Microsoft Surface 3 LTE issues

[osanders]

Hey guys this is more of a rant than anything, I needed someone else to talk to instead of support and so far getting no where. Here goes and anyone feel free and let me know what you think.

I picked up a Surface 3 on July 25th after using a perfectly working Surface rt but of course wasn't compatible with Win 10 so I upgraded. Well after a couple weeks I started having issues with dropped Wifi, Video driver errors and freezing. So being that my goal was to upgrade to Win 10 I went on and loaded it thinking the new drivers would solve the issues. That worked for about a week and the same issues returned so I called MS support and they had me remove and reload pretty much all device drivers etc. Again that worked for about a week and back to square one. So I reset the device back to factory and called support again and explained the issues all over again finally the rep decided it was having hardware issues and would be best to replace. Ok this is Microsoft and they couldn't create a warranty return because the system was down and would call back in about 3 days.

That call didn't come so I call again and through the entire process again even though I had a repair ticket. In the meantime I have checked the event viewer with constant critical errors and reported to them. Again today they still claim not able to issue a Warranty return because the system is down and will contact me in a couple of days. They also gave me an option to swap at a store but currently no stores in my area which is 2-3hrs away have in stock also checking the website only accepts pre-orders. And my carrier where I am making payments for the device won't exchange because the 14 day return period has passed and calling them I ended up back at Microsoft. I could be wrong but to me this sounds like a stock issue instead of the systems being down for this long. Makes me wonder if something has been discovered with the device and now delaying the availability.

 

[Mainstay]

No help from me but a sympathetic reader. We've had h/w issues with wifiand sp2's which were somewhat fixed with the huge driver packs from ms. I had a similar issue with Blackberry where the rma process was a nightmare. I blogged the **** out of the experience And slammed rim. A rep called me a day later quoting the article and had a replacement 64 gb tablet shipped pronto. Hope ms comes through for you. I wish I had a justifiable reason for buying a Surface Pro.

 

[osanders]

No help from me but a sympathetic reader. We've had h/w issues with wifiand sp2's which were somewhat fixed with the huge driver packs from ms. I had a similar issue with Blackberry where the rma process was a nightmare. I blogged the **** out of the experience And slammed rim. A rep called me a day later quoting the article and had a replacement 64 gb tablet shipped pronto. Hope ms comes through for you. I wish I had a justifiable reason for buying a Surface Pro.

Thank you for the reply Mainstay, it's now another weekend and no word from MS and still there Warranty system isn't allowing me to create a service. Guess I will be calling again Monday doubt will do any good since they seem to be accessing the same system which I am using from the outside. It's sad that they aren't able to manually process a warranty service I am glad I still have 10 months remaining hopefully it doesn't take that long for service.

 

[marley1]

Have you called your credit card company? They can stop payment

 

[osanders]

This fiasco continues on Monday I contacted MS again and as prior the Warranty replacement system is still not allowing a return of my device. I have seemed to gather that the issue is due to the device being exclusive to At&t where I purchased it from. Also I was informed that the units the MS stores carry aren't compatible with At&t network. Bottom line ATT doesn't want to replace it and MS doesn't seem to have access to a device that works with the ATT network. As it stands now the issue has been escalated to get ATT to replace my device since they have built it to be exclusive to there Network. I am trying my best in being patient with ATT and hopefully before this week is out this gets sorted out. For now I have stopped using the device because it has become very unreliable and back to using my Surface rt.

 

[phaZed]

Did you do a Snappy Driver Install on that Surface?

 

[osanders]

Did you do a Snappy Driver Install on that Surface?

Hello phaZed I am not sure what you mean by Snappy Driver but I had downloaded and installed the driver pack from MS for the ATT version and there was no change. However this past weekend I again installed Win 10 and again it worked great a couple of days and issues returned but I have not tried installing the driver updates from the MS website for the ATT Win10 version yet. Being that this Surface has special software for the ATT version it seems to be fine until the regular Windows updates get installed.

The event viewer has constant Critical error states " The device Surface IA7260 Firmware Update (location (Unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash". Other than the added Sim card I wish I knew what else has been changed in the software for this device.

 

[Mainstay]

@phaZed means http://sourceforge.net/projects/snappy-driver-installer/

It is certainly worth a shot... but it sounds like you have more going on that a drive issue.

 

[Markverhyden]

This fiasco continues on Monday I contacted MS again and as prior the Warranty replacement system is still not allowing a return of my device. I have seemed to gather that the issue is due to the device being exclusive to At&t where I purchased it from. Also I was informed that the units the MS stores carry aren't compatible with At&t network. Bottom line ATT doesn't want to replace it and MS doesn't seem to have access to a device that works with the ATT network. As it stands now the issue has been escalated to get ATT to replace my device since they have built it to be exclusive to there Network. I am trying my best in being patient with ATT and hopefully before this week is out this gets sorted out. For now I have stopped using the device because it has become very unreliable and back to using my Surface rt.

Sounds like charge back time to me. You did your due diligence on troubleshooting and trying to get an exchange. The fact the M$ and AT&T can't get their collective poo together is not your problem. That's exactly what I would do.

And thanks for the heads up. My iPad is getting long in the tooth and I've been giving some thought to getting a Surface as it's a regular OS with a regular USB port. But if this type of problem exists I'm not going to get one even if it's free. Apple has no problem taking in an iPhone/iPad that was bought from AT&T, or any where else for that matter.

 

[osanders]

Sounds like charge back time to me. You did your due diligence on troubleshooting and trying to get an exchange. The fact the M$ and AT&T can't get their collective poo together is not your problem. That's exactly what I would do.

And thanks for the heads up. My iPad is getting long in the tooth and I've been giving some thought to getting a Surface as it's a regular OS with a regular USB port. But if this type of problem exists I'm not going to get one even if it's free. Apple has no problem taking in an iPhone/iPad that was bought from AT&T, or any where else for that matter.

I don't understand the deal with this device between the two companies why ATT don't process warranty returns like Cellphones. Take it back to the carrier and they issue another simple process unless out of warranty. When I checked with the ATT store where purchased they said all tablet returns are processed via the Manufacturer and I sure hope they don't go through the same troubles.

 

[phaZed]

Did you see this thread?
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...l/b2163f4b-9019-4508-a931-45c44fbbeb9c?page=9

Sounds like a Firmware update might be in order? :
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en...tivate/surface-3-update-history?os=windows-10

System Firmware Update – 7/23/2015
Surface UEFI update (v1.50410.78.0)
HD Graphics Family driver update (v10.18.15.4248) improves graphics performance and stability on Windows 10

System Firmware Update – 6/23/2015
Surface System Aggregator Firmware update
Audio Device driver update
Surface Pen Settings driver update
Camera driver update
HD Graphics driver update
Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth driver update

 

[osanders]

Did you see this thread?
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...l/b2163f4b-9019-4508-a931-45c44fbbeb9c?page=9

Sounds like a Firmware update might be in order? :
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en...tivate/surface-3-update-history?os=windows-10

System Firmware Update – 7/23/2015
Surface UEFI update (v1.50410.78.0)
HD Graphics Family driver update (v10.18.15.4248) improves graphics performance and stability on Windows 10

System Firmware Update – 6/23/2015
Surface System Aggregator Firmware update
Audio Device driver update
Surface Pen Settings driver update
Camera driver update
HD Graphics driver update
Wireless Network Controller and Bluetooth driver update

Thanks for these links the 1st seems geared more towards the previous versions but the 2nd link takes me to the site I found and installed the driver pack for Win 8.1 which didn't help any. I have yet to try it again now that I have upgraded to Win 10. Now that I've taken the Surface rt out of retirement it is doing a lot of updates with no issues even the firmware.

 

[phaZed]

osanders,

for the first link, I found it relevant because it has the same error log message posted by user "vipkl1" on page 9. He had:

The device Surface Type Cover 2 Firmware Update Device (location (unknown)) is offline due to a user-mode driver crash. Windows will attempt to restart the device in the shared process 1 more times before moving the device in its own process."

I suspect you are also experiencing ACPI power mode issues with some device... like the others in that post, their issues seemed to fit the bill fairly well. Just verify your Firmware version and make sure it's up to date.

 

[osanders]

Looks like I am finally getting some progress, had a missed call from MS yesterday but no message left. This morning I tried the Warranty return system and to my surprise it processed so getting ready for shipping. I also checked the firmware with the information given above and matches what's installed for Win 10. Actually downloaded and installed the driver pack but all was up to date.