Surface Tweak Tool for Surface Pro 2 - Release!

[simonking]

You need to have the Intel Control Panel installed. It was installed with the Surface Pro 2, however Microsoft removed it in the latest firmware for some reason.
I should do a check for this.

Get the latest drivers form Intel web site (get the zip file, not exe, and extract them). Note that you'll need to remove the current drivers from Device Manager, restart your system, and then back from Device Manager, install the drivers from the extracted files, else it won't work. Once done, restart your system once again.

The latest firmware created 2 issues in addition of not having the Intel Control Panel
-> Reduce number of colors (put a gradient black to white, full screen, you'll see it won't be smooth)
-> Reduce the number of options in fine tuning the brightness level of the display.

So it is a real screw up from Intel part. Intel fixed it, with newer drivers, but Microsoft didn't get them, probably they were release during testing and validation of the firmware process, and the above was not looked at.

Unfortunately it appears nowadays every upgrade is essentially a downgrade!

I was hoping to have to be able to do this without having to install any Intel driver. Things like automatic rotation, etc. got messed up if I recall correctly. Is there a way to manually edit the registry to force a particular resolution?

With the driver installed, I could use its own internal tool anyways to create the desired effect. I was hoping maybe you had hacked how to do it directly

 

[GoodBytes]

Unfortunately it appears nowadays every upgrade is essentially a downgrade!

I was hoping to have to be able to do this without having to install any Intel driver. Things like automatic rotation, etc. got messed up if I recall correctly. Is there a way to manually edit the registry to force a particular resolution?

With the driver installed, I could use its own internal tool anyways to create the desired effect. I was hoping maybe you had hacked how to do it directly

I'll see what I can do. But I won't be able to do more than what Intel can do. And, well, the current drivers are busted in any case and needs fixing by getting the latest version.

 

[simonking]

Did you have a direct link to the best available current Intel driver? It's a pain to find them on their site...

 

[GoodBytes]

Did you have a direct link to the best available current Intel driver? It's a pain to find them on their site...

Sure: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...Core™+Processors+with+Intel®+HD+Graphics+4400

 

[simonking]

Thank you! Checking it now.

 

[simonking]

Woohoo! This is what I get:

---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
The driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer manufacturer.

Setup will exit.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Surface Pro 2 with the Slower CPU Variant - running Windows 8.1 Update 1 64 bit.

Any thoughts?

 

[GoodBytes]

Woohoo! This is what I get:

---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
The driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer manufacturer.

Setup will exit.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Surface Pro 2 with the Slower CPU Variant - running Windows 8.1 Update 1 64 bit.

Any thoughts?

Yes. You can't just run the driver setup on the Surface. I don't know why it's so problematic... its Intel.

Here is what you need to do (going by memory):
1- Save and Close all your stuff.
2- Go in Device Manager, then expand Display adapters.
3- Double click on the Intel graphics cards (the only item that will be listed under Display adapters).
4- A panel will open. On it, go under the Driver tab.
5- Click on the Uninstall Button
6- A message box will show asking you if you are sure you want to do this, and it will have a check box to delete the drivers software for this device. Check the box for Delete the driver software for this device, and click on OK
7- Your screen will flicker a moment, just stand by.
8- When it will finish the uninstall process, and the screen is back up, restart the system. I believe you'll be prompt to do so, in any case when done.
9- Once you started the system back up, immediately check for Windows Update (from the classic Windows Update panel). You will see the latest System Firmware appear again. Right-click on it, and select Hidden. You want to do this, else Windows will install it automatically, and that will re-install the old Intel drivers.
10- Once done, close Windows Update, and now go back to Device Manager
11- Expand Display adapters, and you should find an item of different name as before (possibly with the name: Generic graphics adapter), double click on it (it will be the only one under "Display adapter"), then go to the Driver tab, andclick on Update Driver
12- A wizard will pop up. Click on Browse my computer for driver software
13- Click on browse, and and select the location where you extracted the zip file of the drivers.
14- Click on Next, and follow the rest of the wizard. During installation, the screen may flicker.
15- Once done, restart your system, and you you should be up and running.

Lot's of steps (thank you Intel), but easy to do

 

[simonking]

Interesting. Isn't the firmware update persistent? I've already installed it. Doesn't that update part of the hardware EEPROM's or similar, such that simply uninstalling a driver wouldn't just undo it?

I'm going to try and install the driver by manually pointing to the INF file now; I'll let you know where that leads momentarily

 

[simonking]

Not much luck - I've got just a gig of free space left, and the driver install fails with insufficient free disk space errors. A gig insufficient for a driver - the world we live in

 

[CustomSurfaceP2]

Not much luck - I've got just a gig of free space left, and the driver install fails with insufficient free disk space errors. A gig insufficient for a driver - the world we live in

I had the same issue with the newest drivers from microsoft (version from 6/10/2014), so I installed the latest drivers from Intel's website to fix the problem...which is now fixed. After you install the Intel display drivers, you'll probably have to reinstall the Wacom pen driver as well since it seem to have deactivated my pen.

An often overlooked step is you want to download a program called Driver Sweeper (google it) and use that to completely clean out your old display drivers before installing the new Intel ones.

Instructions:
1. download Intel driver (Zipped version, not *.exe from May 2014) from intel's website under Graphics 4400 Laptop drivers
2. Go to Device Manager and into Graphics Adapter and hit Uninstall Drivers (Do not Restart Computer)
3. Open Driver Sweeper program (v3.0.2 I think) and select Intel Chipset, then Analyze, then Delete the two that pops up in the next screen.
4. Restart Computer now
5. Go back to Device Manager and into Graphics Adapter and select Install Driver ---> Let me pick driver from location ----> Go to the GraphicsDriver folder from your extracted Zip folder and select the *.inf file.
6. Restart Computer
7. Reinstall Wacom Pen driver if needed.
8. Turn off Autoupdate in Windows Update under Control Panel so it won't reinstall the Microsoft Display drivers back onto your system.
9. Enjoy.

 

[simonking]

That's an incredible amount of work for a system that must be running out of the box, where MS controls both the hardware and software. It's incredible one has to prevent driver updates from installing thanks to the bugs they contain.

Is it possible to uninstall the firmware update? I have a new issue since installing it. The following devices appear to be unrecognized on my Surface Pro 2 on each reboot:

Has anyone else run into this? It is also causing my Surface Pro 2 to blue-screen when shutting down.

Edit: The issue does sometimes go away in between reboots. When it does, there's no problem shutting down. When the devices are undetected after booting up, its a nightmare with all kinds of random issues with apps, that won't go away until cold-reboots which result in the devices being detected successfully. Happened after the latest firmware upgrade as far as I can tell.

 

[GoodBytes]

Well. Nvidia doesn't have this problem. They make sure that their drivers works with all the system that have their products in. Why Intel is special? In fact, Nvidia uses 1 drivers to rule them all, model. Where they have 4 drivers:
-> GeForce desktop, GeForce mobiole, Quadro, and Quadro mobile. No mater what graphic card model you pick within the right range (Quadro or GeForce), and OS, the drivers are identical. No headaches, no complications.

You can't uninstall a firmware or back in to older version, but the firmware that Microsoft releases via Windows Update, also includes drivers, and those you can uninstall or update (although the firmware update will show up again in Windows Update).
I don't have these problems that you are experiencing. Something went wrong in the firmware upgrade. I would try and re-install it, or refresh the system and re-update the firmware form there (all data will be lost, so backup your stuff before, and all programs will need to be re-installed). And yes, I have Visual Studio (2013 Pro)