What's new

Laptop strugling with wifi - Surface Book 2 + Asus Zenwifi XT8

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

Islandstone

New Around Here
Hi!
Not certain this was the correct place to post but here goes.

I've had my laptop, Surface Book 2 13" I7 8gb for a few years.
Once every now and then I experience severe wifi connectivity/speed issues, especially much lately.
I get speeds of a few mbps or sub 1 mbps at 30 ms ping (normally sub 15), resulting in being unable stream 720p youtube. Loading a news-website may take minutes even.
I see sometimes its running at the wifi 4 n band for some weird reason.
The wifi routers I have is Asus Zenwifi XT8, two of them, connected by cable. All other devices get stable, lag free, high speed connection up to 250 mbps (what I'm supposed to get).

My troubleshooting so far:
- Restarting laptop: No improvement.
- Removing all 2,4 ghz senders/recievers - actually did improve somewhat, but not to an acceptable level.
- Checking wifi drivers: They are ok at least accodring to windows.
- Ran Windows network troubleshooter: Couldn't find any problems.
- I followed these steps from a guide:

"Reset the TCP/IP stack

The TCP/IP stack is a set of protocols that helps connect your Surface Book 2 to the internet. Resetting these protocols will help solve any connectivity problems that you are experiencing.

  • Type Command Prompt on the search bar then right click on the command prompt app that appears then choose Run as Administrator.
  • Enter the following lines and press Enter after each one
  • 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.
  • Close the Command Prompt windows."
Guide from here: https://www.easypcmod.com/how-to-fix-surface-book-2-slow-wi-fi-issue-the-quick-and-easy-way-11274


After doing the last steps from the command prompt, the wifi became even slower.
Command prompt was ran by administrator and laptop restarted afterwards.

My temporary solution is now using my phone (Samsung Galaxy Note8) sharing the same wifi trough the phone (hotspot), which works a lot better. It's very inconvenient and not how it's supposed to be lol, but I am able to stream and websites load within seconds and not minutes.

Any ideas of why I am having this trouble and how to fix it?

I can add that the router is running one network (smart network or w/e it's called) distributing either 2,4 ghz or 5 ghz depending on demand.
I can also add that this is a recent problem and it's been seemless before. I am running a separate screen, keyboard and mouse from the laptop now, that's the only change I can think of.
 
I don't know if I would have followed that guide...

If your Surface Book 2 still has a Marvel wifi chipset, that is the issue in a nutshell.

Have you tried contacting (and/or searching) for MS support on this issue?

I can't remember when MS switched to the Intel wifi chipsets in their Surface lineup, but there were many good reasons they did so.
 
Thanks for the reply!

You may be right about the guide.

My Surface Book 2 do indeed have a Marvel AVASTAR wifi chip, unfortunately it seem(?)

I have yet to contact MS support about this issue, but I might do if it's not easily solvable.
 
I got in contact with MS support. I'm surprised to say they solved the issue, at least made an improvement. They proposed do a networkreset from the settings menu (should've thought of it myself I suppose), which did result in an quality ofconnection. The speed im getting is still ratherridiculous compared to any other device, but at least now I am able to stream simple youtube HD videos lol. I'm not sure I should settle with this, but I'm also not certain I can hope for anything better.
 
I don't think the Surface Book 2 is fixable/upgradable in any way. I would say your best hope for improvement is a current-generation Surface device that features Intel WiFi chips instead.
 

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top