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
    2013-11-06T17:48:05+00:00

    DLmbT,

    Thanks for letting me know that this works for you too.

    I too had a sunken feeling on the day that I got the new tablet and the wifi broke as soon as I applied the updates.  I had high expectations since this is the second iteration of the SP product and on top of that it's MS hardware running MS operating system.

    I think david1234 is correct is saying that the full device recovery from the original factory image causes the "Unknown Device" to appear because I've had to do that twice to my SP2 while trying to diagnose/fix the problem.

    I just wanted to get the message out there that other an these quirks, my device works very well and I'm very happy with it.  I would only exchange or return the device if I absolutely feel that it's a hardware problem that cannot be fixed with updates

    • in my case, I feel it's more of a software/driver problem.  If it is in fact a hardware issue, from what I've seen on this forum and my own experiences, my money is on that Marvell combo wifi/bluetooth (and whatever else) NIC adapter.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-06T18:47:43+00:00

    I have not reset my device at all.  I don't have the unknown device showing up in my device manager list.  I do still see the odd wake-up behavior (I was convinced it was bricked for a bit as it responded to absolutely nothing I did until finally volume up and power worked).

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-07T17:51:57+00:00

    Wrong replay, sorry. Please delete.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-07T17:53:02+00:00

    I found a very easy solution:

    Download the new driver set for Surface Pro 2

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=40856

    Unzip

      October2013SurfacePro2.zip

    Go to directory

    October2013SurfacePro2.zip\Microsoft\SurfaceCoverTelemetry

    Right click on the file

      SurfaceCoverTelemetry.inf

    and select Install in the menu.

    If anybody got the Suface Type/Touch cover keyboard, install the new driver, too.

    After reboot the unknown device have to be gone.

    Do not install this driver with the device manager, it doesn't work.

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