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
    2013-12-13T02:05:33+00:00

    Strangely, I also manually updated a SECOND unit with this firmware update as well.  Surprisingly, I did NOT encounter any errors this time, and Windows Update history showed the firmware update "Succeeded".  Battery status appears normal (powercfg /batteryreport shows full charge capacity of 41,968 mWh).  Repeated restarts/shutdowns haven't showed any anomaly in Device Manager.

    As it stands, though, I'm afraid to update the REST of my Surface Pro 2 units, lest they also encounter errors???

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-13T02:04:42+00:00

    I have several Surface Pro 2 units with me (a  mix of 256 and 512 models).

    The FIRST unit got auto-updated to the 12/10/2013 firmware update, which I found out because the next time I picked it up I saw some of the drivers were unloaded, and I had to reboot.

    Like the other posters, this unit showed a "Failed" status for the firmware update in Windows Update history.  Battery status also appears less accurate (powercfg /batteryreport shows full charge capacity of 35,069 mWh vs design capacity 42,002 mWh).

    What's more, restarting or shutting down this unit now often leads to failure loading some device drivers, and I'd have to try this over and over until I get a successful boot.  The shutdown process itself often hangs, and I often have to hold the power button for a few secs to force it OFF.

    Here are the symptoms:

    • Device Manager shows Sensors > HID Sensor Collection with a warning icon, saying the device failed to initialize with the driver or something like that (I forget the exact wording).

    (Whenever the device driver does manage to load successfully, I noticed that the driver properties offer the option to "Roll Back Driver" even though this device appears to still use the initial v6.3.9600.16384 driver from 4/21/2009?)

    • Device Manager is missing Sensors > Simple Device Orientation Sensor which was previously shown
    • Event Viewer reports multiple Critical errors, including repeated instances of:
    1. "The device Surface Type Cover 2 Firmware Update Device (location (unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash.  Windows will attempt to restart the device in the shared process 1 more times before moving the device in its own process."
    2. Same error with Surface Cover Telemetry...
    3. "A problem has occurred with one or more user-mode drivers and the hosting process has been terminated.  This may temporarily interrupt your ability to access the device."

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