Surface Pro 4 - Phantom touch/Mouse keeping clicking the same place

Question

Comments:

Those words were written in Dec 2015. Now the situation has changed. I keep the original words and add some updates at the end of this question.

I am nearly outrageous, Surface Pro 4 is definitely the product that have most bugs of every digital product I own.

With not waking up screen, timely not responding touch screen and pen unresolved, now I have a new problem.

The mouse (or the touch screen) would keeping clicking on the same place (namely, somewhere in the upper left corner)! Make me unable to do any operation. Whenever I need to move mouse to another place, it move back to the upper left corner and click again!

The only way to solve this is to restart the computer.

Please don't tell me to do a two button shutdown, I do this everyday, nothing improved. Now my Surface Pro 4 even can't work normally for 4 hours! From time to time, I have to restart it to use touch screen, to use the pen, to deal with the mad cursor. Not to mention that this machine basically doesn't have the ability to sleep. Who dare to let it sleep, if you get 70% chance unable to wake up?

Have you ever tested your product before launch?

I thought Microsoft was a reliable company before. Now I don't think so any more.

Update on 6/24/2016:

The one with phantom touches was replaced by Microsoft. That had been too serious and eventually a restart could not solve it. The new one works much better. Though phantom touches still exists when temperature is high. It is frustrating in gaming.

The latest driver seems to have some algorithm to block some phantom touches too. I suppose the old driver has this blocking algorithm too, but the old version driver was not stable enough.

This seems to be both a hardware problem and software problem. Every Surface Pro 4 has different phantom touches. Some better, some worse. The driver is supposed to block phantom touches if they are not too serious.

My personal recommendation: if you have updated to the latest driver and firmware and the phantom touches are still too serious, and a restart could not solve the problem, ask Microsoft to replace your machine, your hardware's problem is beyond the driver's ability.

The sleep problem and the display card driver has improved. They are much better than before, but still not perfectly solved. Now my Surface Pro 4 can stay up for about 2 days without display driver problem. The sleep still fails frequently.

Answer 1

Hi there!

I have brand new Surface Pro 4 i5/4/128, that gets phantom touches in the exact same spot (slightly to the right of the centre of the screen) every few seconds.

I've tried:

  recalibrating the display

  doing a reset multiple times from the stock image, cloud image, and an image from the ms support page

  doing a clean reinstall of Windows 10

  zeroing the entire SSD and installing Windows 10 from an iso

The phantom touches start when the pen is paired with Windows. After that, disabling Bluetooth and unpairing the pen have no effect. Note that these are touches associated with that of a finger, i.e. it shows the translucent circle with a ripple in it. It is not falsely detecting pen touches.

The only workaround I've found so far is to disable devices (in device manager) that provide pen or touch input, only allowing one of the two input methods. But this almost makes the Surface a pointless device, so I'm stuck.

I've wasted so many hours and am completely at a loss as to what to do next, so thanks to anyone that has any suggestions as to how this could be fixed.

Answer 2

Hello MKopacz ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Surface and sorry to hear you have some troubles with your Surface track pad. There are couple solutions listed in the website, please try them and let us know how it goes.

Kind regards,

Answer 3

Hi wylht,

Thank you for sharing your experience with us on the community forum. We are sorry to hear that you have trouble using the touchscreen. Please see the following troubleshooting steps to see if there's something you have not tried.

• Before you begin
• Solution 1: Clean the screen
• Solution 2: Restart your Surface
• Solution 3: Reset touchscreen calibration
• Solution 4: Install the latest updates
• Solution 5: Check for electromagnetic interference
• Solution 7: Restore or reset your Surface

Let us know how it goes.

Kind regards,

Clare

Answer 4

CAAvdheshGarg,

Alternatively, you can download a Surface recovery media and reset your Surface.

Answer 5

Hi all, we published an update on 7/14 that addresses this issue. Specifically...

• Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book: This update increases overall stability and addresses issues in touch, pen ink, and barrel button eraser scenarios.

To check for updates now, go to Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, and select Check for updates.

After you restart your Surface, confirm the updates are installed. Go to Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, and then select Advanced options > View your update history.

For details on Surface updates, please check the Surface update history page.

If you experience any difficulty downloading or installing updates, please check the Trouble installing Surface and Windows updates article for assistance.

Hope this helps,

Greg

Answer 6

Interesting Article with a new calibration tool.  Will let you know how this one goes.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfbook-surfperf/is-there-a-fix-for-surface-pro-4-or-surface-book/983a18de-339b-432a-aec3-9d3189d9697c

This is the tool ---> link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3165497

So far so good at least.

Answer 7

OTKOE,

Thanks for the update. At this point I suggest reaching out to our assisted support team.

Answer 8

Since resetting the Surface did not resolve the issue we recommend that you contact our assisted support for further assistance.

Answer 9

Try it with the keyboard cover off.  I now always remove the keyboard from the SP4 while docked.

Answer 10

Hi John,

I think that i found out what is the problem, but i need to make more tests.

My Surface is connected to an external monitor, so i keep the Surface upside down in my desk. 

From the moment I turned the surface head up I did not even had this problem.

Another thing that i realize when is upside down is that the touch screen is very very hot.

Thanks for replying me

Best Regards

Marcos

Answer 11

Thank you for reaching out to the Surface community and sorry to hear you have some troubles with your device. You mentioned that you have bought the device in the US and you are currently in India. There is a service center in all supported regions.

Please try the following troubleshooting steps and let us know if that addressed the issue.

• Before you begin
• Solution 1: Clean the screen
• Solution 2: Restart your Surface
• Solution 3: Reset touchscreen calibration
• Solution 4: Install the latest updates
• Solution 5: Check for electromagnetic interference
• Solution 6: Two-button shutdown (Surface Pro models and Surface Book only)
• Solution 7: Restore or reset your Surface

Answer 12

CK1183,

Thanks for your query and sorry to hear about your troubles. The first thing we suggest is to insure your Surface is fully up to date.

Please proceed to attach your Surface to the docking station and manually run Windows update. Ensure all updates found are properly installed.

Also, do you experience the same issue when using the Surface itself without any of the accessories?

What about when using the Surface keyboard without the dock?

Are you near a Microsoft store to test out a different docking station?

Please keep us posted.

Answer 13

Thank you sharing your concern in the Surface community. A system firmware update has been released yesterday please go ahead and install it. Let us know if that address the issue you are experiencing with your Surface Pro 4.

Answer 14

Return the defective unit for full refund and get a new one.

Answer 15

Well, even if this did solve my problem, I already sent the Surface back for repairs. Thanks anyway though.

Answer 16

I am having the same problem with the touch issue. I even reset my surface to the factory settings, and it is still doing the random touch thing. Does any one have any suggestions? Has anyone found a solution?