ARM Surface issues

Hi Andrea GG,

I can understand your frustration. When purchasing a device, it is reasonable to expect common tasks such as printing to work reliably without having to repeatedly remove and reinstall a printer. Running into compatibility issues after your purchase can certainly make you feel like you're not provided enough information beforehand.

The challenge with ARM-based Windows devices is that some hardware manufacturers have not fully updated their software drivers for the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. While Microsoft does publish information about ARM and application compatibility, I agree that it sometimes can be easy to overlook for common users.

While posting here may attract others who have the same idea with you, it is unlikely that this will be reviewed by the engineering team. So if you would like Microsoft to review how ARM compatibility limitations are communicated to customers, I would encourage submitting feedback through the official channel:

1. Press Win + F to open Feedback Hub > submit under Surface category.
2. Describe the issues you're facing with ARM, especially involving the printer.
3. Explain that you want any limitations to be mentioned before buying process.

Regarding your printer, you should check with Canon support to see whether they provide an ARM64-compatible driver for your specific model, as that can sometimes resolve the need to repeatedly remove and re-add the printer. If your Surface is a recent purchase, you can also consider a replacement to not-ARM device.

Thank you for taking the time to share, and I know this is probably not the direct response you were looking for. But Q&A is just a community support forum, contributors here unfortunately do not represent Microsoft, and cannot speak on their behalf.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. My frustration was compounded by the fact that I asked Copilot for help. I went through several iterations, each time providing additional information, and each time I received verbose instructions on how to fix the problem, all of which ultimately turned out to be inaccurate and useless.

I think Microsoft should be concerned about compatibility with older products when launching a new Surface. I didn't expect to have to throw away a new printer when I changed PCs. But apparently I was wrong.

The funny thing is that, for a few months, everything worked perfectly. Then, I think after some update, the PC stopped connecting to the printer automatically, unless I remove and add it back.

If the printer worked normally for several months, Andrea GG, and only started behaving this way after an update, this may not be a simple case of an unsupported printer or a fundamental ARM limitation. That points more toward a driver, Windows update, or communication issue that developed later rather than an incompatibility that existed from day one.

This distinction is important, because based on what you've described, the printer and Surface were capable of working together at one point. If you still remember the time around the issue first started, you can check Settings > Windows Update > Update History. If there's an update correspond with the issue, see if you can uninstall it and maybe that can make a difference(?).

Still, I agree with your broader point. Whether the root cause ultimately lies with Windows, the printer driver, or the manufacturer, it is understandable to feel the need to be informed of all pros and cons before making a purchase for a premium device.

The timeline you've described suggests there may be a software or driver change involved, and hopefully that can be identified and corrected rather than requiring new hardware. Given that the printer worked correctly before, I would be hesitant to conclude that you need to replace the printer yet.

I just realized that the issue is not systemic but is specific to some Office softwares. I tried to print from Photos, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Photos and Word instantly connect to my Canon 3070 Printer. But PowerPoint and Excel don't even after many minutes. We are talking quarters of hour without being able to connect.

I posted therefore a new question that better describes the issue under the title "Powerpoint and Excel do not Connect to Canon 3070".