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
    2013-11-08T10:51:53+00:00

    I 'm having same issue...sp2 won't turn on or wake up (occasionally) unless I hold the volume key & the power button.... this solves the issue temporarily, but what about a permanent fix?  This started a few weeks ago... had my sp2 since launch.  The sp that I had for a couple weeks did not seem to have this problem.  Help Microsoft!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-08T13:02:52+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.

    This doesn't work for me. No matter what I try I cannot get the driver for this device to install properly (even though it says the driver installed successfully, it still says "Unknown device")

    The issue only started occurring for me when I did a full device recovery

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-08T15:03:33+00:00

    Doesn't work for me either.  NO matter how I try to update or install this unknown device it does not work.  I've confirmed this on multiple SP2s.  And in the meantime the ones I have touched have all had unexpected shutdowns(Event id 41) during wake/sleep cycles.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-08T15:05:38+00:00

    Nobody from microsoft helps in these forums.  Call in and report the issues to microsoft support.

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