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Surface Book 2 UK version accessing Higher 5GHz WiFi channels

Anonymous
2020-08-12T12:04:14+00:00

Hello,

I have a Surface Book 2, that I bought in the UK. Wifi works as expected on 2.4 and 5 GHz bands when the access point is visible. It turns out, when it comes to the 5GHz band, my laptop can only see up to channel 140. In the UK, I found out these channels are not available to regular WiFi. Now I need access to channels 145 and above and cannot see a single one of them with my laptop. Is there a way to change the wifi region on this laptop? I have tried

 -  All Windows region settings on the laptop

 - Reset the internet

 - Roll back the driver (Marvell Avastar)

 - disable all other network device drivers except Wan Miniport ones

Nothing works. Did not try yet:

 - OEM drivers

 - Registry values

 - Refresh the system (don't think it will work)

Could anybody help me, please? 

Regards,

Joao

Surface | Surface Book | Network

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-08-28T01:35:42+00:00

    Hi Joao Luiz M,

    Thank you for reaching out Microsoft Community. We're sorry for the delayed response.

    It would be best to have this concern of yours addressed by our Microsoft Surface Support because they can remotely access your device and have this one checked. If you haven't reached them out yet, you can utilize this link >>https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4051701/global-customer-service-phone-numbers to contact our tech support for assistance.

    Kind Regards,

    Crest

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-09-01T14:01:13+00:00

    Thanks, Crest.

    I have already done that. The technician played with a few things online and finally suggested a "fresh start". I decided to look a bit deeper before trying that, since it will be very painful to restore my work tools back to normal after that.

    I was wondering if not seeing 5 GHz Wifi channles above 141 is a feature of the UK versions of this laptop. Is that possible? Anybody has experienced this? I have all regional settings of my laptop set to Brazil where these channels are available, to no avail. Would there be a registry that could have an influence on this behaviour, or a specific setting that I don't know of?

    I would like to fand out more about these questions before trying the hassle of a fresh start. Meanwhile, I will keep logged on my 2.4 GHz channel. I would be grateful if anybody could help me out.

    Thanks,

    Joao

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-09-02T05:48:35+00:00

    Thank you for your response, Joao Luiz M.

    Let me raise this concern of yours internally to check if "not seeing 5 GHz Wifi channels above 141 is a feature of the UK versions of this laptop".

    Kind Regards,

    Crest

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-09-11T15:33:30+00:00

    Thank you, Crest

    Meanwhile I have got hold of another (identical) surface book 2 bought in the UK and the behaviour is similar. At home, it only sees two networks - one on channel 44 and another on channel 52. My mobile also sees my home network on channel 149 with a very strong signal. 

    So it seems likely that UK versions have some sort of limitation on them, perhaps to comply with UKs regulations. If so, this is very problematic to people who travel frequently, as they may find themselves unable to connect to an office or hotel network when they are traveling abroad.

    Hopefully this limitation might be implemented by software. Is it possible to change something to fix that? I was thinking in terms of firmware or some registry paramenter ...

    Regards,

    Joao Luiz

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-09-11T17:46:36+00:00

    I researched this once before for an Intel radio and I believe it was controlled by registry settings. I'm not sure about the Marvell radio in the Surface Book. You could try installing a US Windows image to see if that changes anything.

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