SP4 i7 Iris 540 Drivers?

[z06blaze]

The big firmware update for SP4 in February added new drivers for the HD 520 graphics, but I have seen no update from Microsoft for the Iris 540 graphics. There are new graphics drivers available from Intel as of March 8th, but Microsoft puts their own modifications to the drivers and there is an error if you try installing them. I am still having issues with my SP4 getting really hot with a lot of activity in sleep mode and I thought I read that the graphics drivers were part of the sleep problem (I've also read Windows Hello as an issue I think) and if that is the case, they need to support their i7 SP4 models which also put a deeper hole in my wallet.

1st Question: Any idea when Microsoft will release new updated Iris 540 drivers instead of leaving the people on SP4 i7 out in the cold?

2nd Question: I downloaded the latest beta drivers from Intel and installed them via Device Manager, but my drivers were reverted back to the January 12th, 2016 Version: 20.19.15.4364 Microsoft drivers. How can I get the new drivers to hold instead of Microsoft forcing them back?

Thanks

 

[radji]

20.19.15.4364 is better than the 15.40.18.4380 version on the Intel website...for me at least.

Updating to 15.40.18.4380 is what caused the CPU to run REAL hot and high when on AC Power. And the device would not go to sleep mode. Reverting back to 20.19.15.4363 fixed all those bugs.

One thing to consider are the background processes you have running. One big hog for me was my Kaspersky Internet Security. It would start running scans the minute I plugged into AC or closed the type cover lid. You will want to check for apps that could be causing such behavior. You can verify Windows Hello is stopped by looking in the sign in options under Account Settings. The real culprit there is the Face recognition sign-in. It causes the IR camera to stay on at all times.

 

[z06blaze]

Originally Windows Defender was keeping the CPU activity super active all the time, but I replaced it with Avast and I haven't had those issues anymore. I've checked in Task Manager and typically the CPU activity is low now, but it doesn't take much for the computer to get hot and the fans to start kicking in. I'm alright with the device getting hot and the fans kicking on when I'm using it, though I feel like watching a video on YouTube shouldn't stress it out as much as it does.

These links suggest the graphics drivers are part of the problem for the system not going into sleep properly:
New Intel drivers appear to solve Surface Pro 4 sleep power consumption issue
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/.../045497f8-1ece-49b2-aeaa-8aa10994a277?page=35

I could turn off the facial recognition for Windows Hello (or put the device in hibernate too I guess), but I do use it and really like that feature. The February update was supposed to fix that issue and apparently the Intel Beta Graphics driver 15.40.20.4404 does solve the overheating issue and the black screen from sleep. Microsoft has provided an update for the HD 520 graphics, but it has been a long time since they have updated the Iris graphics which may help with these problems. The new Intel drivers have been released for over a month, so it'd be nice if they updated the Iris drivers which are still running January drivers with issues.

I guess Intel provides a unified driver for HD 520 and Iris 540, but Microsoft only shows HD 520 in their changelog and I got thrown off. How did you install the 15.40.18.4380 drivers in the first place though since Intel only provides an exe? I was only able to download the beta drivers and install them through Device Manager.

 

[radji]

You can extract the files from the exe using 7-zip. Then you have to manually update the 540 driver in Device Manager and voila!