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Highly Anticipated Firmware for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 Releases
An update many have been waiting for seeks to solve some battery issues with Microsoft's latest Surface models.
Rod Trent
January 28, 2016
2 Min Read
The first firmware update for 2016 has released for Microsoft’s most current Surface editions, the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book.
Last week, Microsoft delivered the first firmware of the year for the Surface Pro 3. That update also carried with it a new Intel graphics driver that many hoped would solve bluescreens and video crashes. I can attest, personally, that the Intel driver is much kinder, but still doesn’t solve video crashes 100%. What’s interesting about this new driver (which is actually an older, beta driver, btw) is that video will still crash but now there’s no message. The screen blanks out like before, there’s just no confirmation that it was an actual crash.
The firmware update available today for the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book looks to solve some of the glaring battery issues, but looking through the rest of the list, that’s about it. There’s a combination of other issues that it appears Microsoft is still working on. Microsoft seems to be applying the same updating model for its first-party hardware as for Windows 10 – its improved only in small increments.
Richard Hay over at the Supersite is digging into the details and will report later today on how well the update delivers. For now, here’s the full
Surface Embedded Controller Firmware (v88.899.256.0) adds battery charging enhancements and thermal tuning.
Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth driver update (v15.68.9037.59) improves access point compatibility and throughput on 5Ghz networks.
Surface DTX driver update (v1.3.202.0) improves detection of the Surface keyboard to the clipboard.
In addition to the updates list above, the following additional update is available for Surface Book devices that have the optional NVIDIA GeForce GPU discrete graphics chip:
NVIDIA GeForce GPU update (v10.18.13.5914) improves stability.
Surface Embedded Controller Firmware (v103.899.256.0) adds battery charging enhancements and thermal tuning.
Surface Fingerprint Sensor driver update (v2.2.10.6) improves accuracy.
Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth driver update (v15.68.9037.59) improves access point compatibility and throughput on 5Ghz networks.
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