14 DAY TRIAL // The firmware update that Microsoft rolled out for the Surface Pro 3 this month is causing more harm than good, with many users complaining that the new version causes BSODs and a series of other problems that cannot be repaired right now.
Fortunately, a solution does exist, and in a post on the Microsoft Community forums, the company confirms that rolling back the Surface Pen drivers could address all problems experienced by Surface Pro 3 users.
“If you are having issues related to the DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE BSOD, having issues with Surface restarting on its own, or long boot/wake from sleep times, please check the version of the Surface Pen Settings driver that you have. The current version of Surface Pen Settings for Surface Pro 3 should be version 4.0.112.1 dated 3/30/2015,” a company support engineer explains.
How to go back to the old Surface Pen driver
If you’re also experiencing these issues on your Surface Pro 3, here’s how you can roll back the Surface Pen driver and restore the version that’s said to be working fine.
First and foremost, click the Windows 10 Start menu icon and launch the Device Manager. Look for the Human Interface Devices list and expand it, double-click the Surface Pen settings and click the Driver tab to access version information.
In case the displayed version is 10.0.302.0, you are strongly recommended to roll back the driver to version 4.0.112.1. Microsoft says that this is the one that should be working fine and help you get rid of all those errors until a patch arrives.
The final step is to restart the Surface, and it’s very important not to shut it down, but to perform this reboot.
There’s still no word on when the fix could arrive, but given the big number of impacted devices, expect Microsoft to come up with a patch in the following weeks.