Track Pad Driver Bug Type Cover 1 & 2

[holsen]

Have you noticed that scrolling with the track pad on the type covers is not as smooth as a traditional track pad and just decided to accept it?

I found a bug with the drivers for the Track Pads on the Type Cover 1 and Type Cover 2. The small trackpad does actually work beautifully when using the BT adapter I'm using it now and it's perfect. Here's an excerpt from my chat with MS Surface Tech Support 2 days ago:

"I've got a SP 2 and Type Cover 2. The track pad is often unresponsive or slow to scroll and sometime when clicking it brings up weird menus. Yesterday I was in the Microsoft Store in Vancouver and heard that many customers are complaining about the same thing. I thought it was just the fabric material on the Type Cover and wanted to exchange it for Type Cover 1 but they are sold out. Anyway, I bought the Bluetooth Wireless Adapter for Keyboard and hooked it up and the Type Cover 2 works flawlessly with it. Scrolling is fast and fluid, typing is error free. So over the last several hours I have been switching back and forth between using the key board wirelessly and clicking in. Wireless is ALWAYS perfect. Clicked in is ALWAYS troublesome. I don't know if it's a driver issue or a hardware issue. but there is for sure is a problem and I'm not the only one with it. This I'm sure is causing MS Returns of perfectly good Surface pros, because of the trackpad drivers"

After having that chat with Tech Support, I went over to the Microsoft Store in Vancouver. They have an actual MS Engineer working in the Store and I demonstrated the difference in performance between using the Keyboard connected magnetically and connected wirelessly via Bluetooth and we were able to reproduce the problem not only on my Surface but also on the store demo units and with both Cover 1 and Cover 2. The Engineer in the Store agreed that for sure there is driver issue that no one had been aware of. And he took the info channeled it straight up to Engineering at MS Headquarters and assured me they will fix the problem.
I can assure you that the even though the trackpad is small it works beautifully, no scrolling, stuttering or unresponsiveness when connected via bluetooth. Once they get a driver fix rolled out you will see a marked and significant improvement in the performance of the covers. I can't wait, because I don't want to go around having to use the BT adapter - I want to click and go just as the unit was designed to work.

 

[oion]

I can assure you that the even though the trackpad is small it works beautifully, no scrolling, stuttering or unresponsiveness when connected via bluetooth. Once they get a driver fix rolled out you will see a marked and significant improvement in the performance of the covers. I can't wait, because I don't want to go around having to use the BT adapter - I want to click and go just as the unit was designed to work.

Interesting. I never liked touchpads and usually disable it, but if a fix is coming in the future to make it work more smoothly, that's good news indeed.

Good job narrowing down the performance difference.

 

[joudbren]

I found a different bug with the trackpad on my type keyboard and SP2. I usually disable the trackpad as it's a nuisance when I'm editing a document. The bug I found is that even when I clearly have the trackpad set to "off" in Win 8.1, the trackpad will sooner or later just start working again. The trackpad setting is still showing "off" when this happens. If I snap off the keyboard from the SP2 and then attach it again, then it detects the setting and shuts off the trackpad again.

Spent 30 minutes with a tech at MS store and he couldn't figure it out either. Anyone else seen this?

 

[rp_guy]

I found a different bug with the trackpad on my type keyboard and SP2. I usually disable the trackpad as it's a nuisance when I'm editing a document. The bug I found is that even when I clearly have the trackpad set to "off" in Win 8.1, the trackpad will sooner or later just start working again. The trackpad setting is still showing "off" when this happens. If I snap off the keyboard from the SP2 and then attach it again, then it detects the setting and shuts off the trackpad again.

Spent 30 minutes with a tech at MS store and he couldn't figure it out either. Anyone else seen this?

it seems that the SP2 is losing settings after a while. i know other people have had this problem too, where the trackpad scrolling direction will reverse (even if the setting is off in settings). if you disconnect/reconnect the type cover 2, it fixes itself.

it's happening to me extremely randomly so far, but the fix to disconnect and reconnect the type cover 2, and if that doesn't work, shut the screen off and turn it on again.