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

[AbsoluteZerow]

I forgot to mention that most of the issues seem to be resolved on my Surface Book since the latest round of updates, which is awesome!
BUT, I'm still having the weird noise with the speakers. Anyone else having speaker noise after the update? Other than that, its been working really well.
I pondered returning it this passed weekend... but I just couldn't. The keyboard and overall build design is just so damn good, I figured I'd stick it out at least three weeks (since I have 30 days to return it) to see if MS could get these bugs squashed.

Some folks were taking my original post and basically saying I was complaining and don't have a right to do so since I'm an early adopter, which is absurd. That's why these forums are here, to bring issues up and talk about them. After being an early adopter with many Microsoft products, I felt it was required that someone make a post with every known issue and get people talking, because it seemed like no one was bringing up the main point (at the time); the effect of not fixing the issues ASAP and also why in the heck was it released with so many bugs.

Anyway, glad its progressing, hope it keeps progressing, because the Surface Book really is the ultimate laptop.... when it works.

As for dock users, any updates on multi monitor results since the latest updates?

I find this hard to believe.

Seriously though return the Surface Book and buy yourself a Mac Book.

And this comment about my experience in the industry and using Microsoft products. I work on servers and grids/hpc's all day long (for many years now). I don't need to prove my credentials on a public forum because I'm having an issue with a product. Just because someone has a view on a product they spent money on doesn't make them inferior because they don't agree with your POV or don't think in the same manner as you. Some of these posts directly attacking my own perspective with my very own experience is unnecessary. Just PMSG me if you have a problem, or just don't post anything at all?

 

[B T C]

We don't take kindly to people complaining 'round here.

 

[zerospace-net]

BUT, I'm still having the weird noise with the speakers. Anyone else having speaker noise after the update?

Some folks were taking my original post and basically saying I was complaining and don't have a right to do so since I'm an early adopter, which is absurd. That's why these forums are here, to bring issues up and talk about them.

Can you describe the weird noise? I've had my SB hooked up to a set of desktop speakers, and I haven't had any issues besides the occasional audio pop (and that seems to have stopped with this firmware update). I can crank up the volume though, and see what happens... (I keep my sound low).

Regarding your original post -- discussion about whether or not the Surface Book should have launched/shipped with so many obviously known issues could have been started in a much more mature way. "Hey Microsoft!!! Fix your Surface Book before it dies!" sounds a lot like a message that should be directed at Microsoft and not at a bunch of Microsoft fanboys :wink:. Just sayin'.

And with that, I shall return to playing Diablo 3 on my imperfect (but still pretty awesome) Surface Book ... :winktongue:

 

[AbsoluteZerow]

It's the random audio popping (I couldn't think of the right wording earlier). I've applied the latest updates and firmware and seem to still have the audio popping, that is my only issue now though, which is great!

 

[enixon]

It's the random audio popping (I couldn't think of the right wording earlier). I've applied the latest updates and firmware and seem to still have the audio popping, that is my only issue now though, which is great!

Mine does this from time to time when switching audio tracks, but only in Groove. It doesn't do it on YouTube or anything like that. I also couldn't reproduce the issue with movies.

 

[ytrewq]

Some folks were taking my original post and basically saying I was complaining and don't have a right to do so since I'm an early adopter, which is absurd. That's why these forums are here, to bring issues up and talk about them.

No one took issue with you bringing up issues that were buggy, or even with the fact that you were complaining. The issue was that you went into full-on drama-queen-rant mode. (See your title to this thread as an example.) With a new product, bugs happen, and talking about them is productive. Throwing a hissy fit is not as productive.

I am very happy to hear that the update fixed most of your issues. I do agree that there were more bugs with this product than with most, and MS should have done a better job getting some of these (especially the graphics driver) sorted out before release. I can't imagine that, with any amount of real testing, they wouldn't have noticed the BSODs that plagued many of us daily during the past week. I suspect that they were eager to get the SB out well in advance of the Christmas holiday, and perhaps they weren't quite as ready for release date as they should have been. But I would not agree that the situation calls for drama. Please keep in mind that MS is probably not spending a lot of time watching rants on internet forums, so that's not a particularly productive way to provide feedback. It is, however, something that gets the attention of Apple-leaning tech bloggers who look for any excuse to declare that a competing product is a failure. No need to feed the ifans. The right thing to do is to calmly report the problems and give MS a fair chance to solve them. The SB is a spectacular product. Let's stay calm and give it every chance to succeed. The fact that MS stepped up within a week and provided an update that fixed many of the bugs for many people demonstrates that they do, in fact, deserve a fair chance to fix the issues before we all freak out about it.

 

[michail71]

I don't think it's too much to ask for and expect fewer problems with a new product. As an engineer I do not expect my customers to have to put up with this on a new product. MS has an image to maintain and most of these rather common issues should not have made it to the market with them being in control of both the OS and hardware.

The whole Surface lineup has been plagued with issues that have been continually fixed and re-fixed. Crackling speakers, WiFi performing worse than a cheap android tablet, touch screen driver crashes and battery drains in standby have become hallmarks of all Surfaces. MS is lucky consumers are being as gracious and loyal as they are with these problems. People expect to be able to spend $2K plus on a system and use it in an important meeting without being embarrassed. If you say otherwise MS would have to admit it's not a business class product. It's not like you even have to do anything special to trigger the issues. They happen out of the box or after running Windows Update and no non-app store applications.

They need to have a tighter relationship with the driver writers and more internal QA testing.

I'm sure the next version of the Surface, with Windows 10 becoming more mature, will have a smoother release. Hopefully they'll use a new WiFi chip too.

 

[AbsoluteZerow]

No one took issue with you bringing up issues that were buggy, or even with the fact that you were complaining. The issue was that you went into full-on drama-queen-rant mode. (See your title to this thread as an example.) With a new product, bugs happen, and talking about them is productive. Throwing a hissy fit is not as productive......

Drama queen mode and throwing a hissy fit.... I'm pretty sure I stated issues that many people were having, not blowing things out of proportion? Not only that, I pasted many links and factual issues that many people were having. 26k + views on this thread and it made the news headline on the main website. I'm pretty sure I'm not being a drama queen about anything. Pretty much, everything I've posted has been factual happenings with the Surface Book's incredibly buggy release.

I'm glad updates came and I'm glad its fixing people's Surface Book's, but the fact remains: The Surface Book got released with more bugs than the first three Surface iterations combined, no one can deny that its first impression was far from good. If Microsoft didn't release fixes as fast as they did, A LOT of people would be returning their Surface Book's and would have bought something else, it was obviously in their best interest to fix it ASAP and not let the issues fester. You can't sell a product and gain market share if your product itself is throwing a "hissy fit" and blue screening, crashing display drivers, has inoperable wifi, can't detach the screen, doesn't have a usable trackpad, has audio popping, can't use it's accessory dock, eats battery while in sleep mode, has screen flicker issues, has hue issues when scrolling, or has a native browser that is insanely buggy.

Oh... there I go again, acting like a drama queen listing all the issues the Surface Book has, signal the alarm!!!!!!

 

[ytrewq]

Drama queen mode and throwing a hissy fit.... I'm pretty sure I stated issues that many people were having, not blowing things out of proportion?

The title of your thread: "Hey Microsoft!!! Fix your Surface Book before it dies!"

Yeah, you're not a drama queen or blowing things out of proportion.

 

[ParoleGA]

Drama queen mode and throwing a hissy fit.... I'm pretty sure I stated issues that many people were having, not blowing things out of proportion? Not only that, I pasted many links and factual issues that many people were having. 26k + views on this thread and it made the news headline on the main website. I'm pretty sure I'm not being a drama queen about anything. Pretty much, everything I've posted has been factual happenings with the Surface Book's incredibly buggy release.

I'm glad updates came and I'm glad its fixing people's Surface Book's, but the fact remains: The Surface Book got released with more bugs than the first three Surface iterations combined, no one can deny that its first impression was far from good. If Microsoft didn't release fixes as fast as they did, A LOT of people would be returning their Surface Book's and would have bought something else, it was obviously in their best interest to fix it ASAP and not let the issues fester. You can't sell a product and gain market share if your product itself is throwing a "hissy fit" and blue screening, crashing display drivers, has inoperable wifi, can't detach the screen, doesn't have a usable trackpad, has audio popping, can't use it's accessory dock, eats battery while in sleep mode, has screen flicker issues, has hue issues when scrolling, or has a native browser that is insanely buggy.

Oh... there I go again, acting like a drama queen listing all the issues the Surface Book has, signal the alarm!!!!!!

Here we go again...page views. Page views don't mean you were correct about anything. The link in the article don't mean you were correct about anything. All it means is people are interested in the Surface Book, and you made a dramatic title. The article was linked because it is several pages long of people giving their experiences, not all of which agreed with your idea the something is going to die, or shared your experience. All it means is there is a lot of interest about the Surface Book, and people like to go where there is a lot of info. A lot of info gets deposited in post with controversial titles. Again, you are being foolish if you honestly believe page views back your assertions in any way. The comments would be a better measure, and they are split.

 

[B T C]

I can't believe the amount of grief this guy is receiving. You get one chance to make a first impression. Perhaps Microsoft would benefit by keeping that in mind.

 

[photobriangray]

Mine died. Red light on the undock button, no power, no combination of power button sequences would bring it back to life. I am now waiting on the store to get Books not allocated to pre-orders.

 

[AbsoluteZerow]

The title of your thread: "Hey Microsoft!!! Fix your Surface Book before it dies!"

Yeah, you're not a drama queen or blowing things out of proportion.

Yeah, you're right, I'm not. I'm stating facts and using a very factual title. If they didn't fix it with updates, it surely would have been dead on arrival. I don't see the issue?

Here we go again...page views. Page views don't mean you were correct about anything. The link in the article don't mean you were correct about anything. All it means is people are interested in the Surface Book, and you made a dramatic title. The article was linked because it is several pages long of people giving their experiences, not all of which agreed with your idea the something is going to die, or shared your experience. All it means is there is a lot of interest about the Surface Book, and people like to go where there is a lot of info. A lot of info gets deposited in post with controversial titles. Again, you are being foolish if you honestly believe page views back your assertions in any way. The comments would be a better measure, and they are split.

Page views and being correct, I don't care about those things. What I care about (and what we all should be caring about) is how Microsoft cares about delivering a product that actually works. I'm not going to keep defending my POV here, why do you guys persist on calling me out, being a drama queen? You can't tell me that I'm the ONLY person who is a bit peeved about spending a lot of money to get a product that simply did not work. And it wasn't just me, the entire first batch of Surface Book's all had more than a few issues. That is TERRIBLE quality control, it doesn't matter how you look at it. The amount of issues it had during its launch were fricking, TERRIBLE. So bad, that yes, it would have killed the Surface Book if they didn't get fixed. Microsoft doesn't have the best track record on first version product releases, but you would think for once, they would get it right with the Surface Book. When you put your product on display with a MacBook, saying its two times faster, you then leave out benchmarks and what GPU it is, you say its the "Ultimate Laptop". When we buy it, we want, the Ultimate Laptop. We want what we paid $2,000 for. We don't want some half baked, bug ridden paper weight. I was very upset initially because the bugs were just so simple to the device. Display driver crashing? Random blue screens, I can't even detach the screen!?! C'mon, these are the fundamentals to how the Surface Book works and that stuff doesn't even work?

Because it was marketed against MacBook owners, obviously Microsoft wants MacBook owners to give it a try. They want them to ditch their MacBook's and come to the Microsoft side. Well, who in the hell would want to use a product that blue screens on initial start up, or has a display driver who can't stay initiated for more than 5 min, or wants to deal with screen flicker and hue color changes, or have a terrible track pad, or have a camera that doesn't work, man I could list more and more bugs. Many Surface Book's had all of these problems, not just one. You're telling me not to make these issues known, don't say anything? Your seriously don't think Microsoft employees don't use twitter or read WPCentral? Give me a break. Of course they do. If we don't say anything, nothing will get fixed in a timely manner. If they don't know it's a big issue, they won't put it at the top of their priorities. Microsoft, like Apple, are businesses. Making money will always be the top priority. We as a customer, have the right to complain and make our voice heard when we spend thousands of dollars for a product that is as useless as a paper weight. Seriously, how dare they release it in the state it was, terrible first impression. You think those Apple die hards want to give this thing a shot? I highly doubt it.

You get once chance to make a good impression, releasing the Surface Book with the amount of issues it had did nothing but ruin the hype train for potential buyers. THAT was the entire point of my thread. You folks bashing me can take it in any context you want, but facts are facts. The launch batch was a complete mess. Aside from all the issues people had with the actual product, many folks had a hard time even placing a order or receiving it. Many people who pre-ordered right after the presentation are still waiting for theirs to arrive. I hope they get Book's that aren't bug ridden.

 

[zerospace-net]

You get once chance to make a good impression, releasing the Surface Book with the amount of issues it had did nothing but ruin the hype train for potential buyers. THAT was the entire point of my thread. You folks bashing me can take it in any context you want, but facts are facts. The launch batch was a complete mess. Aside from all the issues people had with the actual product, many folks had a hard time even placing a order or receiving it. Many people who pre-ordered right after the presentation are still waiting for theirs to arrive. I hope they get Book's that aren't bug ridden.

I can't say that I disagree with you on this one -- the Surface Book should never have launched with the issues it had (and in some cases, still has -- the intel display driver crashing is pretty pathetic). I'm glad I pre-ordered mine from my local kiosk and not online (and even after making the purchase at the kiosk, my bank still called to verify that the charge wasn't fraud). I count myself lucky on many fronts -- both in getting a SB that isn't a total mess in terms of bugs (tho usage may have something to do with that, I tend to feel like I go easy on my devices compared to some), and in terms of my local store actually having my book ready when I went to pick it up.

Hopefully this mess will die down, MS will fix the major bugs quickly, and people will move on. I hope...

 

[photobriangray]

Got the call, a replacement Book is at the store; I decided to go i5/dGPU 256GB version as it appears to be highest volume.

 

[kancherlapraneeth]

Mine died. Red light on the undock button, no power, no combination of power button sequences would bring it back to life. I am now waiting on the store to get Books not allocated to pre-orders.

same thing happened to mine. I tried all options listed on microsoft website but they did not work. I bought it from Bestbuy and they replaced it.

 

[photobriangray]

So new one is in hand and initial firmware updates are done. No Edge weirdness, yet. It showed up completely dead, no battery at all. I wonder if they are shipping them that way now? Going to start the software/app install process. Wish me luck.

 

[photobriangray]

OK, a couple restarts - Again, still no flicker, no oddities. I haven't disabled Hyper-V. I am about to bravely undock the display.

Update: Undock worked. App failed. All is good after a restart.

Update 2: Had BSOD when turning off auto screen brightness. Appears to be related to keyboard key brightness? Chalk it up to a fluke driver issue.

 

[Gergolos]

After reading this thread and seeing all the reactions to OPs post, here are my two cents:

If I buy a product which costs 2000$, it is absolutely clear that it has to work the exact same way as it was advertised. Just because some of the Macbooks had problems, it doesn't mean MS can do the same as well. It was wrong to sell Macbooks with issues and it is wrong to sell the Surface Book with all of these issues as well. It's as simple as that.

And it is in no way any different just because one is an "early adopter"... Sure, you can not really be mad because you don't have all the extra dongles, special apps made just for the SB or whatever...because you are an early adopter and thus need to wait a bit for that kind of stuff. It is also possible that there are minor issues with software. But problems not letting the device do what it was made for? Nope... it needs to be able to be used for the purpose it was made from day one!

I buy a premium device for a reason... and having to wait/struggle with stuff like this is definitely not the one...

 

[zerospace-net]

OK, a couple restarts - Again, still no flicker, no oddities. I haven't disabled Hyper-V. I am about to bravely undock the display.

Update: Undock worked. App failed. All is good after a restart.

Update 2: Had BSOD when turning off auto screen brightness. Appears to be related to keyboard key brightness? Chalk it up to a fluke driver issue.

Well, I wish you luck after reading your issues with your first SB. It sounds like you now have the same model I do -- the i5/256/dGPU. Mine has been mostly great. My total list of issues encountered thus far in 1 week of ownership: 1 BSOD (this came in conjunction with the last time the Intel driver crashed), about 4 intel driver crashes total, a few audio pops, and a few random weird software things that I attribute to Win10. I hope yours settles in and works for you at this point!

EDIT: Oh, and I should say, my battery was pretty drained when I got mine -- I think it had barely 30%. If it had sat on a shelf much longer, it probably would have been dead out of the box.