New Hardware Update: Is This The ONE?

[ncameron]

The game is afoot; there are new updates - in two parts. First you get a Hardware Update; then after it installs run the update utility again and you get three more:

• Surface Management Engine update
• Surface System Aggregator Firmware update, and
• Surface UEFI update.

At the moment I have no idea what they do. I turned Connected Standby back off, and thought I'd see SLEEP options and see more Standby States in Powercfg - but no.

The full description from MS is here: Microsoft Surface Book update history | Surface firmware updates
There's a lot of stuff about battery and charging, but there's only one line referring to SLEEP:

• Surface Book Base Firmware driver update (v1.2.0.0) improves battery life during sleep.

Underwhelming. So I have Connected Standby ON and have reselected a bunch of SLEEP options in the still reduced set of Power Options (I thought we'd get the others back too) and we'll see what happens!

 

[Mikewired]

Just discovered - installing it now - we will see.

 

[jnjroach]

From Panos Panay on the updates:

An update on Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book

 

[Micropel]

This update is SOOOO goooodddd!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sharpuser]

Update is very good.

- Surface Book just generally runs faster and smoother
- Pinch and zoom on screen or touchpad is best so far
- Maps show streets
- Detach / Re-attach is responsive and reliable
- Try this: Toggle the Caps key lock as fast as you can. You can hear the response. Can't outpace the machine.
- Cortana responds sooner, too.

 

[Mikewired]

Finalllllllly

 

[netuser]

Finalllllllly

Maybe ...

We are about to declare our company Surface Book pilot testing a failure and move on to another device. We have had multiple users ask for their old laptops back.
This is the last chance.

 

[ncameron]

Update is very good.

- Surface Book just generally runs faster and smoother
- Pinch and zoom on screen or touchpad is best so far
- Maps show streets
- Detach / Re-attach is responsive and reliable
- Try this: Toggle the Caps key lock as fast as you can. You can hear the response. Can't outpace the machine.
- Cortana responds sooner, too.

I agree with all that; last night I closed the lid at 99% battery, with settings to SLEEP then HIBERNATE after 30 mins, and with HELLO enabled, and in the morning it woke exactly as it should and I have 98% - not bad.

But Panos says, "Today’s updates include a set of Microsoft and Intel driver and firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 that will help you get the most of the power management options that Surface is designed to offer" - I can't believe that this is true when we still cannot have both SLEEP options AND the full suite of Power Plans available to us at the same time. And which SLEEP option are we getting?

 

[Seneleron]

Guess I have to leave hibernate on.. as an experiment I turned off hibernate and shut the lid around 10 pm last night. 7:15 AM this morning it's at 54%. I'm not asking for the SB to be a mac, but is there something so fundamentally different about the way macs handle sleep state VS Windows? 1-2% creep I can understand, but 46%??

 

[jnjroach]

I agree with all that; last night I closed the lid at 99% battery, with settings to SLEEP then HIBERNATE after 30 mins, and with HELLO enabled, and in the morning it woke exactly as it should and I have 98% - not bad.

But Panos says, "Today’s updates include a set of Microsoft and Intel driver and firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 that will help you get the most of the power management options that Surface is designed to offer" - I can't believe that this is true when we still cannot have both SLEEP options AND the full suite of Power Plans available to us at the same time. And which SLEEP option are we getting?

The Surface Book uses a S0iX enabled SoC, which is fundamentally different from traditional laptops at the engineering level. Connected Standby is the default "Sleep" which is not technically a sleep state but Powered On low power state....

The Surface Team has enabled Hibernate for further battery savings (default is 120 minutes of Connected Standby)

 

[Niterider4]

From Panos Panay on the updates:

An update on Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book

I'm not likely to believe anything Panos Panay has to say regarding the Surface. This is the guy who boasted about the Surface having superior battery metrics when he knew what he was saying was a load of crap. This is the guy that knew the Surface was not ready to be shipped to customers but decided to release it anyways. This is the guy who could have been honest and forthright about the problems with the Surface and the expected timelines for fixing them, but instead decided to obscure the problems and bury his weak apology in a subforum on a discussion board.

For me, Panos Panay has zero credibility.

 

[BigZAJ]

Welp... I still can't use two Mini-DP monitors, or even one Mini-DP and one DVI... I have to use a VGA in the mix or it shuts one down.