<<I know that they simply will point at my Aruba AP, even though my surface pro 2 does not have this issue. neither does my old 15$ go-usb-n150 I used on this same computer before I bought the Intel card.>>
That those other two devices connect satisfactorily does not mean that it could not ultimately be an issue with that AP and this card.
I don't know that it is, and I'm out of ideas. But, I think that we've seen in all these threads, that sometimes the only variable left standing is the modem/router when the card is configured in the very same way as those of users who aren't having trouble. We have to consider this as a possibility. For example, one of the fixes in the 17.12 driver (release notes linked in other thread) was failure to connect properly with Aruba 65 AP. So maybe there's something about the chipset or configuration that that mfr. uses that doesn't play well with the Intel part.