Here’s a way to solve the problem that unexpectedly mutes the Surface sound

Nov 8, 2012 13:43 GMT  ·  By

Just as we told you a bit earlier today, Microsoft Surface comes with a major bug that unexpectedly mutes the sound when using the Touch Cover.

Several users have reported the problem to Microsoft and the company is now investigating it, so an official fix should be out in a couple of days.

In the meantime, here’s a workaround provided by Microsoft by phone to all those whose Surface is affected by the bug.

First of all, you should go to Device Manager and completely remove the Touch Cover driver. Once the process comes to an end, hit the “Refresh” button and reinstall the driver. Windows RT should take care of the entire process all by itself.

In case the problem still persists, you’re strongly recommended to reset the device. That’s a problem though, as resetting the device removes all your personal data along with user-installed apps.

If you’re willing to do that and the sound continues to be muted at random times, you have no other option than to wait for an updated driver for the Touch Cover. Microsoft’s staff says that the updated software should be released soon, most likely in a couple of days.

It appears, however, that this isn’t a hardware issue. Luckily, it’s all because some faulty drivers, as some users have reported that changing the Touch Cover doesn’t make any difference.

“I'm on my second Touch Cover and the problem still persists. What makes me nervous is that if I'm 0 for 2 then what hope do I have for a third. How extensive is this potential bad batch? I'm certainly hoping it's a software issue, and as a developer myself I'm having the worst luck reproducing the mute issue. Sometimes I'm not touching anything and sometimes my hand is in the top leftish corner,” one user said.

We’ve also contacted Microsoft for an official workaround for this issue, so we’ll keep you posted.