UPDATED 14:00 EDT / JANUARY 20 2014

NEWS

Microsoft releases fix for Surface Pro 2 December update

Surface Pro 2 users were delighted to get an update to the device’s firmware late last year.  The update promised improved system stability, wireless display and connectivity, and Surface Cover interaction, among other improvements. That’s all very well and good, but alas, that’s not what the update delivered. For some, the update cause more issues with the device’s battery life, while others weren’t even able to install the update and that was probably for the best. Microsoft moved quickly to pullthe update when consumers started to complain about and promised to deliver a fix after the holidays.

Now, the good news is that Microsoft has finally made good on that promise, releasing a firmware update for the Surface Pro 2 that begun rolling out as early as January 19. Those who received the update claim that Microsoft did not specify what the update was for – what was fixed or what was included in the update – but reported that it’s apparently fixed the WiFi, Bluetooth, pen & Type Cover 2 issues that were affected by the December 2013 update.

The downside is, not all the problems have been fixed, as some users still report cold booting with a microSD card, which causes excessive CPU consumption issues.

Microsoft confirmed that it has released an update, but said it’s only for those who installed the December 2013 update. The January 2014 update will not affect those who did not download the original problematic update.

“This weekend we released an update that addresses the unexpected wake and battery drain behavior experienced by a small number of Surface Pro 2 customers who installed the December Windows Update. This should have no impact on customers who had not received the December update. We are working hard to deliver the rest of the December update to those customers who had not received it prior to it being removed from distribution,” Microsoft said in a statement.

And for those using the first generation Surface tablets and suffering from battery issues because of the Touch and Type covers, Microsoft’s got your back. It released a fix for this problem last January 14 for Pros running Windows 8, before putting out an updated version of the fix for Surface Pros running Windows 8.1 the next day.


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