Hey Microsoft!!! Fix your Surface Book before it dies!

[jbestman]

No offense, Spongers8X, but you sound like a child. Either that or your standards are very low. Most companies do not know you even exists. They only know your money. That is fine. But when hard working people spend that money on your premium device, it should work. If it doesn't work, they have earned the right to complain about the issues they are having.
"oh but he posted a rant here on the forums!". So? This is WindowsCentral. If we cannot speak candidly here about our Microsoft products, where can we? Imore? C'mon man.
Gosh, I miss the days when we had more adults on this website.

 

[TMorss]

So I spent a few hours at the Microsoft Store today. I arrived with the Surface Book boxed up in the bag and was promptly greeted. When I let them know I wanted to return the Surface Book due to technical issues they sent me to the Store Manager.
I went over in detail all of the issues that I was having:

• Wifi says it's connected but there is no internet. When you go into the network settings it had the failure message "The dependency service or group failed to start". I called support and had to un-install the wireless card through device manager and let it reload with a reboot. I have had to do that 4 times now.
• I am getting the Display Driver Crash message
• The Bluetooth Surface Edition Mouse will not keep a connection and now it won't even pair anymore
• I had a Bose Bluetooth Speaker connected. When I disconnect the speaker the internal speakers would not work unless I did a full reboot

they said that they have had a few come back and asked if would like to exchange it. I let him know that I had been researching my issues online and that exchange would most likely not correct the issues. We walked around the store and looked at some other PC's and nothing comes close. So after he worked with me awhile I said, okay lets try an exchange. I really wanted to stay with the Surface Book.
When he called for another one I asked if he could possibly get one from a different lot. That may help if there was a defective piece of hardware. After checking all of them we found they were all from the same lot. Once he pulled out the new Surface Book I stuck around to boot it up and see what would happen with this one.
Once I booted it up and did all of the updates we tested the device and as soon I started browsing the web it crashed. He called up 2 technicians and we started browsing the web again and it crashed again but this time it was the total Blue Screen. The technicians were taking a lot of notes and and said that had never seen this issue. I showed them this thread along with another on Windows Central. After a few hours and my wife and family getting impatient I just gave up and asked for my money to be refunded.
I am very frustrated because I really liked the device as well as the service the Microsoft Store provided. Microsoft really needs to understand that people who can afford a high end system like this are most likely going to be professionals that have no time to tinker, no time for these forums searches and no time for the exchanges. I need my PC to run my business and Sunday was my only day off which I did not want to spend doing this. Interestingly, the Manager decided that he was not going to sell anymore of his stock of my model due to this issue. He verbally said "how can we sell these if they are all doing this" to his technician.
After returning the Surface Book I walked across the hall and purchased a MacBook Pro which seemed dated after using the Surface. But the important thing is it set up in seconds and is working without a hitch. I had literally 2 machines back to back be completely unusable.
Again, I really appreciate the professionalism and care they took with me at the store; it was top notch. Sadly the product didn't hold up it's end of the bargain. Good luck to all of you with your Surface Books.

 

[trooper11]

they said that they have had a few come back and asked if would like to exchange it. I let him know that I had been researching my issues online and that exchange would most likely not correct the issues. We walked around the store and looked at some other PC's and nothing comes close. So after he worked with me awhile I said, okay lets try an exchange. I really wanted to stay with the Surface Book.

Considering you went with a MacBook, I'm surprised you didn't see any other laptops at the MS store that interested you. There are many new models such as the dell xps line that would be an equal to any MacBook. Maybe the store didn't have the latest models.

 

[joeaux]

Mine's flawless. Nuff said.

 

[jbestman]

So I spent a few hours at the Microsoft Store today. I arrived with the Surface Book boxed up in the bag and was promptly greeted. When I let them know I wanted to return the Surface Book due to technical issues they sent me to the Store Manager.
I went over in detail all of the issues that I was having:

• Wifi says it's connected but there is no internet. When you go into the network settings it had the failure message "The dependency service or group failed to start". I called support and had to un-install the wireless card through device manager and let it reload with a reboot. I have had to do that 4 times now.
• I am getting the Display Driver Crash message
• The Bluetooth Surface Edition Mouse will not keep a connection and now it won't even pair anymore
• I had a Bose Bluetooth Speaker connected. When I disconnect the speaker the internal speakers would not work unless I did a full reboot

they said that they have had a few come back and asked if would like to exchange it. I let him know that I had been researching my issues online and that exchange would most likely not correct the issues. We walked around the store and looked at some other PC's and nothing comes close. So after he worked with me awhile I said, okay lets try an exchange. I really wanted to stay with the Surface Book.
When he called for another one I asked if he could possibly get one from a different lot. That may help if there was a defective piece of hardware. After checking all of them we found they were all from the same lot. Once he pulled out the new Surface Book I stuck around to boot it up and see what would happen with this one.
Once I booted it up and did all of the updates we tested the device and as soon I started browsing the web it crashed. He called up 2 technicians and we started browsing the web again and it crashed again but this time it was the total Blue Screen. The technicians were taking a lot of notes and and said that had never seen this issue. I showed them this thread along with another on Windows Central. After a few hours and my wife and family getting impatient I just gave up and asked for my money to be refunded.
I am very frustrated because I really liked the device as well as the service the Microsoft Store provided. Microsoft really needs to understand that people who can afford a high end system like this are most likely going to be professionals that have no time to tinker, no time for these forums searches and no time for the exchanges. I need my PC to run my business and Sunday was my only day off which I did not want to spend doing this. Interestingly, the Manager decided that he was not going to sell anymore of his stock of my model due to this issue. He verbally said "how can we sell these if they are all doing this" to his technician.
After returning the Surface Book I walked across the hall and purchased a MacBook Pro which seemed dated after using the Surface. But the important thing is it set up in seconds and is working without a hitch. I had literally 2 machines back to back be completely unusable.
Again, I really appreciate the professionalism and care they took with me at the store; it was top notch. Sadly the product didn't hold up it's end of the bargain. Good luck to all of you with your Surface Books.

Well, according to some (thankfully, not most) of the commenters here, you should have
1) Stick with it since it is a first generation product. Forgetting that Microsoft does not advertise it with a disclaimers saying, "first generation product please do not buy this for anything serious." Conveniently, forgetting that not everyone has time for forums. Most people just see the commercial, see it if from Microsoft and buy.
2) Do not buy it if you don't have the patience for first generation problems. So, we are at fault for actually supporting Microsoft by buying its products? We are at fault for expecting a minimum level of performance from a product, first gen or not, that we paid money for? Again, most people do not spend inordinate amounts of time surfing blogs. They see a commercial touting a product that meets their needs, they research and buy it. Simple. Those people are who you should be worried about. Those people simply return the product and keep it moving.
3) Call Microsoft directly. Do not post your issues online. WRONG. As this guy's experience shows online posts are the quickest way to get attention. They didn't believe him until he pulled up several sites to show the complaints.

Look, we all love the product. This is why we bought it in the first place. We also want it to work. Posts like this are extremely helpful. The OP was quite detailed in pointing out his issues. He also got other users to corroborate some of the issues he has found. This is exactly what companies like Microsoft need. What is not helpful is attacking these people like it is their fault that the product is acting up.

 

[ParoleGA]

Well, according to some (thankfully, not most) of the commenters here, you should have
1) Stick with it since it is a first generation product. Forgetting that Microsoft does not advertise it with a disclaimers saying, "first generation product please do not buy this for anything serious." Conveniently, forgetting that not everyone has time for forums. Most people just see the commercial, see it if from Microsoft and buy.
2) Do not buy it if you don't have the patience for first generation problems. So, we are at fault for actually supporting Microsoft by buying its products? We are at fault for expecting a minimum level of performance from a product, first gen or not, that we paid money for? Again, most people do not spend inordinate amounts of time surfing blogs. They see a commercial touting a product that meets their needs, they research and buy it. Simple. Those people are who you should be worried about. Those people simply return the product and keep it moving.
3) Call Microsoft directly. Do not post your issues online. WRONG. As this guy's experience shows online posts are the quickest way to get attention. They didn't believe him until he pulled up several sites to show the complaints.

Look, we all love the product. This is why we bought it in the first place. We also want it to work. Posts like this are extremely helpful. The OP was quite detailed in pointing out his issues. He also got other users to corroborate some of the issues he has found. This is exactly what companies like Microsoft need. What is not helpful is attacking these people like it is their fault that the product is acting up.

I think you should reread the OP. That is clearly not what he did. What he did was make a post ranting about all of the issues he has heard have been experienced, some of which he also experienced. I have no issue with anyone discussing issues they are having, and a thread where everyone can list those issues, so we can see what we have in common. It is very helpful. If someone is having a deal breaker issue, by all means, return the item, and please let us know about the issues you found.

Writing a post which makes it appear that every Surface Book is having 10 different issues (some of those listed are likely even related to a single issue), is silly. I can assure you all aren't, mine hasn't had a single blue screen. I did however mention some early issues I had, which have not returned. One was a rear camera issue, fixed with a patch, the other was an unresponsive keyboard a few times, which hasn't happened again since day two.

So, please, if someone discovers an issue, tell the community about it. Writing a doom and gloom post about the end of MS, by trying to collect every issue anyone might have seen, is not helpful to anyone. The OP should have sent the rant to MS, not post it in a forum.

 

[photobriangray]

Freshly built million dollar houses sometimes have roof leaks, it happens. The mark of a good company is how it reacts to the problems.

Good analogy.

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Roof support. I see you have a leaking roof?

How old is the roof?

Have you tried resetting the garage door opener?

 

[photobriangray]

Mine's flawless. Nuff said.

Which model?

 

[ericr42]

I've only been using mine for a couple of days and I had some firmware updates right out of the gate but I haven't had problems like you describe. For what its worth, I have the I7, 256 GB model.

The only small issues I would report are more to do with configuration than bugs. First, I wasn't "encouraged" to setup Windows Hello. If I hadn't known it exists, I wouldn't have know to do it at all. I understand why it wasn't part of the initial setup since the device didn't have software support for it until the updates. As soon as the updates installed, however, I should have been prompted to set it up. Its a killer feature and shouldn't be missed!

Second, is that the device doesn't default to tablet mode when you undock it. Its a one time setup to just turn the feature on, but it seems strange why it wouldn't be the default. Simple to fix, but if I was a novice user I may have been on the phone with the Geek Squad .

 

[AbsoluteZerow]

Well, all I can say is...... look at this thread's view count. I'm NOT the only one having these issues. Obviously many Surface Book owners are having plenty of issues, and they need to be addressed. This website and the people here should be discussing this problem and working out solutions. Telling people to bite their tongue about something they spent a lot of money, on a forum made for general Windows product discussion is silly. Buyers and potential buyers should not buy a product with the mindset of:

" Well, this is Microsoft and this is a first generation product. I will probably have issues and I will simply tough it out. I might get a blue screen during a seminar or presentation, or it might freeze or blue screen on me during a layer edit in Photoshop on a piece I just spent 5 hours on, no big deal. I will simply stick it out and hope a patch fixes in in the near future. I'm fine with my Surface Book even if it keeps giving me the display driver issue whenever I'm trying to pay a bill on my bank's website, or when I can't take a picture with my grand children with the camera. No big deal, I'll wait until patch Tuesday and ignore this 100% working, less expensive alternative at Best Buy. "

The average person buying a Surface Book is going to be a mix of two people; business folks and techie folks. Business folk don't have time to "stick it out" when they need it working day one. Techie folks (Like myself), can stick it out and will be ok waiting for fixes. My original post was a bit over dramatic but hey, I was upset with how poor Microsoft was handling their flag ship product. Apple has had plenty of issues on first gen releases, and so has Microsoft, but it is the amount of issues the Surface Book is having, there are so many issues.

Anyway, I don't need to harp on anything else. Surface Book owners will eventually get updates, I genuinely hope they all get their issues resolved prior to the 30 day return period (Microsoft Store) or 15 day return period (Best Buy). If not, I foresee a lot of returned Surface Book's, myself included.

 

[Alex Mason86]

Again, I go back to, obviously you haven't seen, or probably more accurately, haven't cared about, the problems Apple has had with almost every major release of Macbook and/or OSX. They have a very long and sordid history of QC problems (hardware and software BTW), that sometimes go unfixed for years, if not forever. And yet they get away with it unharmed? Microsoft hasn't responded to some issues within the first 4 days of releasing two very major products, and suddenly the world is ending, and Microsoft better fix this ASAP or they are going out of business. Grow up man. This stuff takes time. Is it painful as a consumer during this waiting period? Yes, but you bought into a brand new product, with untested technologies, shame on you for not expecting a few problems.

Have to agree, early adopters have been "paying beta testers" for a long time now, at least as long as I can remember. This extends not just to hardware but software as well. Things are just too complicated these days to iron out all the kinks in the first instance. It doesn't even matter if you did, there'll be some chump out there who uses his kit in such a way as to cause things to go haywire.

And your comments about apple are absolutely right. I bought a MBP in 2007, it was a Santa Rosa based MBP that had discrete nVidia graphics. Man they had a lot of problems, especially with the screens yellowing. They also had issues with heat and the gpu popping out of its socket. Mine had everything replaced except the superdrive, twice! and I am including the chassis here and it still ultimately died a death with logic board failure right after its 3 year warranty. I didn't even bother going back to the store with it. I just sold it for scrap.

Never again will I buy a significantly new product on the first go. Chances are they just won't be ready for prime time. Wait a few months.

 

[tedj101]

It does come with IE as well. I stopped using Edge (on my Surface Book) and use IE with an ad blocker. I'm using Edge on my desktop while evaluating an ad blocker that works with Edge. (Seems pretty good so far.) When, if, Edge gets to be good enough for me, I'll use it again on the Surface Book. But this is a software issue in Windows 10 not a Surface Book issue.

<TED>

 

[pjhenry1216]

I think people just didn't like how negative you were with your post and how it was completely not constructive. To be constructive, you could start collecting bugs with possible fixes and maybe even trends as to whether those bugs occur more frequently in some models then others. Or maybe even compare lots. In any case, while that isn't your job and you shouldn't be expected to do that, *that* is exactly the type of audience you'll find here. That's why you're rubbing some people the wrong way. Even if you didn't want to go that far, in the very least, be less negative next time. You can share your opinion without all the negativity. Watch: "Honestly, I'm disappointed with my experience with the Surface Book so far. From what I've seen on various sites, this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident either. Hopefully, Microsoft can do something about this because it won't bode well for the Surface Book sales, as I may even return mine if something isn't done soon." Most of your opinion is there (i may have missed some as your original post is 5 pages away at this point), but its not surrounded by negativity.

 

[Hardcore1973]

I own 3 of them. All of them have blue screened a couple of times. All of the Skylake Intel HD 520 graphic crashes and errors (as I knew it would). My i5/256/dgpu is completely dead. I called Microsoft Store who had me talk to Surface support and scheduled to bring it into store but none of them have any in stock, Best Buy where I bought this one does not have any in stock. Guess I have to no choice but to return it and buy it later when they are more readily available in case it has more issues. It is a terrific product and I don't mind the bugs and issues that any product has in the beginning but then again I own and operate an IT company so I am used to this sort of thing. Microsoft has a real winner here

 

[Canjok]

When I disconnect the speaker the internal speakers would not work unless I did a full reboot

I have a similar issue on my acer laptop. After disconnecting, the sound option is further set to bluetooth. You can simply switch it to normal speakers and report the bug to the feedback app.
Have a nice day!

 

[Tim Stone]

When I brought mine home, right out of the box it wanted me to log on as Guest User and would not do a standard Windows install ! I tried calling support, but after waiting nearly an hour, I gave up. I finally held the power button down long enough to force a reboot, and then it came up with the normal first time Windows Initialization.

I had a Surface Pro 3, but the 12" display was just too small for my eyesight. The buyer is thrilled with it. I moved up to the Surface Book because it's just enough bigger to make a difference. I got it from the Microsoft Store ( local ) with an extended warranty, and my experience shows they have always made things right for me in the past. Thus, I know this will work out.

For me its not about comparisons. I look at the computer as a tool, and this is the one that will best fit my specific needs. It does have issues, but I'm also confident that they will be resolved. ( As an aside, it may be 1.0 of the book model, but its technically equivalent to a Surface Pro 4, so I don't consider it a new model ).

I do see continuing issues. I ran into several yesterday. For example, I like Live Writer which works fine in Win 10, and on my SP 3, but it will not install in the book. I'm guessing a fix will change that. Yeah, it's frustrating when a problem does occur, but technology is so complex that issues are bound to arise. I guess one of the advantages of being an old timer ( heading into my 7th decade ) is that patience has value, and issues are easier to view with "historical perspective".

Yeah, I looked at other options, but nothing else meets my needs as well ... and I do love that stylus !

 

[JackDiesel14]

The Surface Book has been out one week. Being one of the first devices to switch between graphic drivers nearly on the fly it doesn't surprise me that it is having display driver issues. I'm not concerned that a 1 week old highly complicated device is having issues, it's all about how long Microsoft takes to fix the issues. Unless you're 100% depending on this device as your livelihood giving up on it after 1 week seems awfully premature. If it gets to one month in and nothing has changed then yeah, Microsoft we have a problem.

 

[enixon]

I just picked up my Surface Book from King of Prussia. It hasn't had a single issue so far. The only weird thing that happened is during the initial setup, it beeped like six times super fast. Other than that, it is running perfectly. I ran the updates, installed some Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and all of the applications I use. I've detached it multiple times and haven't had any issues so far.

 

[AbsoluteZerow]

Buyers have either 15 days (non Microsoft Stores) or 30 days (Microsoft Store), so the urgency to resolve the issues are more pressing for some than others. Most of the issues the Book's are having are just... so embarrassing. Imagine demoing your new Surface Book to a friend of family member, only to have the display flicker, go berserk, or to have it blue screen or have the tablet portion get stuck and not detach, etc. I'm just saying (like many others have also stated), the issues the Surface Book is having seem elementary with its purpose. If they can't deliver a product where the origin of its purpose and design is functional at the week of release, it is indeed a very big problem.

If it takes Microsoft longer than two weeks to release a statement or patches to fix these elementary issues, it IS a big deal, because some folks cannot return their devices for a refund. This is the thing I'm trying to drive home here.

It's easy to post comments blaming buyers for being early adopters... that it is the nature of being an early adopter to run into plenty of issues, I get that. But these issues people are having, are basic things to the design of the Surface Book. Browsing the web (in my experience, in any browser) causes my screen to flicker and wig out.

I had to force the computer to hibernate because it kills my battery if I put it to sleep. Even native apps seem to have problems. Netflix and AMC apps always freeze, I have to use a browser, which then means I have to deal with screen flicker. Sometimes when I detach the screen it kills the display driver even when nothing is using the dGPU. Things like this shouldn't happen, and this is all after the second round of updates.

 

[ParoleGA]

Buyers have either 15 days (non Microsoft Stores) or 30 days (Microsoft Store), so the urgency to resolve the issues are more pressing for some than others. Most of the issues the Book's are having are just... so embarrassing. Imagine demoing your new Surface Book to a friend of family member, only to have the display flicker, go berserk, or to have it blue screen or have the tablet portion get stuck and not detach, etc. I'm just saying (like many others have also stated), the issues the Surface Book is having seem elementary with its purpose. If they can't deliver a product where the origin of its purpose and design is functional at the week of release, it is indeed a very big problem.

If it takes Microsoft longer than two weeks to release a statement or patches to fix these elementary issues, it IS a big deal, because some folks cannot return their devices for a refund. This is the thing I'm trying to drive home here.

It's easy to post comments blaming buyers for being early adopters... that it is the nature of being an early adopter to run into plenty of issues, I get that. But these issues people are having, are basic things to the design of the Surface Book. Browsing the web (in my experience, in any browser) causes my screen to flicker and wig out.

I had to force the computer to hibernate because it kills my battery if I put it to sleep. Even native apps seem to have problems. Netflix and AMC apps always freeze, I have to use a browser, which then means I have to deal with screen flicker. Sometimes when I detach the screen it kills the display driver even when nothing is using the dGPU. Things like this shouldn't happen, and this is all after the second round of updates.

The basics of the design are operating as a computer. The reason you can't build one from scratch in your garage is because there is nothing elementary about it. The hinge, detachment, etc., are anything but basic or elementary. There does appear to be some issues with both the basic and design specific elements for this device. How many or how widespread is not knowable for us, and forum posts are anecdotal at best. We have no idea how many units are in the wild, and of them, how many are having one or more of these issues.

As far as basic to the design, I'm not even really sure what that means. It certainly doesn't mean it is an easy thing to get right, as pretty much every tech company can attest to...most glaringly NASA and SpaceX. What could be more basic to the design of a rocket/shuttle than getting to space and back. They have failed plenty, sometimes costing lives as far as NASA is concerned. Basic to the design, and easy to do with low failure isn't the same. That goes doubly for a new product.

Please forgive me if I'm not up in arms over your "embarrassment", when showing it off to friends or co-workers. I'm not even sure why you would be embarrassed, you didn't design or assemble it. Tell your friends and family it's junk, and point and laugh when you power it up and it falls on its face. Turn your frown upside down. Just take it back, man. You'll be happier for it.