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
    2014-02-13T18:39:04+00:00

    Dear TBone,

    I have 3 x Surface Pro 2s and am using a SanDisk Ultra 64Gb MicroSD cards.

    All of my 3 units displayed exact same signs of the problem.

    These are as follows...

    1. Cold-booting a BRAND-NEW out of the box SP2 with the MicroSD card inserted and leaving the unit idle for 30sec, Task Manager opened showing CPU usage sorted view. Hogging the CPU is the Client Server Runtime (csrss.exe). The 40%-60% csrss.exe lags the system to the point where starting applications are a pain and scroll or swipes gestures at the Start Screen are no longer smooth.

    Solution: Put the unit to sleep and wake it back up to temporary rid the problem.

    1. Once updated to October Firmware and above... Cold-booting SP2 with the MicroSD card inserted and leaving the unit idle for 30sec, Task Manager opened showing CPU usage sorted view. Hogging the CPU are System (ntoskrnl.exe) & System Interrupts. The 30% ntoskrnl.exe does not visibly lag the system, but battery hungry enough to ruin your day, every day.

    Solution: Put the unit to sleep and wake it back up to temporary rid the problem.

    A Jurassic issue cross-threaders can read all about HERE... something which plagued all of my 3 x SP2 units, Tried updating the SD-SLOT driver in the Device Manager but there isn't one. You can try updating the SD-Card driver after you insert it, but the best driver has already been applied. Hope I make sense.

    PMR.

    I have just tried a cold boot. I have the SanDisk MicroSD card plugged in and do not have any CPU usage issues. Not sure there is much else I can offer to help.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-13T17:16:10+00:00

    You guys all REALLY need to look in your system event logs and look for EVENT ID 41.  This is NEVER a good thing.  It is an unexpected shutdown event when the system crashes usually during sleep or wake or hibernate.

    Those of you thinking your Surface's are working NEED to look at ACTUAL data and stop using your gut.

    EVERY Surface Pro 2 I have worked on has experienced these issues and the end user is just not fully away of them.

    This is maddening....

    The Feb firmware did not resolve these issues and with the feb firmware my surface no longer goes to sleep at all when closing the lid.  After rollback it does.

    Also those of you that keep saying you can't rollback firmware on a surface are also ill informed.  When you reset a surface pro the firmware absolutely reverts.  Same with the firmware patches.  They CAN be reverted.  Microsoft built this in i would assume to prevent bricking devices by a bad firmware update.

    Instead of just making comments based on your semi knowledge of firmware for other products you should make sure you understand how it actually works on a Surface.   Here is a tip, actually look at the firmware version in device manager and roll it back and see it revert.

    David,

    I'm really not sure anyone is prepared to argue with you about this.  You may indeed be very right about what you're saying.   But, this thread is filling up with people who have achieved resolution with the Updates on Tuesday.  Yet you are still screaming the sky is falling.   Again, you may be right.  But yelling ID 41 doesn't help anything.  The vast majority of people here, do not understand what that means.  You can't argue away they are not of value, because they do not understand what you are saying.  You point them to the Event Viewer and they see red, and freak. 

    Why don't you be more specific about what you want people to look at, and why.  

    For me, I currently have 5 ID 41's.  2 are power down related and 3 are sleep related.  But I have NONE since the update was installed.  According to what you have written, I should be freaking out, but this update was supposed to deal with battery meal and restarts from Sleep problems.  For me, I would call this a success so far, but according to you I should still be freaking out.

    Help us all out by being specific at what you think people should look at, and why...what's the impact.  We're not all system engineers with 20 yrs experience.  Help us understand what you're saying.

    after the feb update I was also getting the Event ID 41,  however,  I turned of hibernate which deleted the hibernate system file,  also,  I set the swap file size to 0,  rebooted then set the swap file back to default, and turned hibernate back on.

    since then I have not had any event id 41 errors.

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