Microsoft recently shipped new Driver updates for several
Surface devices, including the original Surface Book, Surface
Pro and first-generation Surface Laptop. According to the
changelog, the highlights of
the update are improvements for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
connectivity.

Some users on Reddit
and Microsoft
Answers forum are reporting that they are unable to connect
to 5Ghz band WiFi after installing ‘Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.
– Net – 15.68.17013.110’ driver update. This driver was also
bundled with the latest firmware update and the bug appears to
be hitting various Surface models.

According to reports, Surface owners are getting “Unable to
connect to this network” error when connecting to a 5Ghz WiFi
connection. Users can still connect to the 2.4 GHz WiFi
connection.

If you are experiencing WiFi issues on your Surface device, you
can rollback to the previous driver versions for the network
adapter using the Device Manager and restart your device.

A user described the problem in a Feedback Hub post:

“Windows would say “Unable to connect to this network” when
I tried although other networks could be used okay. Forgetting
my home network didn’t fix it. Toggling airplane mode didn’t
fit it. Restarting didn’t fix it.

I have since discovered that this is being caused by
version 15.68.17013.110 of the Marcell drivers being offered
through Windows Update. As soon as Windows installs that again
following the removal from Device Manager, the issue comes
back. I have confirmed this by installing the driver update 5
times, and fixed it each time by uninstalling the device and
driver to cause it to fall back to the stock driver.

It’s worth noting that the issue is not widespread and only
some users are experiencing it. Microsoft hasn’t acknowledged
the problem just yet, so it’s not yet exactly how many devices
are affected.