Bluetooth Issues Since Surface Updates - 5 August 2021

Done! Of course, since I fixed this problem by backing off the August AVASTAR drivers, the feedback does not include diagnostic information about the failure. But this should give MS all the information necessary about my SP6 hardware revision levels?

If Microsoft is serious about fixing this problem I might be able to help by recreating it. But I am reluctant to do so as my device has been working properly since August 17 and this would require quite a bit of time and I don't have a lot of that. I expect that you can get the required failure diagnostic information from other users who are currently experiencing the failure.

Will everyone with this issue please file Feedback problem reports if you have not already done so using the Feedback Hub App and upvote reports by others? I did a search and did not find a lot of reports

Note that since Microsoft won't support Windows 11 on Surface Pro 2017 5th generation, it is unlikely they will look at feedback if you are running an Insiders W11 build.

Wow! What has MS descended to? I found a fix for this problem on August 17, as detailed below in another forum thread that was copied to this one, and used successfully by many surface owners to permanently fix this problem as long as drivers remain un-updated:

On https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/all/bluetooth-is-turned-off/351ed271-b0fc-4bdd-82ba-e8afb2624505?rtAction=1628596915665&page=2 I wrote:

It appears that I may have temporarily fixed the problem. It's been two days and running, with several reboots and many sleep/wake cycles. Hopefully this fix is good and will last until MS gets their act together and releases some good drivers. Again, my tablet is a Surface Pro 6, 21H1, OS Build 1943.1083, and Bluetooth is missing, so in my case, no pen or MS BT mouse. Steps to repair:

1. Go to device manager.
2. Uninstall Bluetooth>>Marvell AVASTAR Bluetooth Radio Adapter. When you uninstall it, delete the driver (an option on the Uninstall dialog box).
3. Uninstall Network adapters>>Bluetooth device. Delete the driver. This is the action that actually fixed it.
4. Reboot. W10 will reinstall both these devices with earlier drivers. In my case, the AVASTAR adapter is now at Version 15.68.9112.23, Date 12/02/2016. The Network adapter Bluetooth device is now at Version 10.0.1941.1, Date 6/21/2006.

If that fixes it, the next effort is to ensure that it remains fixed until MS releases good drivers, as the update process will constantly reinstall the latest level drivers on your behalf (we're Microsoft and we are here to help!) and it will fail again. If you have access to the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc), you can turn off driver updating. Run gpedit and go to Computer Configuration>>Administrative Templates>>Windows Components>>Windows Update>>Do not include drivers with Windows Updates, Open it and push the Enable button. Done.

However, if you are running W10 Home, gpedit is not normally available. I understand that you can still get to it by installing the Policy Plus application. I run Policy Plus on my W10 Pro devices so can't verify for sure whether it will actually run on Home, but that's what they say. It is more robust than gpedit, allowing the user to filter the display, so I often use it instead of gpedit.

Now you have to research the driver updates as they are released to determine whether they will permanently fix the problem and if so install them manually.

Please post your results in this thread.

This is obviously and without doubt a driver problem and yet MS is saying they can't fix it but will exchange a device with the problem that is still under warranty for one with updated hardware? What about the rest of us? Where does that put me with my 2-3 year old SP6?

This is unacceptable. Unless fixed by MS, when it is time to upgrade hardware you can bet that it won't be another Surface device or a Microsoft product at all, as much as I have enjoyed my two Surface Pro devices over the last several years, perfect solutions for my needs were it not for $MS!

David Dalton

i have just been in a chat with someone from microsoft and they have offered me a replacement as my device is still under warranty.

seems pathetic though.... when hundreds of us are reporting the same failure after the same update...

and they dont want to do anything to fix it???

its a 3K plus device...

ugh.

Agreed.

They won’t do anything unless you take action. And remember, you’ll pay a goodly sum to get a replacement machine, which will have the same Marvell component. I don’t trust that it won’t fail. Why pay hundreds of dollars to get the same unacceptable result?

But if you read one of the support group’s replies, you’ll see that their recommendation is to buy a new computer. I plan to do that, but am not sure it will be a Microsoft product.