Surface Pro 3 Firmware Updates for November Are Now Available

Microsoft today delivered a new set of firmware updates for Surface Pro 3, fixing issues with UEFI, Surface Pen, the Home button, and the wireless adapters. The firm had previously revealed that it would deliver November's firmware updates a bit later in the month than usual, and not on the normal Patch Tuesday schedule.

I wrote about one of the fixes in this month's set of updates yesterday in Will Microsoft Ever Fix the Surface Pro 3 Wi-Fi Issues?, but here's a complete rundown of what's new:

Surface Pro UEFI update (v3.11.350.0). This update resolves scenarios where the device will boot to a black screen if McAfee Defense Encryption 7.1.1 is installed, optimizes the FWPOST time to 3.7 seconds with the fast boot enabled, and prevents situations where the system clock loses time when the battery falls below 3 percent.

Surface Home Button driver update (v2.0.1174.0). Along with the pen update below, this update helps prevent scenarios where the device may accidentally wake up from sleep while being stored or carried.

Surface Pen Settings driver update (v2.5.14.0). Along with the home button driver update above, this helps to prevent scenarios where the device may accidentally wake up from sleep while being stored or carried.

Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth driver update (v15.68.3066.135). This is the big one and will hopefully, finally, fix the ongoing issues many users have with Wi-Fi on Surface Pro 3. It enables better throughput after waking from sleep and connecting to an 802.11AC network, ensures the Infra scan list is not empty while connected to a wireless display adapter, resolves an issue connecting to Cisco 1242 access points, ensures the device reconnects properly to a hidden SSID using a 5 GHz DFS channel after waking from sleep, and adds customer-requested functionality to prefer 5 GHz connections when both a 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz connection are present with the same SSID.

I'm installing the update now. Cross your fingers.