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
    2013-11-23T15:49:39+00:00

    I have also had to reset my Surface Pro 2 512GG model and applied all updates. It now also has the Surface cover telemetry driver error and I can not determine how to fix it. Has Microsoft came up with a solution for this issue?

    Thanks.

    This is how you fix it permanently. The steps below fixed mine and others.

    http://systemsadminguy.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/how-to-update-surface-pro-2-recovery-image-drivers/

    Unfortunately this didn't work for me. In fact, not only ones it still crash on startup from hibernate/sleep but now I see other driver problems reported in event viewer that weren't there before. I am going to revert this fix for now. I also really want to love this device as it works so well for what I want it for but this is irritating at least.

    Couple that with the Microsoft Store 14 day hardware return policy, which I ma halfway through, and I am not sure that I can actually wait for Microsoft to fix this on its time. Total bummer.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-22T19:23:17+00:00

    I will say I am surprised of two things a) this has not received ANY media coverage ... at least not MAJOR coverage ... even from places like Cnet, etc.  b) it is still NOT FIXED via MSoft.  That perm solution requires me to reset the device again and now that I have it manually working I'm not gonna.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-22T19:07:13+00:00

    For me, after doing a system reset, the unknown device was there and the touch cover touch pad was all that worked, not the keys. Looking at the devices installed, the touch cover was loaded as a mouse, not the normal touch cover filter device. This was all on the Surface Pro 2 128. I have since exchanged it and have yet to do a reset (hopefully never). The touch cover, however, on the new Surface I got is still not working correctly. When I close the cover, the device should sleep, sometimes it doesn't, draining my battery. Also, even after manually putting the computer to sleep via the charms, after closing the cover it will completely turn off! So, for now, I'm not using my cover at all and have had no problems. The device is so amazing when it works correctly. It seems like all of the problems are inherent in the cover devices.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-22T18:43:59+00:00

    I can use my type 2 keyboard ok.  The only problem I have is that it will not always wake up from sleep mode quickly and I have to press on button.

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