14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft rolled out a new Surface Pro 3 firmware update last week, but it appears that this version comes with issues that make a number of devices almost unusable.
Posts on Microsoft’s Community forums confirm that, after applying the new firmware update, a number of Surface Pro 3 devices are experiencing various issues, including black screens and BSODs.
First and foremost, it’s the black screen that many people seem to be getting after installing the firmware update.
“After hitting the reboot button the machine shuts down but do not come back. I have to long press power button for 30 seconds and use ‘power + vol-‘ buttons to turn the device back on. Pressing the shut down button will also cause the same. A single click on the power button just won't boot up the device normal,” one user explains.
BSODs and battery drains
Then, it appears that the firmware update also makes the device wake up from sleep randomly, but also disable the Surface App. And what’s worse, it appears that some are getting a BSOD with error DRIVER_POWER_STATE_failure, so the only solution is to reboot the device and hope that it never happens again.
Others point to even more problems experienced after applying the Surface update, including huge battery drains.
“I am experiencing these problems as well. Came back from work last night to a hot bag full Surface Pro 3 and 20% battery drain from full charge. I thought I had left those problems behind in 2015! Also, Windows Hello fails on Type Cover 4 fingerprint reader and locked me out. Received a message saying to plug device in for a couple of hours and try again. Full charge. Volume up + Power forced restart. Have not yet restarted normally.”
Microsoft is already investigating the issue as we speak, so expect a patch to be provided to all Surface Pro 3 devices in the coming days, especially because the number of impacted tablets seems to be quite big.
Update: learn here how to fix Surface Pro 3 BSODs after the January 2016 firmware update.