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I use Bluetooth to connect to my printer and to a wireless speaker in the kitchen and to a soundbar in my lounge. I have a 64gb micro sd card full of movies...... all working fine. I have my fingers crossed now hoping I haven't just jinxed myself.
 

Rvacha

Member
The more I read this forum, the more I think the Microsoft Gods must be smiling on me because I have never had any trouble with my SP2
I am your antithesis, the ying of your yang :) Boatloads of issues for me
 

beq

Member
I'm loathe to admit I've also been dealing with one issue after another with our SP2's. Most recent one is OneDrive/SkyDrive syncing (and on a related extent, HomeGroup security permission issues).

Finally figured out that the integrated OneDrive on Win 8.1 is tied to Windows Search/Indexing, and the latter can have a number of issues from service failure to start, to difficulty indexing all your checked off content (spiking CPU). Had to cut back from indexing the whole Users profiles to a select few folders, and rebuilt index a few times (that or re-map Skydrive to a different folder path to re-initialize whatever was stuck). Running skydrive.exe /reset didn't always work...

Another thing, OneDrive apparently didn't like dealing with symlinks/junctions at all :(

I also started by replacing the profile folders Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos with junctions that point to a matching set of OneDrive folders, but I ran into some problems (not sure related or not). So I ended up recreating those local profile folders, then just re-mapping their target location (Properties -> Location) to the OneDrive paths. Hope this way works better...
 
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be77solo

Active Member
I use Bluetooth to connect to my printer and to a wireless speaker in the kitchen and to a soundbar in my lounge. I have a 64gb micro sd card full of movies...... all working fine. I have my fingers crossed now hoping I haven't just jinxed myself.

I'd be completely shocked if you didn't actually have the random CPU utilization issue with your SD card usage and don't even know it; if you aren't paying attention to Task Manager or a similar program that monitors resources, you'd never technically know you even have the problem.

I've had four SP2's now since October, and each one has had the SD card problem, regardless of driver/firmware/moon stage etc. All good machines for the most part but one got nuked by the bad December firmware, one was a badly scratched refurb that I refused to keep, other had the problem that it wouldn't reliably power on or boot (single biggest annoying problem I've had with any of them). My current one is actually running great, very pleased, but it's the first to have the screen creak/loose problem reported by others, I'm just choosing to ignore as everything else is great. But, as mentioned, it too has the SD problem and the Bluetooth/wifi interference mentioned in this thread. Those 2 problems I'm convinced are either hardware limitations (Marvell wifi chip) and Microsoft driver/OS/firmware problems (SD CPU problem) that effect all units.

My advice to you at this point being totally happy, don't go looking for it! Just enjoy and hopefully when MS releases a fix you magically get a bit better battery life. :D

Having said all this, and despite my frustrations, I do love the Surface line and the Pro's in particular... nothing else compares in capability/form factor.
 

jrapdx

Member
Same here. While I haven't use bluetooth or microSD card which apparently have issues, that aside, the Surface Pro 2 had not caused me any trouble, and everything just worked well. Significantly better than my Dell laptop, which had issues that Dell refused to fix as they just ignore it, despite having their flag ship product (Dell Latitude E6400), which cost more than the Surface Pro 2.

Often enough the SP2 seems like the greatest computing invention I've ever used, and other times I hate its silicon guts.

True, the machine has bugs, probably way more than average, largely courtesy of MS itself. You know, Evil Firmware, strange firmware/hardware/driver interactions, Bluetooth/WiFi woes. I've had to deal with all of these defects. And notably, this forum has been enormously helpful to me--it's a great community. MS should be very grateful this resource exists, as I'm sure it's encouraged more than a few participants to hang in there vs. giving up on the SP2 altogether.

There it is, as often as the SP2 inexplicably stumbles, it feeds potential hatred--the less reliable an owner's SP2, the more likely it will be despised. Humans vary greatly, some will tolerate the quirks, others lose patience right away. Point is we see the range of responses here. Each combination of SP2 and owner produces a unique result, many will be positive, a few not so good.

I'm on the fence. Waiting for the missteps to be rectified, I can be patient, for a while. It's a gamble. We'll see how it turns out...
 

Dim-Ize

Active Member
I'd be completely shocked if you didn't actually have the random CPU utilization issue with your SD card usage and don't even know it; if you aren't paying attention to Task Manager or a similar program that monitors resources, you'd never technically know you even have the problem.

be77solo - is your SD card just "installed" right out of the box? Or, did you mount it using libraries like this: SD Card and Windows 8
 

CrippsCorner

Well-Known Member
The SD issue only effects Surface Pro 2 doesn't it? I have the original and it's runs fine... I think!

I guess I'm halfway between the two sides, i.e. I've had a few problems but nothing to make me wanna swap the device for something else. I'll definitely be getting Surface Pro 5 or whatever is about when I need a new one :p
 
Nobody would accept the level of SP bugginess in another product. If this were an apple product, people would be going nuts. If it were a car, it would be recalled.

The people on this forum by definition are the nerds that like playing with buggy stuff. I was able to find workarounds for all of the bugs and enjoy my SP1 for what it is, but there is no way a casual non-techy person could do the same.

Certain large investors are demanding that MS drop their consumer hardware business and if they keep making bad decisions and not selling enough hardware they will be forced to which would be a shame because they make ALMOST great things.
 

be77solo

Active Member
be77solo - is your SD card just "installed" right out of the box? Or, did you mount it using libraries like this: SD Card and Windows 8

Greetings Dim-Ize - I am using the cards as normal removable media, ie they are not permanently mounted as described in that link. I keep all my Windows libraries on the main SSD. With no SD card inserted, I get normal CPU usage. With any of my three SD cards inserted, I get the 25-30% CPU usage as described above. Not always right at boot up, but at some point usually within 30 minutes or so of usage the problem appears and remains until I shutdown, reboot, or sleep the unit.

EDIT: Sorry to go off topic, but sharing a pic, curious if this is what everyone else sees when it occurs. CPU varies from ~24-30% spread between System and System Interrupts.
HighCPUSP2.PNG
 
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GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
Nobody would accept the level of SP bugginess in another product. If this were an apple product, people would be going nuts. If it were a car, it would be recalled.
I have used Dell, Lenovo and HP systems. There is less issues with the Surface Pro 2 than these systems.

Apple products also have its share of issues, but Apple fanatics buries them, saying "hardware fault", "bad luck", "you arer not using it right", or finding excuses to justify somehow the fault. I know, I had Apple products and used them at work as well. It's not great as people make out to be.

The people on this forum by definition are the nerds that like playing with buggy stuff. I was able to find workarounds for all of the bugs and enjoy my SP1 for what it is, but there is no way a casual non-techy person could do the same.
The people on this forum notices these problem. Most people won't notice.

Certain large investors are demanding that MS drop their consumer hardware business and if they keep making bad decisions and not selling enough hardware they will be forced to which would be a shame because they make ALMOST great things.
Large investors don't care about long term. They dont' care what will become of Microsoft in 5 years from now. What they care is NOW. They want Microsoft shares to go up, then they'll sale.. and that is all. They are done with it. If it goes down to teh toilet, oh well... It's business. That is why it is the job of the CEO to talk to investors and push that this is not the way.

Look at Nintendo. their large investors says to pull out of consoles, and just make games for other platform, and make mobile games. Thinking to have each of it's game sales like GTA, and Angry Birds. Ignoring the fact that these are rare gems, it goes against Nintendo roots (toy manufacture), and that Nintendo games can't work on the mobile space, you need tight and fast controls. Touchscreen is no good. As for other consoles. Nintendo has always made their consoles for THEIR games. If you (third party) want to make games for it, then go ahead. Nintendo has well over 30 IP. Microsoft and Sony only have a handful. And Sony practically only buys studios and don't actually make their own ideas. So their consoles
is designed to please outside developers. That is why the PS4 has the same controller since the PS1 (with analogue sticks), pretty much. The idea is just to be faster than the previous gen. Microsoft is a bit more complicated their focus is 1 PC in the living room. Microsoft failed with Media Center to do this, so that is why they made the XBox, use gaming as a way tro achieve this. And you can see that the XBox One, is one suited up Media Center computer with gaming compatibility, which is Microsoft goal. Both Microsoft and Sony goes to big publishers and studios and says: "What do you want for the next console.". Nintendo, goes "What can we do, to make OUR games provide a unique experience to the user".

Will it sales like crazy? Sure maybe 1-2 games after people realize it is crap, and stop buying. By then the investors would be invested in some other large company. They don't care.


It's not to say that investors are greedy, and "bad people". This is the business world. Successful companies and investors requires to be ruthless, strong, have a direct specific focus, and not let others derail that.

As much as Nintendo is calling D0000M on them, the WiiU does far better than the GameCube, they build a new building, they are expanding by doing a hiring spree. Money, they have plenty. They are financially sound, and have large coffers, due to their previous success and their refusal to lose money on console sales unlike other console manufactures. And of course doing well. Sure the WiiU is not selling like the PS4, but it is selling enough for Nintendo to be somewhat fine.

In addition, even if the Surface was making Microsoft lose a bit of money (assuming it's not a black hole), it is a symbol to Microsoft. The Surface computers is now a flag ship computer showcasing Windows. No mater how you put it. The Surface Pro 2 is the best Windows experience you can get on a device out of the box. The system is really fast, solid, high quality, attention to details, everything has been thought out, weather you agree with them or not, you can understand the thought process.

Another example is the Nvidia Titan graphic card. The graphic card is a failure in sales. But that's not the point. Well firstly it's a "broken Tesla", if you will. A Tesla GPU that doesn't meet the standard and specification of their Tesla card but still working perfectly for consumer level. Any extra "non-consumer' features (if you want to call it that) has been cut out via firmware, and put on a PCB with video connectors. The product is used as their 'Halo product', meaning: This is what we can do. It's an ad. It doesn't sale well, cause it cost over 1000$, but that's not the point. The point is to show to companies, IT, and consumers: "Look at what we can do". And gets people talking. Much like Surface with Microsoft.
 
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