Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 owners have been frustrated with their new devices due to several issues involving the display, standby mode, and more. After issuing an apology and promising that fixes were inbound in 2016, Microsoft has finally released a firmware update for both the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 dated January 27, 2016.
Here is the changelog for the Surface Pro 4 system firmware update dated 1/27/2016:
- 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.
It appears the Surface Pro 4 firmware update does not fix the battery drain issue during sleep or the graphics driver issue, as evident by the changelog. However, one can argue that the first bullet point refers to the battery drain issue. The only way to find out is to test this firmware update to see for sure. In this firmware update, Microsoft has improved the battery charging times, fingerprint sensor accuracy, and WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity.
Here is the changelog for the Surface Book system firmware update dated 1/27/2016:
- 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.
- NVIDIA GeForce GPU update (v10.18.13.5914) improves stability.
Microsoft has added a graphics driver update for Surface Book models that feature a dedicated Nvidia GPU, as well as an updated driver that improves the way the Surface Book clipboard detects the keyboard during reattachment. No word if any of the lingering issues people have been facing were addressed with today’s firmware rollout.
Head over to Settings > Update & Security and check for updates. If you are not seeing it right away, give it some time and check again. Download and install the update and let us know if it resolves any nagging issues you have been facing.
Further reading: Microsoft, Surface Book, Surface Pro 4
