Firmware Updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 Address Reliability Issues

Delivering on an earlier promise, Microsoft last night issued major firmware updates for both Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 that seek to eliminate reliability issues in both devices.

The only question is what Microsoft fixed, exactly, as firm has yet to reveal what it changed. But here’s what we know so far. (I’ll update this with the actual list of changes when possible.)

First, you may recall that Microsoft posted the following message to its support forums the other day.

We will be publishing another Surface update later this week.

When you go to check for this update in Windows Update you will also notice a Windows 10 November Update being available. This is another update for the Windows 10 OS itself and adds more improvements and new features. For more information on this update, check Windows 10 November update: FAQ.

This was necessitated by major reliability issues, in particular with Surface Book, related to power management, Windows Hello, and the display driver. I’ve certainly experienced these issues myself, and as I’m traveling with Surface Book this week, I’m obviously keen to see the issues cleaned up.

Anyway … Last night Microsoft pushed the firmware updates out via Windows Update (along with an unrelated Windows 10 cumulative update for everyone on the new OS). I’ve installed it on my Surface Book, but it’s too early to know whether this has fixed the issues I’ve seen. But, again, the big question here is what changed.

Update: Here’s the list of updates in this latest firmware, update, which will be identified as System Firmware Update – 11/18/2015 in Windows Update. (These updates are identical across Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book.)

Surface UEFI update (v88.870.770.0) improves system stability.
Surface Management Engine update (v1.0.0.1183) provides touch optimizations.
Precise Touch Device driver update (v1.1.0.217) provides touch optimizations.
Management Engine Interface driver update (v11.0.0.1172) provides touch optimizations.
Surface Touch Servicing ML driver update (v1.0.36.1) provides touch optimizations.
Microsoft Surface ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery driver update (v1.2.0.2) ensures correct Surface driver is installed.

So cross your fingers, folks. Every Surface firmware update brings with it great hope, but also the possibility that issues won’t be fixed as expected, or that new issues will be encountered.