Microsoft working on ‘sleep’ issues with Surface Pro 4, Surface Book with solution early next year
Microsoft this week fixed the crashing display driver issue found on the new Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. The problem stems from the early adoption of Intel's new Skylake chipset …
Context & Ripple Effects
The sleep-issue fix promised for early 2016 arrives after Microsoft already patched the crashing display driver that stemmed from the Surface line's early adoption of Intel's Skylake chipset. But the follow-on coverage shows the patching never caught up cleanly: by late January, new firmware updates left the power, display, and boot problems unresolved, a month-plus into the machines' lifecycle.
That gap between launch polish and post-release repair became the defining story of these devices — culminating in Microsoft's own internal accounting that Surface Book return rates hit 17% in late 2015, with a source claiming Intel was made a scapegoat even though rival OEMs managed the same Skylake silicon without comparable trouble.
First-order effects
- Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book buyers are stuck with devices that drain battery or misbehave in sleep while waiting on a firmware fix Microsoft only promises 'early next year' rather than dates precisely.
Second-order effects
- Each incremental update cycle (power-management and Intel driver patches rolled out in February) extends support costs and erodes the premium-hardware narrative, feeding the elevated return rate documented internally.
- The blame dynamic with Intel sharpens: if other OEMs shipped stable Skylake systems, Microsoft's integration and validation process, not the chipset alone, becomes the open question for buyers choosing between Surface and competing laptops.
Third-order effects
- Launching flagship hardware simultaneously with brand-new silicon sets a repeating pattern where firmware chases defects post-sale — one Microsoft repeated years later when a faulty Qualcomm driver killed cameras on Surface Pro X units and required another emergency fix.
- Sustained quality stumbles on first-party devices hand ammunition to the OEM ecosystem Microsoft competes against, pushing future Surface launches toward more conservative chip adoption and longer validation windows.
The trend: Microsoft's Surface strategy pairs each generation with bleeding-edge silicon, repeatedly trading launch-day polish for months of post-release firmware triage across Intel and now Qualcomm platforms.