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Wifi/bluetooth when base is detached/attached

MSAG

New Member
Hi all,

I've been using the Surface Book as my daily driver since November, and despite the numerous updates Microsoft has provided I've experienced terrible relative wifi speeds and bluetooth range. However, this morning I just found out something very interesting...

I've been regularly running speed tests when experiencing horrendously slow wifi (think 400kbps on a 100mb connection, other devices in the same room pulling 75mb easily). I've also had lots of range issues with my bluetooth devices (Surface Arc Touch Mouse less than 24 inches from the laptop drops, bluetooth headphones dropping when 3 feet away).

I've been experiencing these problems with the Surface Book attached to its base, both using the Surface Dock and when disconnected from the Dock.

This morning I ran another speed test when the Book was in its base and connected to the Dock, and I was getting 3-4mbps (typical "good" speed). I then randomly tried detaching the base and connecting the tablet directly to the Surface Dock.

BAM, I immediately saw a jump in wifi speed tests to 75/80mbps!!!! I've not had a single blip in connectivity since, and my bluetooth range has tripled too! I can now stand across the room without dropping my headphone connectivity.

Now, I don't know if it's related to the dedicated GPU in the base (I have it), the rumored USB-attached-so-speed-issue given that the proprietary Surface Connector uses USB3, or something else....but I can't imagine that the speed difference would be because the base somehow blocks the signal. It has to be something else, right? Nothing else has changed about my setup other than I detached the base from the tablet.

Can anyone else run these same tests to see if it's just my device? Can you think of any other tests I can try to isolate the issue?
 

Wayne Orwig

Active Member
I just tried a huge file over 5GHz WiFi from the other side of the house.
I get about 5MBps, attached and detached.
(my remote hard disk is on a slower USB so that is the fastest I can get there)
 

be77solo

Active Member
I've actually not noticed this on my SB w/dGPU. I've got a 300Mbps connection and can consistently pull 275+ with or without the base attached and while using a Bluetooth mouse.

It will download from Steam using built in WiFi at 35-40MBPS, which is maxing out my 300Mbps connection. In fact, my SB is the fastest wifi device I own both with and without the base attached.

I don't have the dock so can't report on that aspect.

Maybe router issues?
 
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