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
    2014-03-07T09:33:44+00:00

    Also, what does the Surface Cover Telemetry Drivers even do apart from sit there and show an Unknown Device error for which drivers wont install (Code 28).

    My Type Cover works fine!

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-07T09:29:48+00:00

    Hello everyone

    My Surface Pro 2 was last updated in March first week, so it should probably be running the February firmware update. Before I updated my Surface Pro 2, I performed a Reset on my device, and in the Device Manager it now shows an 'Unknown Device.' We all know what this curse is by now: the recovery partition does not contain the necessary Type Cover Telemetry drivers and therefore that shows as an error triangle. Unluckily, even if we install the drivers manually, the bug is going to crop up when we next reset our devices.

    I understand that Microsoft can not update the recovery image so we have to live with this problem. But why can I also not manually go to the Device Manager and update my drivers for Surface Cover Telemetry? It shows a Code 28 error!

    Since November, Microsoft has been unable to issue a fix around reinstalling/updating the Surface Type Cover telemetry drivers after the resetting of the device.

    I have become really frustrated with seeing that error message in the Device Manager. I understand I can not update the recovery image, but can I somehow fix that Unknown Device error and make my Device Manager look beautiful again!

    I am also willing to do it everytime I reset my device. Just how?

    Thanks in advance

    Siddharth S

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-07T08:46:35+00:00

    Okay so today is 7th March. I last updated my Surface Pro 2 (128GB) with a Type Cover 2 attached on 4th March 2014 and there is still no fix that Microsoft has aired for Type Cover Telemetry driver issue.

    My wireless card and Bluetooth is working properly. I am also not facing any Blank Screen issue as of right now. But there is that Unknown Device perpetually showing in my device manager constantly irking me. My Type Cover is working properly!

    Does Microsoft suggest that we manually install drivers or should we just wait to see an update come our way?

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-04T12:26:03+00:00

    I had and solved both issues: Almost all Type Cover 2 keys not working and after "optimizing"/refreshing Windows the Marvell WLAN card not working after first round of win-updates.

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