Steam In-home streaming not functional on SP3, Wifi issues

[fc000]

I've been trying to get Steams in-home streaming to work on the Surface Pro 3 with no success. It'll connect to the main PC, launch the game, and I'll see the opening screen just fine, but then issues start to arise. Mouse input isn't functional. After a few click attempts, the remote window closes, and Steam alerts me that I've lost the connection with my main PC.

This appears to be some sort of Wifi issue. I'm not on a 5GHz Wifi connection which is known to cause problems in the latest firmware update. I've tried the suggested fixes on reddit and other forums of "rolling back" the Wifi driver, refreshing the Surface and running Windows update again, and still no success. I was able to get it working shortly after the refresh and updates, but it hasn't functioned since.

I've noticed some related issues to the Wifi, where it'll intermittently stop working without alerting me to a "limited connection", but instead will stop functioning briefly, and work again a few moments later. I believe this is what might be causing Steam in-home streaming to not function. It's a bit of a big problem, especially as I also do a lot of remote work via a VPN, and having connection issues like this is unacceptable.

Interestingly enough, my Surface Pro 1 runs Steam streaming flawlessly. Given my wifi issues, and the dramatic performance throttling which I've seen first-hand, I think my Surface Pro 3 is going back to the Microsoft Store, which I don't want to do, it's such a stunning device. I think I'll just wait for the i7 models and see how things progress.

 

[hobbit25]

I run my SP3 on a 5Ghz network, I find that sometimes it shows a limited connection when I wake the device up causing me to disconnect and reconnect. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the issue you are having. As far as Steam Home Streaming it works flawlessly for me. I have not had a single issue streaming from a 5Ghz Wireless N router to the Surface 3. I also work heavily with VPN's for work and I have not had any issue with these either. Perhaps your device is faulty and you should RMA it.

 

[fc000]

Perhaps your device is faulty and you should RMA it.

I think I'm going to give that a try, though the aggressive thermal throttling issue is one that I've been hitting quite commonly as well which compels me to considering just returning it, and waiting to see how the i7 models perform. It's disappointing when my Surface Pro 1 can do more than the Pro 3.

 

[hobbit25]

I don't imagine there is a huge difference between the i5 and i7 models in terms of performance. I have both i5 and i7 desktop systems at home, 90% of the time they really are identical for performance. You mention thermal throttling, are you having heat issues as well? I know the top right side of my SP3 tends to get a bit toasty after running a game, or an application like Photoshop but I imagine thats working as intended.

Have you tried another wireless network at all? Maybe your networking equipment is having some issues and not the Surface.

 

[fc000]

It's not so much that the SP3 gets warm, but when it does under intensive tasks, the system starts to downclock slowing down performance overall.

I'm fine with the heat and the fan spinning up, but the SP3 downclocks too strongly, making those intensive apps run great at first, followed by a performance degradation until it's just awfully sluggish. I've seen it in Photoshop, and while testing some games. After searching online, it seems like a common issue with processor intensive apps that's tied to aggressive downclocking.

The thermal throttling issue isn't a deal breaker for me, right now, the connection issues are far more pressing. I'm definitely thinking of doing an exchange first before a return.

 

[fc000]

So I've got a new Surface Pro 3 to replace the last one.

My first SP3 was giving me a poor WiFi connection regardless of whether I was on AC power or battery.

The new SP3, I can get applications that rely on continuous WiFi connections to work just fine when the power adaptor is connected. If I disconnect it, the connection becomes erratic, as though there's some sort of power-saving going into effect. There doesn't appear to be a way to change this, and a powercfg command someone posted on reddit doesn't really solve the problem. It restores some of the WiFi connections speed, but not to the same level as reconnecting the power adaptor.

It's an unusual quirk, and it's quite annoying that there's no way to override the WiFi power options to prevent the "power savings" mode on the wireless. At least I've got the connection issue resolved, and Steam In-home streaming is now working fine... as long as I've got the power adaptor connected!

 

[ytrewq]

Weird behavior. Some WiFi adapters have a power savings function called PSM (Power Savings Mode) that kicks in when the device is on battery power. It switches WiFi on and off rapidly to save battery power. Depending on your router, that can create problems.

With that said, I don't see any indication that the Marvell adapter in the SP3 has PSM. It's normally a feature you can turn on or off in Control Panel, and the SP3's control panel doesn't have it. I also took a quick look at the Marvell literature, and don't see any reference to PSM in there either. It's possible that I missed it, but otherwise it looks like PSM doesn't exist on the adapter. In that case, your symptoms confuse me.

 

[fc000]

The Wifi issues are well documented here, including a potential fix(install wifi drivers from Microsoft manually). I'm going to give it a try later today to see if it works.

 

[ytrewq]

I haven't seen anyone else report wifi problems that are specially related to whether the ac power is connected. Where are you seeing that specific issue documented?

 

[Jemstar05]

I think the company of router you have makes all the difference. Try Asus AC68U. Works fine for me.