I was reminded by a reader that Microsoft shipped the Surface Pro 3 Wi-Fi fix two days ago: Thanks to all the excitement this week around WPC and the Microsoft layoffs, I had completely forgotten about it. If you use Surface Pro 3, however, you'll want to fire up Windows Update and install this update. It's an important one.
While reviewers experienced some Connected Standby issues immediately at the Microsoft launch event back in May, I don't think the Wi-Fi issues came to light until later. Basically, Surface Pro 3 had issues automatically connecting to known networks. And when it did connect, the throughput was a fraction of the speed that users expected, and got with other devices.
Microsoft fixed the Connected Standby issues in the first Surface Pro 3 firmware update, in June, before the system shipped to customers. It then fixed some of the Wi-Fi issues in the July firmware update and promised to address the remaining issues on July 16.
Which it then did. I just missed it between all the traveling and news.
The Surface Pro 3 Wi-Fi fix is innocuously described as "System Hardware Update – 7/16/2014" in Windows Update. According to Microsoft, this update—which was delivered "out of band" from the normal monthly Patch Tuesday firmware updates—"further improves Wi-Fi connection and throughput scenarios."
The "further" bit refers to the previous July 8 update, Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth (v. 15.68.3042.79), which improved "some" Wi-Fi connection scenarios. In other words, these two updates collectively fix all of the Wi-Fi related problems that Surface Pro 3 users have been reporting. Really, the new update, called Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth (v. 15.68.3044.85), is a superset of previous Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth updates, but whatever.
I've never measured the throughput of Wi-Fi on Surface Pro 3, but according to what I'm seeing online, this does appear to have solved the problem. Anyone still experiencing issues after installing the fix?
