System Firmware Update - 12/10/13 fails to install

Anonymous
2013-12-10T19:14:53+00:00

Got the updates on todays patch Tuesday, but the firmware update failed to load.  Rechecking for an update does not give the opportunity to try and reinstall.

Anyone else having this problem?  I do notice that my telemetry driver is now loaded. so not sure what is going on here.

Surface | Surface Pro | Install and update

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-12-19T06:53:02+00:00

Josh,

We are working through the holidays to deliver a fix for the small number of customers that have experience decreased battery life and booting/sleeping problems as a result of the December update.  We took the update down to prevent additional customers from ending up in this state. All hardware failures, none of which are known to be caused by the December update, are being handled promptly through our warranty exchange policy.

The UEFI firmware that we released in the December update prevents some devices from entering sleep mode (and other low power states) properly during periods of inactivity. In order to release an updated version of the UEFI firmware we need to test the new version with the other drivers in the set to make sure we are not releasing yet another unknown state to customer machines. We certainly feel your pain and assure you that we are doing everything possible to make this right, as quickly as we can.

Thank you,

Tim

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Anonymous
2014-02-15T00:49:31+00:00

Greetings all,

We understand that the February Firmware Update has fixed the Battery gauge issue and the Firmware showing as failed. However we can see that there are some customers who are still experiencing issues with their Surface Pro 2 going into Sleep mode and Hibernate.

So we can better track those particular issues, we have decided to close this thread off. We encourage you to create a thread related to your Surface Pro 2 not going to sleep or not going into Hibernate. Please give as much detail as possible to your scenario.

We understand that the February Firmware update did not resolve the issue with waking from Sleep or Hibernate, as it was not intended to fix that particular issue. We are continuing to work to deliver a high quality solution. More updates will become available as this effort progresses.

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Anonymous
2014-02-13T22:35:08+00:00

The February update has resolved all issues for me.  The firmware installed with no issues.  Prior to this, I had all sorts of problems with the December firmware.  Sleep and hibernate issues were rampant.  The January update helped a bit, but the battery meter was always getting off calibration. 

With the February update, all issues have been resolved and my Surface 2 128gb is working as it was prior to the December updates.  Very solid and all is back to normal.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-30T20:51:25+00:00

    Bizarre new twist for me with battery status reporting.  Despite a failed firmware update on 12/10/13, after the Dylan Tullberg repair that I did, battery charge status, battery capacity, all seemed to be behaving normally up to 1/29/14.  Then I decided to do a full discharge/full recharge of my battery.

    Decided to switch to the built-in Balanced Power Plan rather than my own customized power plan to drain the battery (not have to change any of my own plan settings back and forth).  Decided to follow Phra Mick Ratanapanyo's advice to put the Critical Battery Level Action at SLEEP, thinking I'd just wake up the device and keep draining past 5% charge.  Seemed to recollect having the past experience that the built-in Balanced Power Plan does not take kindly to customization as when I hit 5%, my device just hibernated or shutdown anyway rather than going to sleep.

    No matter.  Let's just start recharging.  Plugged in Surface RT power adapter, approved by Microsoft as it give slower charging but takes longer, less battery heating, yada yada.  Battery status indicator started showing charging animation and soon stopped.  Many minutes later still at 5%.  Hookay!  Maybe I should be using the official SP2 adapter.  Same deal with charging animation and 40 minutes later still at 5% battery charge.

    Hmmm!  Sound like the old battery status indicator problem from this forum (which I never had before).  Decided I would try treating my problem as if I had just installed a new battery so I uninstalled the MicrosoftACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery in Device Manager and rebooted.  No luck.

    Time for the old Volume Up Button/Power Button trick (power off, hold both buttons together > 15 sec, wait > 5 sec, reboot).  That worked and suddenly my battery showed 42% charge.  Recharging continued to 100%, with ostensible wear levels of 1% to 3% showing through CPUID during recharge.  Upon completion, wear level pegged at 1% with Full Charge Capacity varying between 41,699 and 41,906 mWh (design is 42,002 mWh).  Don't know if fact my house is very cold (60 deg F) is lowering battery voltage/design capacity estimates.  Have been through 18 charge cycles.

    Another familiar irritation reared its head.  Every time I closed my Type 2 cover, my SP2 hibernated/shutdown instead of sleeping.  If I used the Charms Settings Power Button to sleep before closing the cover no problem.  Had that happen only very sporadically after the failed 12/10/13 firmware update but last night after the full discharge and the battery status problem, the cover close shutdown happened dependably every time.  Today after being shutdown all night and rebooting, the device is back to sleeping when the Type 2 cover is closed.  Go Figure......

    Moral of story:   Anyone who thinks that their SP2 is behaving very normally might want to keep instructions for the Volume Up Button/Power Button battery status indicator reset handy when they go to fully discharge and recharge their SP2's..  And if you decided to discharge to 0% battery capacity per Phra Mick Ratanapanyo's Sleep suggestion for Critical Battery Level Action, probably best to change the setting in your own custom Power Plan than relying on a built-in Power Plan.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-30T08:59:52+00:00

    You got the vendor and Device ID?

    As well, what is the Powershell script you ran?

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