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
    2013-12-02T08:05:47+00:00

    So, after I recently acquired a surface pro 2 (128G/4G) I am also facing various issues (immediately installed the FW update, so can't tell whether they were existent prior the update).

    My Surface regularly crashes when being sent to sleep, hibernate or power off regularly (Event log). All the errors are deemed Error Code 41 and link to the Kernel Power.

    I'm wondering whether this is a hardware issue or software, as most people seem to experience issues with the sleep mode, but not necessarily other forms of shutdown.

    I know there will be an update on the 10th of December, which will hopefully solve my problem, nevertheless I'm hugely disappointed from MS.

    Anyone having any input on the consistency of my power issues?

    PS: The regularly crashing display driver is not even troubling me anymore. Or the Skydrive client. Gosh, MS, this is like Vista. Furthermore, my Surface failed to install an update for Pinyin (the input system for Mandarin) due to an error which never installed successfully, yet I installed an updated version later and hid the original update. Highly unreliable.

    Sorry to hear that you have so many problems.

    Just to clarify, I only experiencing problems with my Touch Cover 2 due to 2 Unknown devices in device manager after a factory reset I did after october FW update.

    Device manager refuses me to install drivers for my touch cover 2 for some reason.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-02T07:46:41+00:00

    So, after I recently acquired a surface pro 2 (128G/4G) I am also facing various issues (immediately installed the FW update, so can't tell whether they were existent prior the update).

    My Surface regularly crashes when being sent to sleep, hibernate or power off regularly (Event log). All the errors are deemed Error Code 41 and link to the Kernel Power.

    I'm wondering whether this is a hardware issue or software, as most people seem to experience issues with the sleep mode, but not necessarily other forms of shutdown.

    I know there will be an update on the 10th of December, which will hopefully solve my problem, nevertheless I'm hugely disappointed from MS.

    Anyone having any input on the consistency of my power issues?

    PS: The regularly crashing display driver is not even troubling me anymore. Or the Skydrive client. Gosh, MS, this is like Vista. Furthermore, my Surface failed to install an update for Pinyin (the input system for Mandarin) due to an error which never installed successfully, yet I installed an updated version later and hid the original update. Highly unreliable.

    EDIT: At times my Windows button creates haptic feedback (buzzes), although the device is shut down. I remember my device arrived in this state, as it took me a bit of playing around with it until I turned it on (instinctively hit the Win-button). Does anyone share this experience? I'm not entirely sure whether this links to a proper shutdown. MS, you're killing me. I need a functional device and don't want to spend hours getting this to work.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-02T06:38:34+00:00

    Hi,

    I'm having the same issue after reset my sp2. And now my touch cover 2 stopped working. I having 2 unknown devices in device manager.

    Is there any workarond for this without having to reset my sp2 again??

    Hi Strandman, unfortunately you cannot fix the issue without a reset. There are 2 solutions at the moment, both involve a reset.

    Temporary solution (you have to apply this every time you reset): Reset your device then immediately install the telemetry driver BEFORE running Windows Updates

    Permanent solution (you only have to apply this once): Follow this guide http://systemsadminguy.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/how-to-update-surface-pro-2-recovery-image-drivers/

    I'm using the permanent solution at the moment. Seems to have also resolved a whole bunch of other issues I was having with sleep / crashing.

    Hi, and thank you for your reply. 

    I guess I'll wait for MS to come with an patch to fix this. I don't want to spend the time to do a full reset.

    I don't however understand how this could pass QA on MS!? One of the reasons for me to buy a Surface was to avoid problems with 3rd party drivers. My previous tablet was an Asus Vivotab TF810C with serious driver problems connected to Intel Atom. I gave up that tablet after a year without working drivers! I hope I don't have to wait so long for MS to fix this...

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