4/19 firmware & driver updates

[zerospace-net]

So, how's everyone doing so far with the 4/19 updates? I had such high hopes when I had my SB check for updates just before I went to bed and it found a huge list of driver and firmware updates. I seriously thought "oh, please, oh please let this fix most of my problems so I can stop feeling like the SB was a waste of my money!" I let it complete them, it finished rebooting and I closed it (put it to sleep), plugged it in, and went to bed.

My installation went smoothly. Everything installed, I rebooted it, and it went through the blue and yellow progress bars for the firmware updates. After the yellow bar, the screen shut off and there was a fairly long pause before the Surface logo came backup (this was a bit scary, but I just waited). It booted up fine. Everything is good in the control panel. All updates show successful installation.

This morning, my SB was completely off. So, I guess this means the random shutdowns during sleep have yet to be solved. One major hope dashed there.

So far, I think there's an improvement in the graphical issues in Firefox with the video driver updates, at the very least. I plan to allow my SB to enter hibernation, and I'll plug it in (which usually results in the Hello camera failing) to see if the updates for the cameras have addressed that issue.

Another thing I've noticed -- my Store has always been ridiculously slow to open. I don't know why, but it always sits on the blue screen with the store logo and spinning dots for far longer than any other machine I have (I'd say it took a good 5-10 seconds longer than my desktop to load the store). This time, though, it's launching much faster (more like my desktop). *shrug*

Anyone else notice anything good or bad? I'm really hoping this update brings some much needed stability, though I'm already disappointed in the lack of fix for the sleep shutdown problem.

 

[lewinr]

I got a BSOD while the updates were installing (from windows update, not during the boot process).
Then during the reboot after the BSOD it started installing some updates, finished, and rebooted.
Then during that reboot it said that windows was not shut down properly and so Chkdsk needs to run.
Nice work MS, if the volume is damaged then you should run chkdsk to repair it BEFORE installing additional updates.

Now when I run windows update, I get errors. Running "DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth" and "sfc /scannow" return errors. updates are supposed to make things better, not worse. Now I'm sure if I contact MS Support about this they'll tell me to re-install windows... grrrr....

 

[zerospace-net]

Ouch, lewinr. Have you grabbed the tech bench image for running DISM? Without a good image, I could never get DISM to work on my Surface Book.

The process for successfully repairing Windows using DISM on the Surface Book is outlined in this post on Microsoft's support forums:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-windows/a375a342-85e7-4fa2-a961-f6d661bd9af6

As for me, well... the Windows Hello camera issue *seems* to be resolved. I made my SB hibernate and charged it (something that previously always resulted in the camera not coming on the next time I woke the machine), and my camera worked this time. Yay.

 

[ytrewq]

The updates installed smoothly for me. They have fixed the Windows Hello problem I had with the endless "turning camera on." I haven't used it enough to say whether my other issues are fixed. But it certainly has fixed some of my problems.

 

[JaimitoFrog]

So far so good. Fixed windows hello.

I hibernate my SB when I travel. no issues still with that. as for the random sleep crash while plugged in, not sure if it has happened yet. I currently set sleep to hibernate after 15mins. Zerospace, what are your settings?

Still has that stupid Airplane mode selected automatically when it isn't even functioning in airplane mode.

 

[Cruachan 11]

Installed them all last night and so far, without extensive use, I haven't seen the graphics distortion in Firefox. I don't tend to put my laptop to sleep and haven't setup Windows Hello as yet, so can't comment on that.

On a related note, I'm now wondering how many SB issues are related to the MS build from the factory, which is probably image based. I reinstalled Windows on my SB almost as soon as I got it, because I need W10 Enterprise rather than Pro, and haven't had most of the issues people have described.

 

[zerospace-net]

So far so good. Fixed windows hello.

I hibernate my SB when I travel. no issues still with that. as for the random sleep crash while plugged in, not sure if it has happened yet. I currently set sleep to hibernate after 15mins. Zerospace, what are your settings?

Still has that stupid Airplane mode selected automatically when it isn't even functioning in airplane mode.

I've had a number of different combinations of sleep and/or hibernate. I've tried all sleep, no hibernate; all hibernate, no sleep; and I'm currently back to the standard -- sleep immediately and then 2 hours later, hibernate. Prior to this update, if I allowed the SB to enter hibernation (even without the transition to hibernation from sleep, mind you), and I plugged it in -- the camera would fail to turn on until I rebooted. Cold booting with "fast startup" enabled would also cause the camera to fail. Disabling fast startup fixed the cold boot situation, but nothing except a reboot would fix the failure when I'd charge the SB while it was hibernating. I hated not allowing it to hibernate because of the sleep crashes (unexpected shutdown during sleep).

I'm not the only one who has seen this behavior -- there were several other folks on MS's forums who also said they noticed the camera would fail when changing power sources (battery to A/C and vice versa).

Anyways, it appears that this issue has been resolved -- so far, my Hello camera is working 100% of the time, no matter what I do. Unfortunately, my system still shuts down during sleep -- both yesterday morning and this morning, my SB was off when it should have been sleeping. I'm going to return to an all-hibernate power setup since the main reason I went back to using sleep was because the Hello camera failures.

 

[spasell]

Updated all...then, looked and it says 6 of them failed. However, when I scrolled down to look at the list of all the updates, those that it said failed at the top say they were installed correctly.

Also, every single time I move my screen, the keyboard is unresponsive and at times, makes a sound and shows wifi not working. Then 10 seconds later it works.

Happens EVERY time. I have cleaned the connecting ports and areas and still does it. Becoming pathetic.

Who knows...this SB experience has been a total disaster for me and many others.

 

[zerospace-net]

Updated all...then, looked and it says 6 of them failed. However, when I scrolled down to look at the list of all the updates, those that it said failed at the top say they were installed correctly.

Also, every single time I move my screen, the keyboard is unresponsive and at times, makes a sound and shows wifi not working. Then 10 seconds later it works.

Happens EVERY time. I have cleaned the connecting ports and areas and still does it. Becoming pathetic.

Who knows...this SB experience has been a total disaster for me and many others.

Honestly, my experience has been sometimes good, sometimes downright awful. So, I don't blame you one bit. I did notice something yesterday after these updates -- there were 2 times when I moved the book with the screen open (and the screen wobbles horribly when you do this) that I saw the eject hardware icon appear in the system tray and then disappear very quickly ( so fast that I almost wasn't sure what icon I saw). No sound with it (and my sound is on, but volume is fairly low), and I have no clue what hardware it was for. Bizarre, but then, almost nothing shocks me with this machine anymore. They almost always break something with each of these updates.

So far, I have not seen any BSODs nor have I yet run SFC and DISM. I'm certain that SFC will find corruption, but I really want to see if I have a stable system without doing this.

 

[tdf2001]

The update has been successful for my use cases so far. In particular the Dock and my issues with external monitors appear to be working much better. Time will tell.

It is important to note that the Dock must be upgraded as well with this utility.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mt703784.aspx

 

[Dush Ku]

Some functions like windows hello seem to work quicker. Battery seems to drain faster now though.
Tested about 15% for an hour for normal use when before it was about 11% for an hour.

 

[Cruachan 11]

Update after a few days use. I haven't seen any of the previous distortion in Firefox, however I was on Youtube this morning watching the trailer for Jason Bourne and got some pretty serious video judder. Checked and I'm using HTML5 and not Flash. Watched the same video in Edge and it was fine, so it seems there are still a few Firefox issues. Running 45.0.2 which is up to date.

 

[LoriInWA]

Update fixed Hello issue, but now my hardware keyboard does not work at all! I am really frustrated!!

 

[squbel]

Hi,

I've been testing my SB for 6 days now since the update. My impressions so far:

- painless update process - no failed updates at all
- windows hello is now fully fixed - no more endless waiting for camera - Yay!!!
- much more stable tablet attachment/detachment - only 1 BSOD with about 20+ cycles (could have been low power issue as tablet was at 6% of battery at the time of crash)
- so far no more inactive touch-pad issue after tablet detach/attach
- no sleep issues so far (but I've changed my power profile to "Hibernate after 15 min of sleep" just before the update)
- very good battery - better than before update (but again, I've changed my power profile to "Hibernate after 15 min of sleep" just before the update)
- no keyboard issues (never had any)

So far very happy!

 

[zerospace-net]

Just a quick follow up:

1) still having the sleep crashes (unexpected shutdowns during sleep)
2) Hello camera is definitely fixed for me
3) battery drain is worse in sleep (or so it seems)
4) occasional touchscreen unresponsiveness
5) no more weird artifacting in Firefox with hardware acceleration enabled

Despite some ongoing problems, I would say that my SB is more predictable & stable than its been in awhile.