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
    2013-12-31T15:42:17+00:00

    I simply:  (1) went to the Device Manager, (2) Uninstalled the Wireless Driver, (3) right mouse click on the top of the Device Tree and click "Scan for hardware Changes".  This properly installed the Wireless Driver for my Surface 8.1 OS.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-29T16:38:02+00:00

    Well I am typing on my new Surface RT and am getting concerned with the problems being reported here.  I received the Surface for Christmas, but with no keyboard.  I just purchased the Type 2 keyboard, and it works well enough, but I noticed when I flip it back (it is supposed to shut the keyboard off), my screen would go black (sleep) every few seconds, sometimes as short as 5 seconds, sometimes longer.  All I had to do was push the power button (screen touch, which I was doing when it went black) and hitting the window button didn't work).

    Thankfully I wouldn't have to re-enter my password since I was fast enough on the button that it reclogged me in (see the login screen for a quick flash).

    However, how I found this forum was this all seemed to start when I bought the new keyboard.  I spent way too much time already on updates for this thing since Christmas morning - two or 3 major update downloads (50+ updates - 200mb or more) before it would even attempt Win8.1.  Then Win8.1 locked up twice and I thought I had a brick, but power cycle seemed to get it out of it's "preparing to update" or other loops it got into.  So - finally was working fine for a day or two (not heavily - very busy over the holidays) - and then I bought the keyboard.  First morning it was in sleep and it seemed like I couldn't wake it up with or without the keyboard.  Finally held the power button for 5 + seconds and it came to life.  Connected the keyboard again, hoped it was just my not knowing how to turn the unit on (could have swore I just hit power like a regular on button, but figured maybe I just didn't notice).

    Long story even longer, when I found the Surface worked fine (not going into screen shutdown every 5-10 seconds) when I unhooked the keyboard, I went looking to the forums and found this.  I don't have any "unknown devices" in the device manager or the errors mentioned, but it does start the going black every few seconds every time I flip it back.  Notice the backlit doesn't always shut off, and this seems to be when the problem is worse.  Just also noticed that when I do flip it back to use as a keyboard, the screen keyboard starts popping up like the Surface thinks it doesn't Have a keyboard attached.

    So, just at the start of this , and have already worked out the workaround - disconnect the keyboard when using as a tablet, or turn it around (keys facing backside of tablet), for when I want to use as a tablet.  Seems ridiculous to Have to do something as simple as this.  Either make it work right or don't try.  If they just said disconnect keyboard when wanting to use as a tablet, then no problem - but then having an off button the keyboard would make sense.  AND, I would have bought a cover with blue tooth keyboard like on my Android tablet - at least that one I can just shut off when not in use (don't have to take it out of the cover :-).

    This reminds my when I had the Blackberry Playbook and had to keep coming back to the forums to see when Skype would be released, and SKype/MS just ignored the forum  as it went into like 300 pages (at last count) of users getting upset over Skype/MS, and RIM's, lack of response.

    So, loved Playbook but they were squeezed out, still find Android to be a beta plaything, iPad is for those "Just Works" folks who don't want to do anything other than play games or surf that Apple will let them, and was really liking Win 8 on my laptops/desktop but Surface was just too expensive compared to others until recently.  So, please MS pay attention.  I will start the "following blogs" and stuff, but may end up returning this keyboard, and possibly tablet itself, if this is going to be how MS/Win8 devices work.

    Please make it Not So........

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-29T15:07:08+00:00

    I never reinstalled anything.  I just booted into driver mode then booted back in normal mode and it fixed my issues.

     

    Now keep in mind that I have not done any extra driver installs.  Here is my sequence.

     

     

    Reset machine

    Run updates

     ..... Get Errors

    Boot in Driver mode

    Boot in normal mode

    .... No Errors

     

    Im running a 512K surface Pro 2. 

    I see. It seems that we had different luck...

    I have a 128Gb SP2.

    Out of curiosity, when you had the drivers issue, what were the affected devices?

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-29T14:49:46+00:00

    I never reinstalled anything.  I just booted into driver mode then booted back in normal mode and it fixed my issues.

     

    Now keep in mind that I have not done any extra driver installs.  Here is my sequence.

     

     

    Reset machine

    Run updates

     ..... Get Errors

    Boot in Driver mode

    Boot in normal mode

    .... No Errors

     

    Im running a 512K surface Pro 2. 

    Hello msimpson99, How I can boot in driver mode my surface pro 2?

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