Surface Pro 2 - Surface cover telemetry driver / blank screen after putting tablet to sleep

Anonymous
2013-10-23T05:19:56+00:00

Hi, 

I just picked up my Surface Pro 2 256GB today and it ran into problems right after applying the firmware update that seemed to have been released just today on Windows Update.  I confirmed this problem was caused by the firmware update because I restored the tablet and the wireless was working fine and I applied the firmware update and that broke the wireless.

After the update, the Marvell AVASTAR Wireless Composite Device stopped working...meaning, the tablet does not recognize the wireless card.  This is confirmed by going into the Device Manager and seeing 2 unknown devices (one of them was the wireless card, the other unrecognized device I will explain in the next paragraph) When I tried running the update driver function, it tried to reinstall the driver but returned the following error.

Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device

Reinstall the drivers for this device (Code 18)

I had to go the manual route and there were 2 Marvell drivers listed and one Microsoft driver listed for the Marvell card.  The 2 marvell drivers listed had exactly the same name.  However, only choosing and applying the second one worked.  So, the wireless was working again.

The other "unknown device" turned out to be something called "Surface Cover Telemetry".  However, trying the same troubleshooting process for the wireless card did not solve the problem and the devices still remains "unknown" in the device manager.  I just left it and carried on with installing my other software and apps as the tablet and the Type Cover 2 seemed to be functioning properly.

However, when I put the tablet to sleep by closing the Type Cover (while on battery power but charged up to 100%), the screen remained blank even though I opened up the cover again and tried to wake the tablet.  I knew that the tablet was still on but the screen remained blank even after I tried touching it, typing on the keyboard as well as briefly tapping the on/off button.  When I touch the Windows icon on the bottom frame of the tablet, I can feel a slight vibration and that told me that the tablet was on but the screen somehow is totally off.

I decided to do a soft reset of the tablet by holding on the on/off button for more then 10 seconds.  However, the screen only worked properly after many attempts.

My questions are, could it be that this "unknown device" that needs the "Surface Cover Telemetry" driver is causing this blank screen problem?  And if so, where can I download a driver that works?

Thanks.

Surface | Surface Pro | Install and update

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-28T20:31:14+00:00

    Same here...applied 10/26 update and went into Device Manager...the unknown device still show up but updating the driver automatically found the proper driver and it displays as the installation of the driver as successful.  However, the device is still shown as "unknown".

    Now it seems that my digitizer pen is no longer recognized/working.  When I place the pen on the surface of the screen, there is no cursor nor any input.

    Has anyone encountered this after the 10/26 update?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-26T16:05:50+00:00

    After doing the 10/26 update after fixing everything, it broke the 2 drivers again.  Same fix worked...at least everything is functional, though the keyboard still shows as an unknown.

    Hoping for some official word on what's going on here.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-25T19:21:01+00:00

    Hi All, 

    I finally been able to get my Surface 2 Pro tablet back in working order after the massive mess up the October update did to it.

    Background Story: I just bought the tablet a day after the release and decided to run Windows Updates on it. It prompted me that I had a firmware update that it would apply. So I ran it. After it downloaded, the tablet restarted and it got stuck at the "Surface - Please Wait while we install a system update" screen. I waited for over 3 hours to make sure it was stuck and powered it off. I was able to boot it back up, however the wireless nic card and a Unknown Driver (Surface Cover Telemetry) was showing up on the device manager with a yellow !. Also, every time i rebooted the tablet, it would keep on getting stuck on the "Surface - Please wait while we install a system update". I called MS support on this, and we left off on "lets leave the tablet at that screen all night to see if it applies."

    So I decided to try and figure this out myself. After a bunch of restoring, reapplying updates, and changing settings, I believe I found the steps needed to get the surface back in working order.

    First I downloaded the October Firmware Update for Surface here

    A note about the firmware update first. If the firmware update failed to what I described above. The way to get it installed was to disable Secure Boot in UEFI. To do that, boot in to advanced startup and run UEFI. In there, you can disable the secure boot system. The boot up screen will now be red to warn you that it is disabled. Once done, let the surface reboot in the Please wait while we install a system update, it should now complete and reboot in about a minute.

    To reapply the secure boot, go back to UEFI and enable it. Also you will need to click on Install default secure boot keys.

    Now to the steps....

    1. I left secure boot disabled during this process. I don't know if its necessary, however if you are going to do the Firmware update because it failed or you haven't done it yet, I suggest doing this. Also, I did leave if off during this process so if you want to duplicate on what I did, disable it. Instructions on doing this is above.
    2. I removed everything and reinstalled Windows again. I just wanted to ensure there was no bad stuff on the system that might of messed things up. Another reason was that like other people have experienced, I couldn't get the Surface Cover Telemetry drivers working after the Windows Updates were applied. It seems that it needs to be functional before they are installed.

    After the reinstall of windows the unknown device was still there. I reapplied the Surface Telemetry driver using the October Firmware Update zip file in the Microsoft\SurfaceCoverTelemetry folder. Surprisingly, the driver got accepted and installed correctly.

    1. Now run Windows Updates on the tablet.
    2. After the updates have applied the wireless controller might not be working. Another reboot will get it to function again. But you should notice now that the telemetry driver is still "sticking".
    3. After the reboot check the device manager again, and all drivers should be working now. If you left the UEFI secure boot disabled, re-enable it here. After that, your tablet should be good to go.

    I hope this helps...

    Mike

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-24T00:03:29+00:00

    I've experienced the same problem and reached out to Microsoft Surface Support. They're noting the information on this page along with the steps we've taken to diagnose the issue. Case is being escalated and will post the information I get from them and hopefully the fix.

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