With the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 launches imminent, Microsoft delivered Day 1 updates for those hankering for new Microsoft-branded devices. The hope was that the updates would be ready by the time customers unboxed and booted their shiny, new devices. As is the case with most new devices these days, part of the purchase process is installing updates on first boot to fix bugs identified between the time it went to manufacturing to the time it was ready to hit store shelves and consumer hands.
When this latest update was made available, though, Microsoft wasn’t ready to share what was included in the updates. On Monday, Microsoft christened new Update History pages for the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. Today, the details of the updates have now been supplied on those pages.
Of note, it’s interesting to see how much of the subsystem is similar between the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book. In the update, there’s only a single difference: the Surface Integration Driver version. (tap of click the image below to view the large version)
Unfortunately, when you look through the details, particularly for the Surface Book, you won’t see fixes for some of the currently reported problems for the Surface Book. Over the past couple days, there are numerous reports of the Surface Book looking very much like a Gen 1 product (though Microsoft swears it’s a Gen 3 or Gen 4). Most of the reported problems can be fixed through an additional software/firmware update, so I expect another one is imminent. But, slapping down $4,000 (in some cases) for a laptop, it can be frustrating to find it locking up constantly or that it stops functioning – particularly when a Day 1 update should’ve caught the common problems. Some have been successful getting replacement devices that have fixed their issues – which could mean that there’s faulty hardware in the manufacturing process.
Here’s some of the commonly reported problems with the Surface Book:
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Enabling Hyper-V causes the Surface Book screen to flicker. (turning off Hyper-V fixes the issue)
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Detaching the screen causes some weirdness with the keyboard once reattached.
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If you detach/reattach the screen, the Surface Book will not resume charging.
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Intel video driver causing the Surface Book to freeze. (a temporary fix: disable the Intel HD Graphics 520 in Device Manager and reboot. This forces the Surface Book into Basic Display mode)
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Wobbly display when reattached. (seems to be a manufacturing flaw with a minority of devices)
Interestingly, the Surface Pro 4 has had less complaint. By now, though, in its fourth iteration you’d except Microsoft to have its tablet devices worked out. I think this is further indication that Surface Book is a Gen 1 product – and one of the primary reasons I chose the Surface Pro 4 over the Surface Book to replace my daily driver. There are a few more reasons, which I’ll share soon, but that was the tipping point for me.
