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
    2014-02-01T23:12:54+00:00

    Phra ,

    How was it that you got the battery to drain completely to 0%?

    I remember seeing it here somewhere on the thread, but don't have the time to scroll through every page.

    Tom.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-01T22:24:05+00:00

    I have no other issue with the unit as everybody else describes here, except for a (compared to yours) very low battery life. 9 hours seems to be a bit exaggerated. How do you measure. I measure with an actual run of 5,5 h with office softwares before it shuts down, while you are maybe switching it on and off during the 9 hours period. 

    Take a look at the other responses in this thread- your 5.5h of run life is way off.  Exceptionally low. 

    See here on the CNET review.   They get 7 hours of run time playing video, which is pretty darn intensive.  So your 5.5 is abnormal. I'd look at a replacement.

    Battery life depends hugely on what you are doing.  If you are using the Metro side, you should get 8 hours or more.  If you're using the Desktop side, you can expect only about 5 hours.  Most lists of what to do to maximize battery life, which include tweaking screen brightness and turning off Bluetooth if you're not using that, are giving generic advice for Windows.  For people with a Surface Pro the main factor in battery life numbers is whether you are using mostly Metro or Desktop.

    So those who are mostly using Desktop can relax about their 5 hour experience.  And where possible, for simple web browsing, use the Metro side to get better battery life.  And when people discuss their battery hour data, it is crucial to estimate your Desktop/Metro ratio.

    Hopefully Microsoft service people know enough to explain this rather than go directly to doing an exchange or refund. 

    Sargent 8hr-Desktop reporting for duty sir!

    I used to get 5.5hrs usage too!

    But those days are gone sir!

    Since I re-calibrated the battery, took time to study the Task Manager, Battery Report and learned to charge my battery properly, I now get 8hrs playing videos on KMPlayer with SuperSpeed mode, 50% brightness, WiFi=off and no other applications running. (For typical usage see below...)

    Yes yes I'm the guy who's always complaining about csrss.exe and ntoskrnl.exe hogging CPU when booting with SDcard inserted. Now I boot with SDcard ejected, recharge only when battery level falls between 20%-50%, keeping in mind the battery needs quite a push after 80% upwards resulting in excessive heat which degrades battery life, so sometimes an hour of charge is best on hot days. It's an adaptive strategy for Australian summer. When going for a full charge, I do that with the device powered off.

    Battery calibration was done in 3 stages, 1st drain to 0% then recharge to 100%, I noticed the unit was still running for nearly an hour after battery level hit 0%. 2nd hit Power+Volume up for 15sec. 3rd Uninstall & reinstall battery drivers in Device manager.

    Typical usage wise, I get 6hrs with Firefox running opening 8-12 tabs at once, some with heavy Javascripts. a KMPlayer running 720p video over network (802.11AC WiFi), reading News and checking Weather on metro, file copying and while designing some 3D on Autodesk application. Plantronics Bluetooth stereo headsets and Razer Orichi Bluetooth 3.0 Mouse. I disabled most Live Tiles so they don't hog the Communication Services which often consume 30% CPU on its own. Check your WiFi usage in the Task Manager for detailed analysis on how much, how long and how often CS is drawing from your system. Using a Balanced Power settings with Minimum Processor State set to 15% when running on battery -and- 100% when plugged in, I get a highly responsive system. Normally SP2 should only consume 1%-10% CPU power when running optimized. The battery just goes and goes on this thing!

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