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Which Surface Pro 4 issues remain?

zaskas

New Member
Well......sad to see my first post go to this topic.....


Purchased my SP4 i5/8/256 yesterday and those first 30m were awesome......it was the time to get home and turn it on......afterwards it's been all downhill......

Prior to buying I read a lot of "vs" articles but ignorant me (apple fan boy vices???) didn't bother to look at the real world feedback.....


Mail crash crash crash
OneNote crash crash crash


Everything updated and still......crash crash crash.......

It is an awesome piece of HW and I have to say after years of iOS and OSX I am marvelled with W10 overall....

Bottom line......either I get this thing working until the end of the week or it's going back to the store!!!!

zaskas

UPDATE

Sad to say my SP4 found its way back to the store last evening......

Tried to reset it and it entered a boot loop at 7% mark......

It is really a shame.

I hope to pick another one up real soon.....but only when MS gets W10 act together.
 

JB474

New Member
UPDATE

Sad to say my SP4 found its way back to the store last evening......

Tried to reset it and it entered a boot loop at 7% mark......

It is really a shame.

I hope to pick another one up real soon.....but only when MS gets W10 act together.


Matt, that is really a shame. I had the same problem and had to reset too. My SP4 (i7/8/256) hang on the 7% mark for almost twenty minutes and suddenly it went on. Since then, it seems to run fine. Almost no crashes (I warn against the bèta intell 540 update because it was probably causing my problems).
Hope you have more luck with your next SP4.
 

dstrauss

Active Member
Since the power issue appears to becoming a VERY difficult physics issue, here's my suggestions in the interim:
  • Hibernate is your friend. I set mine to hibernate 15 minutes after going into sleep, and now I lose about 3% on long sleep cycles (like overnight). It gives me a chance to move around the office in that 15 minute window, but it's not on fire in my briefcase when I get home. It does slow down startup a bit, but really an extra 5-10 seconds is liveable.
  • Set your WiFi driver to not stay on while in sleep mode.
  • If you are really brave, you can find references online to registry edits that let you regain the ability to adjust max processor power, so I set mine to 90% when on battery - stays out of turboboost - AND NO, I won't post the instructions because I've been burned by trying to tell others how to use regedit - if you are technically capable, you can find it and will know what (and what not) to do.
Maybe we'll get a gift from Redmond before they announce the Surface Pro 5...:rolleyes:

NOW - for the bright side - I know I am an incessant whiner about MS pushing incomplete devices out the door, BUT - Surface Pro 4 (i7/16gb/512gb) is the best business computer I have ever owned (beginning with a Toshiba T1100 Plus in 1986)!
  • Pair it with a dock, and it is a desktop replacement (everything short of a dGPU gaminig machine). I've got two 2560x1440 monitors, Ethernet, laser printer, USB speakers, Logitech keyboard & mouse, and 2TB USB HDD all hanging off the dock running straight and smooth (knock on wood)
  • Snap on the EXCELLENT Type Cover,and you have a MacBook Pro 13 competitor with a few less ports, but 1 pound lighter, much thinner, active digitizer and touch screen. Sure, it's not as easy to balance in your lap as that MacBook, or Dell XPS 13, but it is nearly perfect otherwise.
  • Snap off the Type Cover, and it is a great tablet (remember, the original iPad was only 4 ounces lighter) with all of the fantastic ports, tons of storage, and access to ANY Windows program. Granted, very poor app support still in the Windows store, but there is nearly nothing you can't do in a web browser. My iPad Air 2 has been benched.
I have no doubt they will get this sorted out, and to be fair Intel shares a lot of the blame, BUT they need to get ahead of these things before a major release trumpeting they are "releasing the thunder" when in fact it came out as a light spring shower...
 
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wynand32

Well-Known Member
So, I've lost track. Is the Type Cover not responding after waking still a known issue? It's been happening more and more on mine, I constantly need to remove and attach it to get it working again.
 

Zkyevolved

Active Member
Let's see... I'd like to chime in and mention the issues I'm still having:
  • Graphics drivers are causing BSOD on certain apps like Adobe Premiere. (intel's fault, yes, but it's MS's fault to USING Intel without having proper drivers).
  • Skylake chip is still not letting the device go into sleep mode. (intel's fault, yes, but it's MS's fault to USING Intel without having proper drivers).
  • Trackpad SOMETIMES gets frozen for 3-5 seconds, which isn't a big deal, but boy does it bug me.
  • Slow wake times
  • Device not going to sleep at all when closing the type cover.
  • Low battery life on Balanced, but exceptional battery when I lowered my CPU to 50% (intel's fault, yes, but it's MS's fault to USING Intel without having proper drivers).

I do agree with some statements above that say that the SP4 is the best device out there. But it isn't the most reliable, sadly. This is my 6th device, and this one has a spec of dust under the screen and I don't want to return it because everything else works fine. I know that there are some workarounds for the SP4 and Surface Book to get past some of these issues, but still... It's been months since the launch of the device... Isn't it time we had these issues fixed? It's not like opening weekend, or even the first month. I've had the SP4 for 3 months now, and it's been out for even longer than that in the US...

Other than that, I totally agree. I love the SP4. Fantastic hardware, great software. It's just... buggy... I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't a tech-know-how... I don't see more than 1% of the buyers doing regedit hacks or limiting settings... People have expectations to go into a store, give their hard earned money for a product that works for them... This isn't that device yet... Hopefully February will bring this stability to an awesome product line.
 

LuckyL

Member
BSOD, sleep and power management issues are not Skylake specific. I had the same issues after updating my SP2 to Windows 10. Likewise, before I returned my Sp4 for a refund, I tried to install Windows 8.1: no power management or other issues, battery life was much better - only a few drivers I could not get to install.

IMHO, Windows 10 is the culprit. 6 month into ist release, and it still is not fit for RTM, not even close. On a tablet, it's two steps back compared to the much maligned Win 8.1.

And then Edge browser which MS admits is not yet a finished product. And yet, they ship it as default browser (!?!) so it keeps getting up your nose.

It looks like it's no longer about qualtity, usability and the customer. It's about shipping new features at all cost, even if it means that no product review or testing is done prior to shipping.

And that is something we see through the whole MS Portfolio: features, features, features. Ship now, fix later (or never as the bow wave gets bigger). Who gives a monkeys about the customer experience?

Welcome to Software as a Service.
 

mikedyce

New Member
The only issue I have is the scaling with some software packages. I know there's a workaround been mentioned but I will not mess with the registry editor. OK, chicken!

Everything else is fine & has been since release date in the UK, though I don't know about any sleep issues - I never use it, prefering the off switch. I'm never in such a hurry that I can't wait for the 10 seconds it takes to boot from cold.
 

Zkyevolved

Active Member
BSOD, sleep and power management issues are not Skylake specific. I had the same issues after updating my SP2 to Windows 10. Likewise, before I returned my Sp4 for a refund, I tried to install Windows 8.1: no power management or other issues, battery life was much better - only a few drivers I could not get to install.

That's even worse! If it's a Windows 10 issue, that means the Surface team won't fix it. They'll just "send an email" to the Windows team and ask them to fix it... Great :(
 

wynand32

Well-Known Member
So, is nobody else still having the Type Cover disconnection problem? Really hoping it's not my unit, because it seems decent enough otherwise (same firmware-related issues, but everything else seems fine).
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
So, is nobody else still having the Type Cover disconnection problem? Really hoping it's not my unit, because it seems decent enough otherwise (same firmware-related issues, but everything else seems fine).
Remove the Surface Cover Firmware from devices manger and reboot...
 
So, is nobody else still having the Type Cover disconnection problem? Really hoping it's not my unit, because it seems decent enough otherwise (same firmware-related issues, but everything else seems fine).

I've had the issue. I just disconnect it and re-connect. Not a biggie, but a pain. I've only seen it happen when waking.
 
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