Why isn't my Surface 2 Touchscreen working after update?

[Rasetech]

So probably it was only a software issue, nevertheless I got a new device from MS on warranty.

 

[huhhh]

Nope, just installed the latest update and.... Nothing. I'm tired of this. I let it die (3 days) it works, then a day later, auto update... and it dies again. At this point I spend most of my time just trying to kill the battery off.

What bothers me most is that they ignore it. Their update turned my $500 device into a paper weight, and their best solution is to buy another one!?!? It doesn't fit into their "support" flow-chart script, therefore I must have dropped it down the stairs or something. It's obviously a software problem, it's obviously widespread and MS refuses to even acknowledge there is a problem. They could at least admit "yeah, something went screwy, we're working on it." I loved my surface 2 until all this.

The worst part: I'm an ***** and actually considering buying a used pro3, just because I'm tired of fighting this. At least I could maybe salvage the keyboard.

 

[Michael Ruff]

I started experiencing this in just after a set of updates on 9/9/2015. I don't know how long they had been waiting to install as I hadn't used the device too heavily in a couple months. Attempting a reset now, but I'm glad to see that it's a common software issue. If the reset doesn't resolve the issue, I will be contacting Microsoft.

 

[Tomasz S.]

Mu Surface 2 has been working quite good for over a year now. Tonight it was peacefully sitting on the kitchen counter while I was playing Rock Band with my friends. Touch was working perfectly when I was browsing TrueAchievements looking up achievements.
When I finished playing Xbox I closed the kickstand and Touch Cover on the Surface. I took it to my bedroom and wanted to play some Win8 games, and realised that the UI scaling was off, like Windows forgot it was supposed to display stuff at 125% on this tiny HD screen.I decided to reboot the Surface to fix the issue. After restarting the UI scaling was back to normal, but touch input stopped working.
WTF? I screamed.

Subsequent reboots didn't help, nor deinstalling the touch driver.
Warranty expired a month ago, hence MS can ship me a replacement for 266,67 Euros. That's about the same cost as getting another one on ebay. I would probably be better off with byuing a second hand Surface 3 at the moment.
Fortunately I have a Touch Cover and an Arc Touch Mouse, so I can still use this device as a ****ty netbook. Which is just silly.
I didn't try resetting it do defaults, but I don't have high hopes for it after reading this thread.


Anywho, does anyone know why Microsoft says "you musn't" use the "two button reset" on Surface RT/2? I'm wondering if that would fix the touch screen, but I can't afford to brick this stupid tablet at the moment.

 

[StephaAa]

did you always install windows updates immediately when they came out or didn't you update for a longer time now?

if you have a RT the two button reset is not working at all

 

[Tomasz S.]

My Surface 2 was always up to date, last time i installed updates for it was September 16th, and a flash player update on the 22th.
Touch stopped working yesterday after a reboot with no updates.

 

[StephaAa]

well,thats interesting. so new updates can "destroy" tablets, that have been save from that issue so far, even with all updates installed.
i really don't get it

 

[Traci O]

NOT AGAIN!
I spent the weekend traveling and was so excited to be using my tablet to watch movies on the plane and being able to use the touchscreen only and not the keyboard. This morning, back home, I turned on the tablet to teach class, and the touchscreen has stopped working again. I'm about to try all the updates, but I'm so defeated at this point...

 

[Tomasz S.]

Well it was not the updates that destroyed my touch input. It just died during a reboot. Seems to me like it's a hardware failure that occasionally may happen during updates only because that's the most common reason for rebooting this kind of device.

Since the "two button shutdown" works only on "pro" I decided to deplete the battery completely, which turns out to be pretty much of a challenge. The firmware doesn't allow the OS to boot and uses the battery's last juices to display a low energy icon and turn back off after a second. I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of "switch ons" will it take to kill the bloody thing.

 

[jgjackson7]

Hi fellow frustrated Surface 2 owners. I wanted to chime in on this. I've been experiencing the same problems with the same results - or lack thereof - while trying all the fixes. Strangely, in recent days my touch screen started working and then stopped again and my Type Cover (also experiencing lack of responsiveness) did the same, but never were both working simultaneously. The changes in responsiveness to both only occur after updates and restarts, as everyone has noted.

After being told that both were hardware related and that my only recourse was to buy new devices, I got frustrated and basically told Microsoft support that they were ignoring a pervasive issue, and refusing to acknowledge that perhaps something can be done to resolve this with a software patch. After some back and forth, they agreed to review this very thread, so I sent them the URL and I was assured that they'd take the issue under advisement and work on a fix.

Naturally, I don't assume that anything will actually happen, but at least someone was willing to pretend to care. If they actually do release a software fix, that is just a bonus! If not, at least I tried.

 

[Tomasz S.]

I also noticed that screen autorotation is not available now when touch is dead. Although the rotation sensor is present in device manager (as well as the touch screen) and reinstalling any of them doesn't help.

Support is right that it's a hardware ****-up, and it's a major one.

Can anyone confirm if refreshing the OS helps anything or is just a waste of time in this case?

 

[jgjackson7]

Refreshing might help, if you then install only certain OS updates. Or at least that was my experience. Actually, I reset, not refreshed, my device. At various stages of applying updates, the screen and type cover both worked intermittently, but now that the software is entirely up to date, both are once again non-responsive.

 

[KeegdnaB42]

Add me to the list of people with the same problem. The touchscreen on my S2 hasn't worked since before my flight last week. I reset and am currently installing the hundreds of updates but no luck so far.

 

[mkpj1]

Same issue for about a year. Seems to a firmware issue and continue to get windows update is corrupt. Surface looked promising for our company but thank goodness we just tried one first. 400+ for a year of light use doesn't cut it. Looks like a complete write off for me.

 

[Binson#WP]

Re: Surface 2 Touchscreen not working after update

Same issue here. It fixed itself for about a week only to unfix itself in the next update. Frustrating.

 

[alanbridgestone]

This update for windows RT which was not mandatory fixed the touch screen problem. After the touch screen got broken I have reinstalled the machine completely but this update was not installed automatically so after selecting it the touch screen problem was fixed.

This is the update from microsft ( I cannot post links but please add https to the following text //support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3033055). Now I have disabled the automatic updates via the registry key tric shown in this thread and now the device will work without updates but also without surprises.

Now what should be interesting to try is to see if this is something that can fix the touch screen issue every time. In other words if you live the update running, the touch screen gets messed up, you uninstall the update, you install it over. Would this fix the issue ?

No clue for now. But we will see later now I have that my machine as reborn I will not touch again.

Anyone wants to try the above process ?

Honestly with the fact that officially you cannot remove the automatic updates from windows RT and that those updates are breaking the touch screen this is something so serious that if Microsoft cannot fix then should issue a product recall. IF they do not anything we should make a class action against Microsoft

Thanks to the forum that helped me understand the issue :smile::smile::smile:

Regards

 

[StephaAa]

the kb3033055 is indeed optional. it officially brings a start menu to windows rt similar to W10 (because rt will not receive w10 probably).
if my touch still wouldn't work i'd certainly install every available update to see if it fixes the problem. cheers

 

[frimar21]

Hi all... I'm a new member of the "not working touch screen family"...
so many hints, but it seems that the only (temporary) solution is the battery drain way.
We know that Microsoft wants to kill the RT world, but this seems too much!
ok, this is a joke, but you know... We have a popular statement that sais "thinking bad is a sin, but you are often right..." (Sorry for the literal translation, I hope the meaning is anyway clear).
by the way, which is the fastes way to drain the battery? Youtube? Playing apocalypse video? Any country intensive app to suggest? Thanks...
and Microsoft, please, after the wp7.8 and now the Win RT update 3, at least find a solution for the touch screen for our surface...thanks

 

[Rasetech]

MS is rolling out a Firmware update to the surface 2 since yesterday. Maybe this fixes the issues.

 

[Gaucho90]

Firmware update sent out around Nov. 9, 2015 appears to have fixed the issue, finally. After updating, I also had to do a full Reset again so keep that in mind, but my touchscreen is now finally working normally. Touch Firmware gets updated to 2.1.17.0.