Microsoft Surface Book And Surface Pro 4 Update Doesn’t Fix Everything

Microsoft Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 owners are making the race to update their devices with what is perhaps the most significant update since both items were released in October of 2015. Panos Paney, the product manager for the Surface line, wrote a blog about it today on Windows Blog.

“Building devices people love is what drives our team. It’s why we come in to work every morning and it’s what keeps us up at night. And feedback from our customers is really important to the team and to me personally. I read the blogs, I read the comments, I read social media, I read the forums…and so does the team.”

Mr. Paney goes on to say that his team has been listening and channeling the feedback from customers into their products and today’s update is based on that feedback. He notes that the update includes a set of Microsoft and Intel driver and firmware updates designed to fix power management issues and make both the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 more productive. Twitter has been filled with excitement.

Paging @Surface Book and Pro 4 owners: You have a firmware update waiting https://t.co/xziVpsUYir

— Larry Hryb ?? (@majornelson) February 17, 2016

A good initial report on that Surface Pro 4 update just out today https://t.co/F9YXdh2oKB

— Mary Jo Foley (@maryjofoley) February 17, 2016

However, not everybody is gleaming with joy. At the Windows Central Surface Book forums, some complained that the update has caused other issues.

“Mine installed fine… but some really odd issues immediately after. First detach attempt resulted in the whole thing freezing up as soon as the clipboard was off the base. Re-attached, forced it to reboot. After reboot, locked up on the login screen (stuck at ‘turning camera on’). Was able to shut down normally & rebooted again. This time it logged me in, but Surface Detach thought the clipboard was still detached,” said forum user zerospace-net.

Others claimed that some of the updates actually failed. People were having a little more luck on the Surface Pro 4 forum.

“It seems like working ok so far, my windows hello camera still randomly having a hard time to be turn on and work, luckily I still have my finger print log in as backup,” wrote surfaceproX.

After working with the update for more than an hour on the Surface Book, it’s obvious that the trackpad problems still exist. The more off from the center you click, the more likely the trackpad won’t register the click. This appears to be more of a problem on the Intel Core i7 version than the i5.

The Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 were released last October and it appears that the Surface Pro 4 is the item that has received the most acclaim. After all, the Surface Pro 4 is in its fourth iteration and Microsoft has fixed out most of the bugs that surrounded the first three attempts. However, the Surface Book has been called a “beta” product by some and “unusable” by others.

Some have claimed that they have tried to return their defective Surface Book units, but the wait to get a new one is tremendous. Microsoft might want to issue a statement about the Surface Book before they receive a public backlash. Do you own a Surface Book? Are you still having problems with the Surface Book trackpad? Let us know in the comments section.

[Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images]