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

Well bad news for me. I received the firmware patch on 1/17/14. Everything was good until today. I normally tether to my phone at work since they don't allow us on the Wifi. I was getting ready to shut my Wifi off and I noticed I used over 1GB today. The strange thing was that I never took my SP2 out of the bag. Nothing else could have used any data as my Wifi network is secure. 

I thought that I better check the SP2. Sure enough, it was hot and on........ All I did was press the power button to put it back to sleep. I check it 10 minutes later and it was still hot. So I unlock it and nothing was responding correctly until I reconnected the Touch Cover 2. I found that the high data usage was caused by uTorrent. However, that doesn't explain why the device woke itself up and why it was so hot. I can see uTorrent keeping the device on, but not causing it to be so hot. I ran uTorrent on battery last night while watching an 45 minute long episode and it never got warm. My battery drained 25% today as it was fully charged before I left for work. My bag set all day with a shirt wrapped around the SP2, so it couldn't have woken up by the Touch Cover 2 opening, or by something hitting the power button.

I went to double check my Windows Update history and something about the update history is broken. The last update shows 1/8/2014. Is there a way to refresh this? I did get a notice about 103 kB hardware update. I updated it and went back into the update history, but it still shows the last update at 1/8/2014.

This is frustrating. All I want is my SP2 to function normally. Something is still wrong ........

Update - So I found this http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_update/windows-81-update-history-in-modern-ui-doesnt-show/af8d355d-ee96-425d-8b34-2f6d8ea7e5b0?page=1 which shows that other people are having an issue with the Modern UI update history.

I decided to check the Desktop Update History. My 1/18/2014 System Firmware installed correctly on 1/18/2014. Apparently, it wanted me to install the firmware again today. The size of it was 103 kB. It shows that it failed to install today, but the another entry right above it shows that it install successfully. I don't understand why it wanted me to install the same update again today. Maybe this will fix the wake issue I encountered today.

Bizarre new twist for me with battery status reporting.  Despite a failed firmware update on 12/1013, after the Dylan Tullberg repair that I did, battery charge, battery capacity all seemed to be behaving normally up to 1/29/14.  Then I decided to do a full discharge/full recharge.

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 Micro;oftACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery in Device Manager and rebooted.  No luck.

Time for the old Volume Up Button/Power Button trick (power off, hold button > 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.

Poor thing, but thank you... Will keep them in mind.