No internet on Surface Laptop

[johnyccc]

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!

 

[johnyccc]

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).

 

[johnyccc]

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.

 

[johnyccc]

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 .

 

[johnyccc]

System Info


Installed Programs

 

[johnyccc]

The intel drivers are there due to me scrapping the barrel when trying to fix the issue . They have since been replaced by the original ones.

The specs are here (it's the i5/8gb ram version).

 

[johnyccc]

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!

 

[johnyccc]

He can ping google from a command prompt when the browser doesn't work. That's some magical hardware if the NIC still works to ping, but not resolve through a browser (software). Also, if he reset the laptop, Chrome wouldn't be on it, yet the connections lasts long enough to download Chrome...

As I mentioned in my first post:

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.

So I did at first have internet access whilst RTP was disabled. This "fix" did not last however, firstly RTP would always restart and then when I managed to disable RTP permanently, it stopped having any effect.

Since that point, I have installed a generic version of Windows 10 and more recently, a Surface specific back up version (in case I were to send it in for repair etc). The only constant throughout has been the internet not working correctly, with the specific behavior differing slightly (disabling RTP did not work at all after the latest install).

OK, so what about installing the telnet client, netcat or curl and seeing if you can do some port connectivity tests:

nc -vv google.com 443
curl -v -k https://google.com
telnet google.com 443

Something like that, see if you can still talk https out. If that works, then pfft I dunno.

Pretty sure I've worked it out anyway now after the glaring omission of those who failed to spot the sudden addition of a Virtual WiFi Adapter when the Internet was not working:

OP, big ask, and it will require you to be speedy, when the internet does work, can you post a picture of Control Panel > Network & Sharing > Change Adapter Settings

And do the same when your network drops. I suspect a second WiFi NIC will have appeared and will be configured doing weird things which we can hopefully then look at fixing.

Thanks for the ideas, the laptop is currently away with a friend (whose not had any luck) but I will get back to you with the results.

 

[johnyccc]

Pretty sure I've worked it out anyway now after the glaring omission of those who failed to spot the sudden addition of a Virtual WiFi Adapter when the Internet was not working:

OP, big ask, and it will require you to be speedy, when the internet does work, can you post a picture of Control Panel > Network & Sharing > Change Adapter Settings

And do the same when your network drops. I suspect a second WiFi NIC will have appeared and will be configured doing weird things which we can hopefully then look at fixing.

No sign of a second adapter, just the default Marvell one is present.

OK, so what about installing the telnet client, netcat or curl and seeing if you can do some port connectivity tests:

nc -vv google.com 443
curl -v -k https://google.com
telnet google.com 443

Something like that, see if you can still talk https out. If that works, then pfft I dunno.

I'm probably missing something but having added the windows telnet clinet, only the telnet google.com 443 command did anything (opened a blank telnet window). The rest all gave invalid responses.

 

[johnyccc]

Is the virtual adaptor visible in network connections when the net is no longer accessible? If so can it be disabled? If not go into device management and disable it.

Not visible in network connections, disabled via device manager - no effect.

Op needs to confirm use of another browser too.

Yes, have tried other browsers - no change.

Once again, I appreciate all the help everyone. I have to assume that at the root of the problem is a hardware fault, as I am unable to either resolve the issue or find anyone else reporting this behavour with the same laptop and will be returning it (hopefully).

 

[johnyccc]

It can't be hardware as we've confirmed connectivity with:

- ipconfig (adapter has IP address)
- ping (icmp functions)
- https connectivity (outbound on tcp-443 working)

I'm leaning towards some Windows security feature that's blacklisted Chrome or browsers in general, what about disabling Windows Firewall?

Which test confirmed https connectivity?

I agree that the ability to ping etc implies a software issue but would it not be possible for a hardware fault to manifest itself in other ways than it not working at all? Because if the adapter is working as designed, surely a factory reset and or windows reinstall would produce an identical environment to all other surface laptops and this issue (assuming it wasn't my hardware specific), would be reported by everyone?

Anyway, yes - have tried the firewall.