While Microsoft acknowledged the power management bug back in October 2015, even the latest firmware updates for its flagship Surface devices has been unsuccessful in resolving the issue.
After a formal apology to Surface 4 and Surface Book owners in December, users were relying on Microsoft to release a fix for the sleep mode issue with the scheduled January update.
As Paul Thurrott points out the latest update for Surface 4 and Surface Book just fixes issues related to battery charging, wireless connectivity, and graphics stability.
The official Microsoft webpage highlights the improvements and bug fixes in the January 2016 update:
- Surface Embedded Controller Firmware (v88.899.256.0) adds battery charging enhancements and thermal tuning.
- Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth driver update (v15.68.9037.59) improves access point compatibility and throughput on 5Ghz networks.
- Surface DTX driver update (v1.3.202.0) improves detection of the Surface keyboard to the clipboard.
However, Microsoft has already confirmed that the power management issue on the Surface devices is related to Intels new Skylake processor, which has not been addressed in the latest firmware update.
“Yesterday our engineering team published some updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. These updates offer refinements to improve battery charging and thermal tuning, wireless and Bluetooth performance, and to the detach-reattach experience on Surface Book.
We know some of you are still experiencing issues, including issues related to power management, and we are working to address those as quickly as possible. We’ll publish additional updates as soon as they are ready.”
The latest figures from Microsoft’s recent financial report show that users are loving the Surface lineup. Since Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book are the frontrunners of Microsofts hardware-push, the inability to address the power management issues after months of their release hurt the brand and might affectfuture sales as well.
Source: Microsoft via Thurrott
