re-install driver

                              Open Device Manager > Network adapters

                              Right-click Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network Controllerand choose Uninstall device

                                      Note: Leave box unchecked to Delete driver software for this deviceif prompted

                              Hit Uninstall then Restart your Surface

5: Change Bandwidth

                            Open Device Manager > Network adapters

                            Right-click Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network Controller and choose Properties

                            On the Advanced tab, highlight Band then change value from Auto to 2.4GHz

You may check this page also for more steps: Fix Wi-Fi connections issues in Windows 10.

If this answer your question, we highly encourage you to inform our Community by clicking on Yes or marking my post as an answer. This will help other members who may have the same issue as you. Otherwise, don't hesitate to update us so we can further assist you.

Kind Regards,

Marrion Y.

Answer 3

thank you, I appreciate your response and willingness to help.

Unfortunately, there's no possible way for me to download a new *.msi -- the 320MB download always stalls around .2MB downloaded and eventually times out.

I did complete your steps 1 (no problems found), 3 (a corrupt file found / repaired), 4, and 5, and my "Mbps download" from Speedtest is still just 0.09.  On this *same* wifi from the same spot in my home, at almost the same time, I achieve 23.8 Mbps download on my Dell laptop, or 264x faster than the Surface.

Still getting nowhere with this....

Bryan

Answer 4

Update:  I called MSFT tech support; after a number of attempted fixes they gave up and are replacing this with a similar unit.  Hopefully it's just some manufacturing defect and the new one works much better than this one...

Bryan

Answer 5

Hi BryanCowger,

Thank you for the response and update. We really appreciate the time and effort spent to contact our support team though it wasn't fixed, we're glad that you have the device replace.

Kind Regards,

Marrion Y.