Wifi refuses to connect to already known network

Hi there.

I have recently been having a problem with my Surface Go. It will occasionally refuse to connect to a wifi network, that should connect automatically.

On the occasion, it will say networks are available, but it will not connect automatically.
So I go into the wifi menu, click connect and then the menu freezes, all the networks that were available disappear, with my network icon showing a red X, then after about 5 seconds, goes back to the same state when I opened it.

I keep trying to connect but it will keep kicking me off. It will usually take a probable 15 minutes of disabling adaptors, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers to get it working again. Mostly I just switch over to the 5Ghz SSID if it starts acting up again. Furthermore after the switch to 5Ghz, if I keep connected for about 5 mins or so and try connecting back, it seems to work fine.

I believe it is somewhat a bug either with the driver Qualcomm or Windows 10 as this has happened with other wifi SSID's and some of my other devices.

Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A Wireless Network Adaptor
12.0.0.722

You seemed to have ruled out router. I know when I had a series of strange connection issues they were resolved with a router replacement.

If I could ask, how did you determine this is not a router issue? (Read your comment this happens on "some of my other devices").

Have you also looked into wifi channels being used by you and neighbours? (Congestion, interference)

Hi Caledon, thanks for the reply.

From what I can remember this has happened 3 times on my Surface Go.

The 1st was at my University, I don't think it was an issue on that particular day as everyone else seemed to be able to connect. I fixed it that time with enabling and uninstalling the driver.

The 2nd happened at a holiday home which was when I switched to the 5ghz channel. It fixed itself after about 5 minutes when I tried to connect to the normal 2.4Ghz.

The 3rd and multiple times this has happened is at home with my ISP's router:
HUAWEI hg659

I use my Surface Go most frequently when travelling (it has experience this issue more than once), so my Laptop as well as my old Surface 3 and a Acer Switch Alpha has experienced this issue only once.

I have my network setup, with an auto channel configuration. Although I have heard that using a single channel manually is better by using something like INSSIDER.

I only have the router use a 2.4Ghz connection.

Not sure what you mean an audio channel.

Well with Inssider you can look at your network and the networks that could be interfering graphically.

You could also enter the command

Netsh wlan show all | clip

(produces report on wireless. Once output is produced the | clip portion of command places it on clipboard, ready to be pasted.)

Open Notepad and Crtl + V to paste. Save and close text file.

Then you can go back and look at report, or post here and someone may notice something.

The 2.4GHz network provides better penetration / distance and the 5Ghz speed.

How old is router?

I'm always skeptical of networks when I travel. Where are antennas, how many are using, etc? I would use your home network as a bench mark.

Granted we all run different devices but my Windows Wireless connections are solid. Not saying it isn't Windows.

You said you are using the latest driver. Is this the latest driver recommended for your device at MS or are you getting driver right from Qualcomm. I use the one MS recommends for your device.

Sorry, I meant the network channels 1-13.

Yes I might have another look using INSIDER and choose a channel manually.

Yep, I prefer 2.4Ghz as for the extra distance.

Router is not very old, probably three years.

I am pretty sure the driver was installed through windows update as most of the driver were.

Thanks for all the suggestions. The problem hasn't happened for some time now, so I'll try to get some screen shots if it does happen again .

Run that netsh command now when it is not happening and store text file. When it happens again run again and check differences, especially signal strength.