14 DAY TRIAL // The latest round of firmware updates for several Microsoft Surface models are reportedly to blame for Wi-Fi connectivity issues, with users complaining they are no longer able to connect to wireless networks.
A report from AskWoody indicates that the Surface Book is most often affected by the July 31 firmware update, but I’m seeing user posts that other models also experience Wi-Fi issues, including the Surface Pro and the Surface Pro 6.
The culprit appears to be the Marvell driver version 15.68.17013.110, which was included in the latest batch of firmware updates for Microsoft Surface models, and rolling back to a previous version seems to correct the bug.
“I updated the wifi driver to "Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. – Net – 15.68.17013.110", and after that update, I can't connect to a 5GHz wifi connection, I can only connect to 2.4 GHz. when i try to connect to the 5GHz, it says: ‘Unable to connect to this network,’” one user explains in the linked Microsoft Community thread.
“Uninstalling the wifi driver, and restarting the device did help me get the 5GHz connection back to my Surface book, but when i decided to try to install the same driver again, and try to connect to 5GHz again, the same "Unable to connect to this network" appears.”
Microsoft tight-lipped on the bug
Microsoft is yet to acknowledge the problem, but for now users are recommended to keep an eye on their Wi-Fi performance after updating Surface models to the latest firmware version.
If Wi-Fi connections to 5GHz networks are no longer possible, you can very well roll back the driver to a previous version, as this appears to be the easiest workaround that does not involve blocking the firmware update altogether. We have reached out to Microsoft to ask for more information about what’s going on with this firmware update and will update the article when and if we get more details about it.