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Surface 2 RT - Touch Screen Firmware Issues

Anonymous
2018-02-26T11:06:36+00:00

Hi,

I bought a Surface RT 2 when it was released, it worked perfectly the first years and I love the device despite the limitation the RT OS comes with.

But I have during several years have issues with the touch screen firmware and what I can tell I'm not alone. There are several fixes to the problem, like reset you Surface, drain battery etc. I have tried them all and the battery drainage worked once when I hade left the Surface 2 RT untouched for several month after giving up on it.

I know the support for RT is expired but I'm just curious, how can Microsoft not being able to fix this issue which seems to be a bootstrap issue where the touchscreen firmware not being invoked correctly during startup? It also obvious that it is a software issue and not a hardware issue. I think it's bad that this issue has not been resolved yet, I like the Microsoft Surface family but I would really like Microsoft to take responsibility for their products both from a sustainability perspective and from a brand perspective.

I guess a fix for this will never be released through windows update. But at least give us the remaining RT users the ability to download the different firmware drivers so we can manually change it to try to fix the issue. I have googled it but can't find any resource were I can download the touch driver for it self so it can be used in the DeviceManager.

Best regards Dan

Surface | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-02-26T15:20:52+00:00

    Hi,

    I think the driver base is quite different from the Surface 2 RT version to the Surface 2. It is a totally different architecture ARM vs  Intel based architecture.

    How can you be so sure it is a hardware issue? Explain why the Surface 2 RT touch screen apparently is working for alot of people after they have drain the battery and the load it full? Their is also a lot of people that have got it to work by reverting Windows Updated to a certain version also. Which also tells the story that it is something that can be fixed, it just not prioritized.

    Sure it might be a hardware problem, still. But it does not explain why a battery drainage got mine to work for a while and after a Windows Update it stopped again. The story is the same for many others. In my case it did not work the last time I tried to drain it probably because it did not waited long enough, which also tells the story that it is something that is not properly set during startup at some point that is casing the issue. It seems to be reset after a hard battery outage.

    It can be a hardware issue, but I'm more convinced that it is a software issue according to the behavior.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-02-27T10:33:50+00:00

    Yeah, they simply dropped the support. And whats annoy me is that during the time they had support the answer was "get a new one". Instead of fixing the issue that seems to be a software issue, aleast its my opinion.

    My hope here was that somebody that actually knows something about the firmware drivers for surface 2 (rt) would answer and provide a download location for all posible drivers for the touch firmware thas has been released so it might be possible to fix the issue more easily than do the drain battery trick over and over again until it works. But I guess that I have to drop it, and live with the fact that I need to buy a new one if I want a surface or simply learn to write the driver myself.

    Thanks for the answers, I just hope that my next surface that is way more expensive that the surface 2 was will have better support and quality.

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  3. Barb Bowman 80,700 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2018-02-27T09:47:53+00:00

    >I think the driver base is quite different from the Surface 2 RT version to the Surface 2. It is a totally different architecture ARM vs  Intel based architecture.

    >

    The Surface RT and Surface 2 both use RT and are ARM based. The Surface PRO 2 is

    x86 INTEL based

    >

    >How can you be so sure it is a hardware issue? Explain why the Surface 2 RT touch screen apparently is working for alot of people after they have drain the battery and the load it full?

    Microsoft has neither fixed the issue or commented on why this fixes the issue

    for some people. They've basically stopped supporting Windows RT

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-02-27T03:42:51+00:00

    The Surface 2 has the RT operating system, The Surface Pro 2 Is x86.

    I have a Surface 2 with the RT operating system.

    I can't explain the why's

    Here us the Surface 2 forum, maybethey can give more solutions or troubleshooting

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surf2?sort=lastreplydate&dir=desc&tab=All&status=all&mod=&modAge=&advFil=&postedAfter=&postedBefore=&threadType=all&isFilterExpanded=true&tm=1519702704701

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-02-26T14:33:31+00:00

    First, I have a Surface 2 and have no problems with the touchscreen. If you have problems with your device it is a hardware problem, not firmware.

    Firmware updates were released as aggregate updates. When you restore the Surface 2 now you get one firmware update that is the sum of all updates. This is true for the WiFi version, not sure about the LTE version. The current touch driver is 2.1.17.0, 10/7/2015

    Firmware release history. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4023481/surface-surface-2-update-history

    You still get system updates, support for the RT has not expired. With firmware releases being aggregate there is no way to go back and pick one to install.

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