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If you don't have problems, DO NOT INSTALL the Jan. 18 Firmware

I had no problems. I installed it. I still have no problems.

Telling EVERYONE not to install something just because you had a problem is not very helpful.

Thanks Philtastic for sharing your experience, personally I do find it helpful.

I think I'll install the October one and leave it at that for now
 

dougpaw57

Member
Sounds like it is just a fix for the December update problems. So are people who DID NOT install the Dec update getting the Jan update? And it sounds like they are working to release a more complete firmware, which the December update was supposed to deliver. Interesting.

I got my Surface Pro 2 on December 18th, so I missed the "bad" firmware. I got the January firmware on the 17th, and it seems like my battery life is even better. I don't hibernate my Surface, why would you? It boots in about 12 seconds from cold, why wouldn't you shut it down every time after you're through using it?
 
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Philtastic

Active Member
I got my Surface Pro 2 on December 18th, so I missed the "bad" firmware. I got the January firmware on the 17th, and it seems like my battery life is even better. I don't hibernate my Surface, why would you? It boots in about 12 seconds from cold, why wouldn't you shut it down every time after you're through using it?

I usually turn it off but wanted to test out this update. I had previous left my SP2 on sleep and battery overnight prior to the update when I first got this one and it went into hibernate and didn't turn on and drain the battery (it lost 1% overnight). First night with the new firmware and it either didn't auto-hibernate or was coming out of hibernate to do something that drained 30% of my battery overnight. Of course, as others have pointed out, maybe it's a one-off thing (low sample size) but I figured that, if your SP2 is working fine, you might want to leave well enough alone until MS fixes all of the issues (they have admitted that this firmware does not fix everything).

EDIT: Someone might want to use hibernate overnight because they have a bunch of documents or project files open that they want to continue working on the next day without having to open everything back up again.
 
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Edistobob

New Member
My SP2 256 worked before the Jan. update and it still works. My only glitch and I took care of it was that it no longer shows updates where you normally would look under PC settings. I just created a hot link on the start screen to the Control Panel - Windows Updates and everything shows up fine there.

I ran into the same problem about updates no longer showing on the Metro PC Settings section. Mine shows through January 10 but none after that. Like you, I found that it works just fine in Windows Update via the desktop Control Panel.

Anyone else run into this issue, and have you found the cause or a fix? It's no big deal, just an annoyance.
 

mennogreg

Active Member
I ran into the same problem about updates no longer showing on the Metro PC Settings section. Mine shows through January 10 but none after that. Like you, I found that it works just fine in Windows Update via the desktop Control Panel.

Anyone else run into this issue, and have you found the cause or a fix? It's no big deal, just an annoyance.

You're not alone, same here.
 

Tekn0

New Member
My SP2 256 worked before the Jan. update and it still works. My only glitch and I took care of it was that it no longer shows updates where you normally would look under PC settings. I just created a hot link on the start screen to the Control Panel - Windows Updates and everything shows up fine there.

I disable hibernate mode on any computer that I have to deal with, including all the clients that I setup where I work. I don't get why I see so many people using hibernate. These Surfaces boot and shut down do fast, why do people get hung up on using hibernate. As for as I'm concerned hibernation is for bears, not Surfaces.

In theory, hibernation is supposed to be a "deeper sleep" and is supposed to save more battery capacity. No idea what the case is with the Surface Pro 2 and hibernation.
 

CreativeLemming

Active Member
In theory, hibernation is supposed to be a "deeper sleep" and is supposed to save more battery capacity. No idea what the case is with the Surface Pro 2 and hibernation.

That's essentially right, and is the same for all hardware running Windows (either tablet, desktop or laptop).

Sleep basically retains power to RAM to maintain system state and puts everything else off or into low power mode, which is why there's always some drain when sleeping.

Hibernate basically copies all of RAM to the hard disk then shuts off completely. Upon boot, the data is copied back to RAM so the system state is exactly as before (all apps open, services still running etc..), so should be zero power consumption. Start up times are so fast as the whole OS doesn't need to be reloaded upon boot, only what's needed to resume the system to the point where is was before hibernating.

'Shutdown' isn't quite as clear cut as it may sound. What many people don't realise (or care :)) is that shutdown since Windows 8.0 is now a type of 'Hybrid Hibernate', or 'fast boot'. Before shutting down, all user processes are shut down, but the kernel memory/state is copied to disk. When booting, the kernel state is maintained (so the OS doesn't really reload), although applications need to be restarted. This is faster than a normal full shutdown. (this can be disabled in the power options)

If fast boot is disabled, then everything is closed. This means that the whole OS has to be reloaded at boot, so is much slower than 'fast boot' although ensures that the system has actually booted cleanly.

Some useful information here if you're interested in the details: Delivering fast boot times in Windows 8 - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
 
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Philtastic

Active Member
Night #2: Left my SP2 unplugged and put it to sleep with 64% battery remaining. Only got about 5 hours of sleep. I wake up and it's in sleep mode and has chewed through 14% battery to 50%. I then put it back to sleep and came back in 1.5 hours and I still find it just in sleep mode rather than hibernate and it's gone through another 5% battery. I'm pretty confident now in saying that my sleep -> hibernate has possibly been broken by the latest firmware as well as reintroducing the wake from hibernate. I think tonight I will test whether the self-boot issue is back or not where the device boots itself from shutdown all by itself.

EDIT: 5% battery in sleep mode sounds like a lot. Is it possible that something is keeping it awake/waking it from hibernate and how would I find that out?
 

Booch

New Member
Just before the January 'fix', I started experiencing my sp2 would be warm, and battery drained after having it shut down overnight. This was basically the only issue which is now fixed.
I rarely use sleep, so can't comment on the failure to enter hibernate. I'll try testing this though and report findings for those interested.
 
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Philtastic

Active Member
I don't know how to read these event logs but, as far as I can see, last night, I put it to sleep at 1:30'ish but then it woke up at 3:50 (where it should have been hibernating as it is set to hibernate after 60 min of inactivity on battery) and stayed on until I woke up and checked it at 5:55'ish. Attached are some views of the event log since I'm not sure which sections would be most important.
Screenshot (10).png
Screenshot (11).png
Screenshot (13).png
 
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bluegrass

Well-Known Member
"EDIT: Someone might want to use hibernate overnight because they have a bunch of documents or project files open that they want to continue working on the next day without having to open everything back up again. "

That's even more risky. Always save your open documents and close them if you not going to use them until the next day or for a long period of time. Your at risk of anything like power outages screwing with left open documents. It is definitely not "Best Practices" to leave documents open on your computer when your not going to be using them for a long period of time." I've been servicing computers for 43 years now and I take client data protection seriously. Back up important data to an external source or two.
 
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