Surface Book 2 Continual WiFi Disconnects and Throttling

Question

I've been fighting these issues since at least mid-summer of 2020. The wifi connection constantly disconnects and all-around performance is abysmal if the battery is below ~65%. This makes it so that my Surface Book is practically unusable unless connected to a WAN and wall charger, which makes this "laptop" beyond useless. Before I get the inane boilerplate "restart/make sure updates are installed" reply: My device is 100% up-to-date as of the writing of this post. Over the two years I've owned this device, every update has led to a degradation in performance, to the point where I'm about to eat the $2,000 and chuck it in the garbage and get something that works. I'm not sure what Microsoft does in its free time, but pushing out updates that at least keep performance steady is absolutely not one of them.

Edit: I currently work around the problem by tethering my Pixel 2 XL's WiFi connection, which is rock solid no matter where am at. Contrast this with my Surface Book, which utter garbage no matter where I am or what WiFi network I'm connected to.

Answer 1

Hi WhippingStar,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your inquiry.   

The issue could be related to driver. We suggest the methods below:

• Run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check if there are new Windows Update.

• Uninstall network driver, go to device manager > Expand Network adapters, and locate the network adapter for your device > Select the network adapter, and then select Uninstall device > Uncheck the Delete the driver software for this device > Uninstall. > restart the device

• Perform a network reset, select the Start button, then select Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset.

If the issue persists, try running the network commands to restart the network settings:

1. In the search box on the taskbar, type Command prompt. The Command Prompt button will appear. To the right of it, select Run as administrator > Yes.
2. At the command prompt, run the following commands in the listed order, and then check to see if that fixes your connection problem:

• Type netsh winsock reset and select Enter.

• Type netsh int ip reset and select Enter.

• Type ipconfig /release and select Enter.

• Type ipconfig /renew and select Enter.

• Type ipconfig /flushdns and select Enter.

Keep us updated by replying on this thread.

Answer 2

We've seen this kind of behavior in situations where the customer has a dual
band 2.4/5GHz router with the same SSID name and a "race condition" occurs
because of signal strength and the WiFi trying to switch. Do you have a dual
band setup with the same SSID names? If yes, try changing the 2.4 SSID name to
something different.

Answer 3

Found that Power Management tab yet, John? Because I haven't. I forgot to mention that typing "troubleshooting" in the search box gets the troubleshooting menu that only gives you the option to run troubleshooters. No way to run anything as admin or even right-click to get a context menu. Running the device manager as admin doesn't get the Power Management tab either. Let me commend you again for the useless help that *might* have applied a year ago.

Answer 4

Bumping until Microsoft has an answer for this complete ****.

Answer 5

Hi WhippingStar,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your inquiry.   

The issue could be related to driver. We suggest the methods below:

• Run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check if there are new Windows Update.

• Run the Network Adapter Troubleshooter. Go to the Search box > Search "Troubleshooting" > Click on Network Adapter > Choose "Advanced” and then click on “Run as Administrator”. > Next

• Uninstall network driver, go to device manager > Expand Network adapters, and locate the network adapter for your device > Select the network adapter, and then select Uninstall device > the Delete the driver software for this device check box > Uninstall. > restart the device

• Perform a network reset, select the Start button, then select Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset.

• Change Power management settings. Open the Device Manager > Double-click Network adapters. > Right-click the network adapter, and then click Properties > Select Power management. > Check the box, Allow this device to wake the computer.

If the issue persists, try running the network commands to restart the network settings:

1. In the search box on the taskbar, type Command prompt. The Command Prompt button will appear. To the right of it, select Run as administrator > Yes.
2. At the command prompt, run the following commands in the listed order, and then check to see if that fixes your connection problem:

• Type netsh winsock reset and select Enter.

• Type netsh int ip reset and select Enter.

• Type ipconfig /release and select Enter.

• Type ipconfig /renew and select Enter.

• Type ipconfig /flushdns and select Enter.

Keep us updated by replying on this thread.

This is why Microsoft is such an abject joke. There is no tab for power management under Properties. There hasn't been one for quite some time, somewhere along the lines of maybe six months or longer. Does anyone at the company even use their own products? As to the flushing dns/etc via command prompt , this does nothing to solve the problem and never has. I've also tried renaming my 2.4/5GHz bands and disabling one or the other. No change. This happens everywhere (different businesses, homes, etc) and the problem is solved by using a device with a different wifi chipset. My guess is that I'll need to invest in a USB wifi adapter. Yay. I'd also like some official response as to the long-term degradation of performance that seems to come with each update. Glad we're back to Vista-era levels of QC.