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Slow wifi after Instant On wake up

Anonymous
2019-10-30T20:20:44+00:00

Hello,

I just acquired a Surface Laptop 3 13.5'' and I noticed that wifi becomes (way) slower after waking up from sleep mode. A speed test shows a decrease in the order of 90% (from 100 Mbps to 10 Mbps).

I am not alone (a couple of posts on reddit deal with this issue) and I think it affects all the new Surface devices with Intel Wifi 6. Is Microsoft aware of this issue? Because it makes Instant On feature completely useless if it costs 90% of wifi speed.

Note that I don't have issue with Ethernet.

Thanks.

Surface | Surface Laptop | Network

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-10-31T09:57:04+00:00

    Hello,

    try this Workaround:

    1. Go to the hardware manager -> network adapter -> Intel AX201 -> Advanced -> MIMO power save mode -> Change "Auto SMPS" to "No SMPS". While this resulted in the bug occurring less frequently, only changing the setting to "Static SMPS" (-> disabling MIMO) eliminated the problem entirely for me.   
    2. (Optional) Go to the Windows Settings App -> System -> Power & Sleep -> When my PC is asleep and on battery power, disconnect from network -> Change "Never" to "Always"

    Explanation of the bug:  

    The new Intel AX201 adapter has 2x2 MIMO, basically double the antennas for double the speed (if your router supports it). Now in standby Dynamic SMPS disables one antenna and the other antenna goes to a low power state. However the bug is that after waking up the device from standby, the second antenna is not activated and the other antenna remains in the low power state resulting in severely reduced speeds, higher latency, ...  

    Since disabling SMPS leads to higher power consumption when in standby (both antennas remain active, possibly in a higher power state than necessary) I have included the second step where you can simply disable Wi-Fi while in standby. If you change the setting to "Static SMPS" this shouldn't be necessary, however you lose MIMO, ergo up to 50% slower speed.

    Source:

    PSA: Workaround for "Slow Wi-Fi after waking from sleep" problem (Intel AX201 adapter)

    https://reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/dp96pb/psa_workaround_for_slow_wifi_after_waking_from/

    The Workaround works on Surface Pro 7 also.

    Best regards

    9 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2019-10-31T10:45:08+00:00
    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Barb Bowman 80,685 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2019-10-31T10:12:23+00:00

    >a couple of posts on reddit deal with this issue

    >

    link please?

    I believe Microsoft is actually aware of this issue but they have not

    acknowledged it here.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  4. Barb Bowman 80,685 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2019-10-31T10:18:27+00:00

    The Reddit thread I am aware of

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/dntq5c/update_regarding_wifi_issues_with_surface_laptop/

    • seems to state that the techs at the Microsoft Stores are aware of this. Is

    there another thread on reddit stating Microsoft is aware of this issue?

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-10-31T06:18:42+00:00

    Hello,

    I just acquired a Surface Laptop 3 13.5'' and I noticed that wifi becomes (way) slower after waking up from sleep mode. A speed test shows a decrease in the order of 90% (from 100 Mbps to 10 Mbps).

    I am not alone (a couple of posts on reddit deal with this issue) and I think it affects all the new Surface devices with Intel Wifi 6. Is Microsoft aware of this issue? Because it makes Instant On feature completely useless if it costs 90% of wifi speed.

    Note that I don't have issue with Ethernet.

    Thanks.

    Hi Kefeng(2)") ,

    Thank you for sharing your experience. You may consider running these troubleshooting steps to fix the issue.

    Download and Run Surface Diagnostic Tool Kit

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4037239/surface-fix-common-surface-problems-using-surface-diagnostic-toolkit

    Force Shutdown and Restart

    Press and hold the power button for 20 seconds. This will clear the hardware's memory cache

    Install latest updates

    Go to Settings> Updates & Security> Windows update> Check for updates

    Install drivers and firmware package

    https://support.microsoft.com/help/4023482/surface-download-drivers-and-firmware-for-surface

    For the 13.5" Laptop, choose the Surface Laptop with Intel Processor download.

    Disable Background Apps

    Settings> Privacy> Background Apps> Toggle off the apps that you don't want to run on background

    Disable Pair to Pair Update

    Settings> Updates & Security> Windows Update> Advance options> Delivery optimization> Toggle off "Allow downloads from other PCs"

    Please let us know how the issue progresses.

    Best regards,

    GeraldAldrin_T

    Microsoft Agent | Moderator

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