Has Microsoft Changed the Surface Pen?

Question

Has Microsoft Changed the Surface Pen?

Anonymous

I have owned my i7/dGPU/SSD Surface Book for about 1 & a 1/2 to 2 years now. The Surface Pen which came with my new SB had never died on me as far as the AAAA battery which powers the stylus' input. However, about 3 months ago, I lost the Surface Pen which came with my SB, so I bought a new/replacement one from the Microsoft Online Store- when I'd 1st purchased my SB, the pen cost appx. $200 on the Microsoft Online Store I believe, however my new replacement pen cost appx. $50 to my surprise & it came with a stylus tip-set too, which my original pen did not come with. The new pen worked just as well as my original pen in the beginning, but after 3 months of the same rate of use as my original pen, the Duracell AAAA battery which came with the pen died- I came to that conclusion only after researching why my pen's button still worked, but the stylus tip did not. My question therefore, is whether there's any difference between the two pens as far as design or hardware changes which would affect its battery life, given their cost has changed so dramatically?

I've seen older posts where some people's batteries lasted for a very long time, as was the case with my 1st pen, but I've also seen some more recent posts about poor battery life in the Surface Pen... **So I am wondering if this is a result of some change Microsoft made to the Surface Pen to allow it to be sold at a lower cost or if I simply got a bad battery?**It just doesn't make sense to me that what appear to be the same 2 Surface Pens, each used the same amount on average, have such a disparity between their respective battery lives, so if there is a difference between the 2 pens, I'd just like to know as much so I can keep stocked up on AAAA batteries if this will be an ongoing issue.

Thanks for any help provided!

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3 additional answers

Answer 1

There have been 3 versions since Surface Pro 3:

Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 had a SP3 pen that took two sets of batteries, coin cells for Bluetooth and AAAA for writing
When SP4 was released, a new pen was released that took only AAAA batteries - this was $79US
When the newest Surface Pro 2017 was released, a new pen was released that looked like the SP4 Pen but it had tilt support for the new SP. It also takes only AAAA batteries. This is $99US

However, if you are using the Surface Book and have installed the Fall Creators Update, there is a known issue that might be the reason why your pen is not writing. This has impacted customers after installing the Fall Creators Update. Does pinch to zoom fail as well when in this condition? others have found that going into device manager and disabling/enabling the "Intel(R) Precise Touch Device" in device manager made both the pen and the multi-touch work again. Less disruptive than restarting. And the problem will probably re-occur.

Open device manager, Click on human interface devices to expand it and it should be near the bottom of the list. This is a temporary fix and the issue may return, but for now, it is the only work around. Engineering asked that anyone afflicted with this use the Feedback Hub App to send in a bug while in the bad state before disabling/re-enabling so that they can get the logs.

Answer 2

However, if you are using the Surface Book and have installed the Fall Creators Update, there is a known issue that might be the reason why your pen is not writing. This has impacted customers after installing the Fall Creators Update. Does pinch to zoom fail as well when in this condition? others have found that going into device manager and disabling/enabling the "Intel(R) Precise Touch Device" in device manager made both the pen and the multi-touch work again. Less disruptive than restarting. And the problem will probably re-occur.

Open device manager, Click on human interface devices to expand it and it should be near the bottom of the list. This is a temporary fix and the issue may return, but for now, it is the only work around. Engineering asked that anyone afflicted with this use the Feedback Hub App to send in a bug while in the bad state before disabling/re-enabling so that they can get the logs.

BARB: I've encountered the Surface Pen issue again twice now as you predicted might be the case witht the fix you'd so kindly provided, but I have found a solution which has seemingly fixed the problem more permenantly (I would think) than anything I've tried yet:

Instead of disababling/reenabling the Intel Precise Touch Deviceservice via the Device Manager Interface (located under "human input devices" near the bottom), I was able to search for & locate an updated driver via the auto-driver update option's selection to search internet for new drivers. I did a key-initiated reboot (not a hard reboot by pressing volume/power keys, but rather initiated by the troubleshooter) & have since had the longest stretch of functionality in my Surface Pen since this issue began.

Curiously, this last time my Pen's stylus function died, my touchscreen's pinch-zoom feature was affected on my Surface Book- it was essentially nonfunctional & that also has corrected itself since installing the new Intel Touch Device Driver. I have an update pending via the Windows 10 Update App, so I will now carryout the reset needed for that update to complete & report back if anything with the Pen ceases to function again or if the driver fix remained after the Windows update.

Answer 3

The issue you are having (which will re-occur until a new driver is released, so

you will need to use the work around again) will be fixed at some point with a

Surface specific driver update (no idea when) and it isn't a Windows problem. So

Insiders won't get it in advance for testing. The issue only impacts Surface Pro

4 and Surface Book 1st generation.

Bottom line, unfortunately you have to wait until it is released through Windows

Update.

> I'm reluctant to join The Windows Insiders Program on my Surface Book because it serves both as my primary business & primary recreational PC/tablet, so I cannot afford any systemic instability which could possibly result from installing a newly-developed Insider's update on it.

Answer 4

Barb: Thanks so much for all the helpful instructions on fixing the issues I was having with my Surface Pen & for the wealth of info you'd provided on the different versions of the Surface Pens that have been released since I'd purchased my Surface Book- it's all very useful & therefore highly appreciated!

While replacing the AAAA battery, then pairing my Surface Pen's Bluetooth connection to my Surface Book again after doing a "hard reset" (pressing both power & volume +/- buttons in tandem) resolved the issue temporarily, within hours of doing so, I was once again experiencing the same problem- with the top button being functional, but the stylus point once again becoming entirely nonfunctional.

I have since stopped/restarted the Intel Precise Touch Device service via the device manager interface as you'd so kindly described how to do step-by-step in your reply & so far since doing that, after having put in that new AAAA battery previously, the pen has been working perfectly once again.

I do have the Fall Creator's update installed + every other available Win10/Driver/Security update released since then on my Surface Book (also have all newest updates on 2 other, older PC's w/o touchscreens), however, I utilize Microsoft's Windows 10 Update App w/ each boot of my SB instead of checking for new/available updates via the update module within the settings user interface- either manually, or by relying on the OS to auto-update itself... I decided to use the Win10 Update App on my SB in place of relying on Windows Settings to install the newest, fully-tested/commercially-ready Win10 updates because my online research indicated that short of joining The Window's Insiders Program (which I do take part in for use with both of my older PC's using a personal M-soft account), that using the Win10 Update App would get me the newest updates for my SB as fast as they're publically available. I'm reluctant to join The Windows Insiders Program on my Surface Book because it serves both as my primary business & primary recreational PC/tablet, so I cannot afford any systemic instability which could possibly result from installing a newly-developed Insider's update on it.

Given that fact, I almost always use a Microsoft Work Account to log in on my Surface Book/M-soft products on the SB (I own a Small Biz so I have both a personal & a separate, work-related Microsoft account which I use), as my work account is not enrolled in the Windows Insider's program- the aim of that being to only download fully-vetted/stable updates which (hopefully) wouldn't lead to any serious instability on my SB serving as my primary machine these days... It seems that by having downloaded & then regularly running the Win10 update app from Microsoft on my SB using the Microsoft work account not enrolled in the Insider's Program, that instead of relying on auto-updates or manual updates via Win10's settings, this method continues to be the best method to obtain all the newest, yet (hopefully almost) entirely stable updates as soon as they're publically available.

As far as I could tell, before fixing the pen as described above, I was not experiencing any pinch-initiated/related zoom issues, whether via touchscreen or trackpad input- in fact, all touch input was working perfectly as long as it wasn't via the pen. While I am unsure if that's a significant factor or not, given this issue seems to be a widespread problem for those with the Fall Creator's Updates on their Surfaces/Surface Books, I wanted to provide as much info as possible on the nature of my problem, the steps I'd taken to remedy it & what fixes actually worked for it- both temporarily & more permenantly (as appears to be the case now), because I had neglected to send any feedback to Microsoft before applying the fix you'd recommended, so I'd assume that any data sent at this point (after having fixed the issue) would not reflect my system's status at the time I was having problems with my pen.

Since applying the suggested fix, all is running well once more, SO AGAIN, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP BARB!

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Has Microsoft Changed the Surface Pen?

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