If your Microsoft Surface can't connect to Wi-Fi, it won't be able to download files or load websites. You may also notice that the Wi-Fi signal strength icon in the taskbar disappears, displays a low signal strength, or displays an X. In this article, we'll help you troubleshoot your Surface Pro's Wi-Fi issues so you can get back online.
A long list of issues can cause Wi-Fi problems.
- Connected to wrong network
- Wi-Fi router malfunction or malfunction
- Wi-Fi router or modem has insufficient power
- Poor signal strength
- VPN failure
- Wi-Fi adapter driver or hardware failure
The long list of potential problems can make Wi-Fi problems daunting. Fortunately, the fix is usually simple. Follow these solutions in the order you see them here, ordered from easiest to most complex:
Turn on Wi-Fi. This may seem obvious, but it's easy to turn it off accidentally, and it only takes a few seconds to confirm if this is the reason your Surface Pro can't connect to the internet.
To check, select the Wi-Fi icon next to the clock. If the tile is not highlighted, Wi-Fi is off. Select once to open it.
Turn off airplane mode. This is a useful feature, but only in very specific situations. When turned on, this mode turns off Wi-Fi.
Sometimes you can turn Airplane Mode on and off to resolve Wi-Fi issues. For example, if it's already off, keep it on for five seconds. Then, turn it off again and see if the Wi-Fi works.
Make sure you are connected to the correct network. If you accidentally connect to your neighbor's Wi-Fi, it's probably too far away to work reliably. Or other networks may have their own problems. The fix here is to disconnect and select your Wi-Fi network.
Surface Pro may continue to automatically connect to the wrong network if it saves login credentials for that network. You can solve this problem by forgetting about the network.
Turn off firewall and VPN. A third-party firewall or VPN may block network traffic on purpose or because it is not functioning properly. If Windows cannot identify the source of the error, it will report a general Internet connection problem.
Restart Surface Pro. This will fix any one-time configuration, driver or software errors and give you a clean slate to continue troubleshooting.
Rebooting/restarting is very different from resetting. When you restart your computer (which you do in this step) it just shuts it down and then backs up, whereas a reset reinstalls Windows.
Check your date and time settings. In rare cases, this may cause conflicts with other software or hardware. Correcting the date and time will resolve the conflict.
Restart the router. It will fix any temporary issues with your network hardware.
Run the network troubleshooter. Windows includes several network-related troubleshooters that will try to solve your problem for you.
Manually reset the Surface Pro's Wi-Fi adapter. Open Device Manager and find your adapter in the network adapter group. Here are examples of what you might see:
- Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
- Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A Wireless Network Adapter
- Marvel AVASTAR Network Controller
Disable the adapter, wait a few seconds, and then enable it again. Finally, restart Surface Pro.
If the above Wi-Fi adapter is not listed, it may mean there is a hardware issue with your Surface Pro's Wi-Fi adapter. Microsoft recommends that you contact customer support for further troubleshooting and repair.
Run Windows Update. Microsoft updates sometimes fix such issues. If the Surface Pro's Wi-Fi issues are due to a bug addressed by the update, this will resolve the issue.
Windows Update only works when you have an Internet connection, so you need to connect your Surface Pro to the Internet via a wired Ethernet connection. For this, you need a USB to Ethernet adapter. Unless you already have one, we recommend skipping this step.
Download Surface drivers from Microsoft. Find the link for Surface Pro on that page and use it to download the Wi-Fi drivers to a flash drive on a computer with an available internet connection. Then, move the drives to the Surface to install them. After the update is complete, you may need to restart your Surface Pro.
Turn off MAC filtering on the router. MAC filtering is a network security feature used to control device access. If your Surface Pro is not considered a known device, its router's MAC filtering may be preventing your Surface Pro from accessing the Internet.
MAC filtering is a security feature. While turning it off may solve your problem, it may also leave your Wi-Fi network more exposed. Once you've confirmed that MAC filtering is the problem, it's a good idea to modify the MAC filter so that the Surface Pro becomes an approved device, and then turn the filter back on.
Please contact Microsoft Support for additional troubleshooting and possible hardware repair. The above steps should get your Surface Pro connected to Wi-Fi, but if not, your last option is to contact Microsoft.
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