14 DAY TRIAL // The Surface Pro 3 was supposed to be a device that works flawlessly, especially when taking into account that the top-of-the-range model costs approximately $2,000 (€1,500), which is almost as much as a very powerful laptop or desktop PC.
It turns out, however, that some of the devices that have already found a buyer are affected by several problems, including overheating, limited Wi-Fi connectivity, and excessive fan noise.
Now it appears that a firmware update rolled out by Microsoft earlier this month is bricking the device completely, with some users reporting that, after installing the new version, touch is no longer working and the tablet is asking for a reboot every time it starts.
“I just picked up the Surface Pro 3 i5 128 yesterday and it was working just fine until I performed the updates yesterday. I now experience the same exact issue with the touchscreen/pen driver constantly stating that it needs the device to restart in order to work. No amount of restarts or uninstalls will get it to function. I even performed a restore of the device back to scratch. I used both the troubleshooter as well as the control panel. I also created another user account and still no response from the touchscreen or the windows button on the right,” one user whose tablet is affected by the issue reported.
Microsoft’s support engineers have already asked for more information, which is a sign that the company is investigating the problems, but a fix is yet to be released.
Another Surface Pro 3 buyer explained that in some cases, a hard reboot is solving the issues, but only temporarily, as touch stops responding after a few minutes.
“Have had my Pro 3 for a week now. It has been buggy, but after the firmware updated I too have had similar issues. On boot touch is gone, and sometimes touchpad is gone too. no option but to reboot. If I put it to sleep low chance it's coming back with touch, so I just shut down every time. To get it working I need to do a hard reboot, and most of the time touch comes back, sometimes it takes a couple reboots,” he posted.
Of course, everyone is expecting an updated firmware to solve the problems, but Microsoft is yet to confirm whether this is a common bug or only a limited number of tablets are suffering from this.