Which Surface Pro 4 issues remain?

[wynand32]

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.

Thanks, and right, it's not a biggie, just inconvenient. Biggest thing though is that it's not a flaw with the machine.

 

[wynand32]

Remove the Surface Cover Firmware from devices manger and reboot...

Hmm, okay, I'll try that. Or, I understand that we're supposed to get the mother of all firmware updates next week, so maybe I'll wait and see if that fixes it.

 

[Philtastic]

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.

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

These are not universal Windows 10 issues because I do not suffer them. Either you guys are installing software that cuts your battery life and causes BSODs or you guys are really unlucky with hardware.

 

[Zkyevolved]

These are not universal Windows 10 issues because I do not suffer them. Either you guys are installing software that cuts your battery life and causes BSODs or you guys are really unlucky with hardware.

I get BSOD while using Adobe Premiere CC.

I use my Surface as a PC. So I install the software I need and want.

Here is my list of installed applications, please let me know if you find something that is cutting my SP4 battery life:

And here is a list of all my running apps as we speak as well as the apps that start up with my SP4.

 

[Philtastic]

I get BSOD while using Adobe Premiere CC.

I use my Surface as a PC. So I install the software I need and want.

Here is my list of installed applications, please let me know if you find something that is cutting my SP4 battery life:
View attachment 7891 View attachment 7892

And here is a list of all my running apps as we speak as well as the apps that start up with my SP4.
View attachment 7893 View attachment 7894

Adobe Premiere might be BSOD'ing due to the shoddy Intel graphics drivers but I'm not certain on that. I guess I could download the demo and see how that runs. Is there any particular thing that I can test that will reproducibly cause a BSOD or is it seemingly random?

Off the top of my head from reading these forums for a long while, allegedly Dropbox is terrible for battery life, presumably due to frequent syncing and file monitoring. I don't use Dropbox thus can't really test that for myself. I've never used Bittorrent Sync but, having looked up what it does, that sounds like something that would also cause battery drain similar to Dropbox.

Basically, if that pic of your Task Manager is a representative sample of your typical idle/light load, then you are probably suffering battery drain because your CPU cannot properly idle due to all of those background tasks that add up. It's not that any particular one is high but that there is that much demand from so many programs. If you go to the Performance tab of Task Manager, you'll see the current clock speed of your CPU. If your CPU isn't spending most of its time under ~1 GHz (for the Core i5, ideally 0.5-0.7 GHz), you will have < 6 hour battery life. I've been more closely monitoring my true battery life lately (as seen in this thread: Tracking Battery Life), and, so far, I'm getting somewhere between 6.5-7.5 hours of battery life but with CPU usage usually < 3% when I'm not actively doing anything but still have programs open. When I check my CPU clock speed, I'm generally under 1 GHz with momentary but regular spikes into the 1-2 GHz range. If you could post a summary of your CPU usage and clock speed, that would be great for getting an idea of whether the battery drain you have is due to the CPU not idling.

 

[Zkyevolved]

Adobe Premiere might be BSOD'ing due to the shoddy Intel graphics drivers but I'm not certain on that. I guess I could download the demo and see how that runs. Is there any particular thing that I can test that will reproducibly cause a BSOD or is it seemingly random?

Off the top of my head from reading these forums for a long while, allegedly Dropbox is terrible for battery life, presumably due to frequent syncing and file monitoring. I don't use Dropbox thus can't really test that for myself. I've never used Bittorrent Sync but, having looked up what it does, that sounds like something that would also cause battery drain similar to Dropbox.

Basically, if that pic of your Task Manager is a representative sample of your typical idle/light load, then you are probably suffering battery drain because your CPU cannot properly idle due to all of those background tasks that add up. It's not that any particular one is high but that there is that much demand from so many programs. If you go to the Performance tab of Task Manager, you'll see the current clock speed of your CPU. If your CPU isn't spending most of its time under ~1 GHz (for the Core i5, ideally 0.5-0.7 GHz), you will have < 6 hour battery life. I've been more closely monitoring my true battery life lately (as seen in this thread: Tracking Battery Life), and, so far, I'm getting somewhere between 6.5-7.5 hours of battery life but with CPU usage usually < 3% when I'm not actively doing anything but still have programs open. When I check my CPU clock speed, I'm generally under 1 GHz with momentary but regular spikes into the 1-2 GHz range. If you could post a summary of your CPU usage and clock speed, that would be great for getting an idea of whether the battery drain you have is due to the CPU not idling.

In regards to Adobe Premier, it usually happens when adding an effect or exporting the video. Someone mentioned updating to the newest beta drivers, I'll give that a try.

I opened up task manager and resource monitor, and my CPU speed is ALWAYS above 1. and on idling, always under 2 (but still always above 1). Here's a video . I used to get 6-8 hours of battery life, now I don't even get 6. Maybe I'll get 5. I haven't had any software changes. I turned on the SP4, exited out of BTSync and Dropbox, and the speed is what you see in the video. Should I reset it to factory defaults and start anew?

Thanks for the info Philtastic.

 

[Kevin Cossaboon]

Hmm, okay, I'll try that. Or, I understand that we're supposed to get the mother of all firmware updates next week, so maybe I'll wait and see if that fixes it.

Please post if it helps. I sold my SP3 for a SB and gave up with it, and wishing that I had my SP3,. I will buy a SP4 when Microsoft get their $hit together. I just do not have the time to sink into trouble shooting for them right now.

 

[wynand32]

Please post if it helps. I sold my SP3 for a SB and gave up with it, and wishing that I had my SP3,. I will buy a SP4 when Microsoft get their $hit together. I just do not have the time to sink into trouble shooting for them right now.

I'll definitely post my findings. I got rid of my own SP3 to get this SP4, and I love the screen enough that I'm holding out for the fixes. But the fixes do need to come at some point or I might start regretting my decision.

 

[Philtastic]

In regards to Adobe Premier, it usually happens when adding an effect or exporting the video. Someone mentioned updating to the newest beta drivers, I'll give that a try.

I opened up task manager and resource monitor, and my CPU speed is ALWAYS above 1. and on idling, always under 2 (but still always above 1). Here's a video . I used to get 6-8 hours of battery life, now I don't even get 6. Maybe I'll get 5. I haven't had any software changes. I turned on the SP4, exited out of BTSync and Dropbox, and the speed is what you see in the video. Should I reset it to factory defaults and start anew?

Thanks for the info Philtastic.

For your and other's reference, this is what my Surface Pro 4 activity looks like at idle.

Video:

As you can see, my CPU usage stays around 1-4% and clock speed stays in the 0.6-0.7 GHz range most of the time.

Might be a good idea to eventually reset but, before you do that, you can try uninstalling one program at a time and see if you can identify what might be causing your elevated clock speed. Another thing you can try is to use Task Manager to close non-essential program processes one at a time to find the potential culprit.

 

[Zkyevolved]

For your and other's reference, this is what my Surface Pro 4 activity looks like at idle.

Video:

As you can see, my CPU usage stays around 1-4% and clock speed stays in the 0.6-0.7 GHz range most of the time.

Might be a good idea to eventually reset but, before you do that, you can try uninstalling one program at a time and see if you can identify what might be causing your elevated clock speed. Another thing you can try is to use Task Manager to close non-essential program processes one at a time to find the potential culprit.

Nope, that's not my case ... I'm running a windows defender scan to see if it finds any virus's, although I haven't downloaded anything strange. In regards to the task manager, I don't see anything that could be the culprit, but maybe you could tell me of any of these stand out as ones I could end. They mostly look like Windows tasks.

I saw my Up Time was very high, so I did a reboot, a cold reboot and a hard reboot... Finally, by pressing the power and volume down was I able to reboot the PC and restart that counter.

Another thing that I did was make a local account (brand new one) and then see if the speed dropped. CPU Utilization was at 1%, solidly (maybe for like 10 seconds, and then for 1 second it would jump to 2 or 3)... Didn't move... But speed moved always, and again, over 1 GHz... but CPU isn't budging...

Any ideas short of having to reinstall windows, once again....?

Even after uninstalling a bunch of software and ending processes, it stayed between .8 and 1.2 always.... Well, it had spikes, like with yours as well, but generally speaking it was higher... Is there any way to see what specific process is keeping the CPU cycled higher? A while back I installed that Intel program on another SP4, and I got way worse battery life because it was always logging everything. So I'd prefer not to use that one. But any other suggestions? I HATE having to reformat devices. I despise doing on my desktop once a year, and in 3 months I've done it 8 times on my various SP4s I've had...

 

[ptrkhh]

So, does anyone use the YouTube app Tubecast Pro? If so, does it work for you with the Intel drivers? Mine sure doesn't... Videos simply won't play, although audio plays. It's a tad frustrating.

Works on mine. I use the 4380 beta. The 4352 does glitch a lot.

• 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

No need for braveness. There is a premade registry script here Power Options - Add or Remove "Min/Max processor state"

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.

Totally agree, installed 8.1 on the SP4, and it couldn't get any better. Still getting sleep battery drain though.

 

[wynand32]

Works on mine. I use the 4380 beta. The 4352 does glitch a lot.

I'm using the 4380 drivers as well, and now I'm getting an explicit error when I run the app. I'll try uninstalling and reinstalling.

Incidentally, 4380 doesn't fix any of the sleep issues. I can't get mine to sleep in any way, shape, or form using these drivers. I'm starting to get actually angry about these issues and the lack of fix. I hope it comes tomorrow as rumored, because this really is beyond ridiculous.