No internet on Surface Laptop

Associate
Joined
24 Sep 2006
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Hi all,

I am having some trouble using the internet on my Surface Laptop.

After booting, it initially works for approximately 1 minute before then stopping. Then, the symptoms are:
  • Being unable to connect to anything, be it updates, websites etc.
  • Chrome displaying the Aw, Snap! error on every site
  • Chrome displaying the Aw, Snap! error on the settings page
  • Chrome extensions crashing
Initially there appeared a connection between the issue and Windows Defender, as disabling Real-Time Protection would eliminate the problems but this has since stopped having any effect.

I have tried:
  • Updating Windows 10
  • Updating Surface firmware
  • Manually updating the network card
  • Disabling Defender
  • Disabling the firewall
  • Disabling ipv6
  • Network reset
  • Different browsers
  • Switching my wifi channel number
  • Switching between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi
  • Disabling 5Ghz wifi
  • Disabling 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz syncing
  • Removing and then adding the network adapter
  • Logging chrome crash dumps (could not display page)
  • Event viewer (nothing obvious found)
  • Reinstalling windows
Running the ipconfig/all command when the internet briefly works gives a slightly different result to all other times https://pastebin.com/ku32VzrB

I had suspected the network card was faulty but I am able to ping sites through cmd prompt, which I assume suggests it's a software issue?

Any help would be appreciated! :D
 
Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2002
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816
Check your DNS server(s). Currently it's pointing at your router and giving 192.168.1.254

Either try manually changing the DNS server settings on the laptop to point at something like Google's public DNS (Primary 8.8.8.8 & Secondary 8.8.4.4) or change your DHCP settings to automatically assign them.
 
Associate
OP
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Hi, thanks for your reply.

That's odd, nothing has been changed, either on the laptop or the router (router settings) and all other devices are working without problem.

Anyway, changing the laptops DNS saw no effect unfortunately, still no internet (results).
 
Associate
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Posts
816
Hi, thanks for your reply.

That's odd, nothing has been changed, either on the laptop or the router (router settings) and all other devices are working without problem.

Anyway, changing the laptops DNS saw no effect unfortunately, still no internet (results).

Oh well, worth a try.

Has it ever worked or is it a new machine?

Are you doing any filtering or restrictions via MAC address?
 
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Fire up a command prompt and run

ping -t 8.8.8.8

Do that when the machine starts up, and wait for Chrome to fail. If the ping stops with Chrome failing it's not DNS.

You might have a faulty adapter. Also, can you fire a wifi hotspot on your phone or connect to another AP and see if the problem persists?
 
Soldato
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The surface laptops are WiFi only correct?

Feels like a driver issue possibly, but you don't explain when it works and when it stops, is it after a rebuild, reboot, logon??
 
Associate
OP
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Oh well, worth a try.

Has it ever worked or is it a new machine?

Are you doing any filtering or restrictions via MAC address?

It's a new machine. No filtering or restrictions

Fire up a command prompt and run

ping -t 8.8.8.8

Do that when the machine starts up, and wait for Chrome to fail. If the ping stops with Chrome failing it's not DNS.

You might have a faulty adapter. Also, can you fire a wifi hotspot on your phone or connect to another AP and see if the problem persists?

The ping worked, pinging sites seems fine, totally unaffected by the issue. The problem remained when testing on a wifi hotspot.

The surface laptops are WiFi only correct?

Feels like a driver issue possibly, but you don't explain when it works and when it stops, is it after a rebuild, reboot, logon??

Yup, wifi only. It works immediately following a restart or power on* and stops after approximately 1 minute.
* I have tried changing power plan to max. performance/stopping the laptop being allowed to power off the adapter.
 
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The ping worked, pinging sites seems fine, totally unaffected by the issue. The problem remained when testing on a wifi hotspot.

If IP connectivity remains throughout Chrome dropping then you most probably can discount Wifi, access point, association, signal etc.

What about running an nslookup when you're in "failure" state?

nslookup google.com and see what you get.
 
Associate
OP
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If IP connectivity remains throughout Chrome dropping then you most probably can discount Wifi, access point, association, signal etc.

What about running an nslookup when you're in "failure" state?

nslookup google.com and see what you get.

nslookup google.com
Server: dns.google
Address: 8.8.8.8

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Addresses: 2a00:1450:4009:80d::200e
216.58.198.174

OP Do you have a WiFi USB Dongle kicking about you could put in? This will say if it's your onboard WiFi or not.

No unfortunately :(.
 
Permabanned
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Can you run this command in powershell and pastebin the results please? (It gets a list of all software installed)

Open Powershell > Paste this, press enter then go to the newly created text file on your desktop.

Code:
Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDate | Format-Table –AutoSize > "C:\Users\%username%\Desktop\InstalledPrograms-PS.txt"


You could also run this in command prompt ; (This gets system information). Please upload to pastebin once you have run this command.

Code:
systeminfo > "c:\users\%username%\Desktop\SystemInfo.txt"
 
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How come....
  1. Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) 21.60.0.4 Intel Corporation 20200211


but you have a Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network Controller .....


It should be an Intel WiFi card surely if it's internal!

What's the actual full model of your said device so I can check out the full specs? You have nothing installed that I would be concerned about from them two lists.
 
Associate
OP
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The intel drivers are there due to me scrapping the barrel when trying to fix the issue :D. They have since been replaced by the original ones.

The specs are here (it's the i5/8gb ram version).
 
Associate
OP
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Did you say you can continue to ping even if the internet stops working (from a browser perspective)?
Yup.
If it’s happening when you connect to the hotspot on your phone or another network and you have also restored the laptop to factory settings. It has to be a hardware fault.

I really suggest you try a usb WiFi dongle next.
I suspect it's hardware too and will ideally return the laptop or if not, try the dongle.


Thanks everyone for all the help and advice, it's greatly appreciated!
 
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You need to put a dongle on it to be 100% sure it’s the hardware. If the system works with a usb dongle you can safely say it’s the internal hardware.

You can then explain what you have tried or heck even link them to this thread. :D
 
Soldato
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So, what doesn't make sense here is that you can still ping even when the browser stops responding. That's not a hardware issue.

Sorry if I've missed it, but you've tried Edge or even IE?

Is your time and date correct when the browser stops working?
 
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