Surface 3 4G LTE: "critical" events logged for IA7260 Firmware Update

Question

I have a new Surface 3 4G LTE with Windows 10 pre-installed (purchased 28/10/15 from UK Microsoft Store). It appears to be working smoothly, including the mobile broadband, but from day one Event Viewer has been showing a dozen or so DriverFrameworks-UserMode "critical" events per day, both Event ID 10110 "A problem has occurred with one or more user-mode drivers..." and 10111 "The device Surface IA7260 Firmware Update... is offline due to a user-mode driver crash. Windows will attempt to restart the driver 5 more times..." There's also an associated Application Error ID 1000 for faulting WUDFHost.exe (faulting module ntdll.dll). Despite this, the IA7260 Firmware Update appears in Device Manager (as a hidden device) connected and working under the Surface 3 Modem Device . Presumably the driver is eventually starting so all is more or less well, but it is rather alarming to see the log filling with "critical" errors, and of course the Reliability History rating is pretty much rock bottom. The other (likely) side effect is that Update History shows numerous instances of installing "System Firmware Update - ‎18/‎09/‎2015" - supposedly successfully in each case - presumably this update contains the IA7260 firmware update.

Does anyone else see this issue on the 4G LTE model? And/or any suggestions for remedy? Thanks!

Answer 1

Michael_A_P,

Thanks for your query. Per the information you've provided, I suggest you backup your personal data and do the following:

Download a recovery media for your Surface

Create a USB recovery drive

Use the recovery drive and reset your device. 

Once done, please proceed to install Windows updateand let us know the outcome.

Answer 2

Hello Ben_Mk,

Many thanks for your suggestion, but I must say I'm not entirely happy at the prospect of having to reset the device after less than two weeks.

I also notice that the page for downloading a recovery image warns "Always try using the built-in recovery tools first, before downloading a recovery image." I can't see any reason why my recovery partition should have been damaged, so if I did decide to reset, this would have been my first choice. Do you feel there may be a problem with the recovery image supplied on this model?

Answer 3

Hello Michael_A_P

I don't expect that there is anything wrong with the onboard recovery partition, but we wanted to be sure you were starting from a known good image.  If you prefer, you can reset from the onboard image, proceed with all updates and setup, then retry with the downloaded recovery image later if this does not work as expected.

Best regards

Answer 4

Thanks John1F

I have reset from the onboard image, actually more to try to deal with "phantom touches" that are now rendering this device near useless. This has had no effect on either the "critical events" issue or the "phantom touches". The Fall Update then added continuous very high CPU utilisation (from System Interrupts), though this appears to have been fixed by a further cumulative update. Under the circumstances the error messages seem to be the least of the device's problems and I will probably try to get it exchanged. Thanks, everyone, for your help - best regards, Mike.

Answer 5

I've got similar message in Event Log since day one (Dec 05) every time, when my Surface 3 LTE modem is rebooted: disabled/enabled.

Description:

"The device Surface IA7260 Firmware Update (location (unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash.  Windows will attempt to restart the device 5 more times.  Please contact the device manufacturer for more information about this problem".

At the same time I cannot say I am happy with LTE module work compare with my 2 years old Surface 2 LTE. I am using (aka testing) new unit at exactly the same conditions as old one. Twice a day i have 1 hour trip on a train, where my LTE connection is heavily used. With Surface 2 LTE I never had a problem during the whole trip. With Surface 3 LTE i have to reboot it at least once, because at some moments it loses ability to reconnect completely and only full machine reboot can fix it. It looks like happened randomly in different places. It also loses connection if I don't move (turn on LTE in the office, e.g.) either, but in this case it might be reconnected without unit reboot.

Note: I keep all Windows update always up to date. Broadband provider is Bell. I've checked area near SIM card - not even warm. Same SIM is working perfect in my old Surface 2 (with Micro-Nano adapter). It is already second Surface 3 LTE unit with the same behavior (i exchanged first, guessing it is hardware defect).

All modem software settings in Sur 2 and Sur 3 are the same.

If i do not find a solution until my 30-days period over, i will give it back to store.