Microsoft has rolled out its November updates for the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book, which address the screen flickering issues foremost that users of both devices have been complaining about since they got their hands on the devices.
As per C/Net, Microsoft has rolled out four updates for the Surface Pro 4 while the Surface Book received five. The updates were announced on November 2.
The fixes for both devices include HD Graphics 520 driver update (v20.19.15.4308), which fixes display issues including the screen flickering; the display audio driver update (v8.20.0659), which supports compatibility with the updated graphics driver; the surface embedded controller firmware update (v88.855.257.0), which improves system stability; and the Surface pen settings driver (v10.0.302.0), which adds support for future functionality on Windows 10.
The Surface Book’s additional update is the Surface system aggregator firmware update (v88.853.258.0), which improves the keyboard and the trackpad experience.
This comes as great news for the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book owners as the release of Microsoft’s patches did not take quite a long time to come.
However, users of the tablet and the laptop may have to wait a bit longer before the updates completely roll out on their devices.
Microsoft has released a statement on their page saying that the updates provided via the Windows Update Service are delivered in stages to customers.
As a result, not all Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 devices will receive the update at the same time. But the American tech company assured that the updates will be delivered to all devices.
Customers had complained that the latest devices from Microsoft suffered from screen flickering issues apparently due to a driver issue when the devices are running Hyper-V virtual machines, PC World reports.
Another glitch that the latest devices from Microsoft seem to be facing is the major battery drain issue. Battery capacity plays a large role on consumer preference for the gadgets they purchase as it needs to keep up with its portability function.
According to Tech Radar, the culprit for this bug was apparently Windows’ own creation as well. Ironically, Windows Hello, the biometric system for Windows 10, is reportedly behind the battery issue that the newest Surface devices are experiencing.
One customer on the Microsoft Answers forum shared how he documented the huge difference in the amount of standby time delivered by his Surface Pro 4 when Windows Hello was turned on.
Surprisingly, with the biometric login system is on, the device just lasted for five hours of connected standby time. But when it is off, it skyrocketed to a battery life of 87 hours, a massive difference.
For Surface Pro 4 owners who want to see the difference it makes, Windows Hello could be turned on or off under the settings menu of their tablet.
In the same forum, several users stated that they were experiencing the same problem. Microsoft, for its part, has not yet released a statement whether Windows Hello is indeed the root problem for the battery issue. But the tech firm will probably release a bug fix update regarding the glitch.
Some reviews have also noted various issues with the Surface Book such as random crashes and lock-ups, boot failures, driver errors, instances of the trackpad freezing, and more.
The Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4 were announced on October 6 during the Windows 10 Devices event and were released 20 days later. Despite glowing reviews for both gadgets, it only took a week for users to discover multiple problems that Microsoft didn’t catch with its latest devices.
The Surface Pro 4 packs the same 12.3-inch screen as the previous Surface Pro 3. It has a pixel density of 267 ppi using PixelGlass technology. The tablet is powered by a 6th generation core i7 Intel processor along with either a 4GB, an 8GB, or a 16GB of RAM.