back to article Microsoft yanks Surface 2 DIM SCREEN of DEATH fix in update snafu

A software update supposed to stop Surface slabs overheating has been yanked by Microsoft – because it’s making matters worse. Microsoft is pulling a December 10 firmware update for Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 and won’t re-issue another one for the over-heating issue until after Christmas. Users who’d installed the patch had …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wait... What?

    2000?

    Uh?????

    1. c:\boot.ini
      Joke

      Re: Wait... What?

      Yes, and some idiot on here claimed it was outselling iPad air ;-)

  2. Shady
    Megaphone

    With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season....

    "I TOLD YOU I WANTED AN IPAD!!!!!!" WAH!!!!!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season....

      Don't put it under the xmas tree, or the tree will catch fire LOL

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season....

        Till now the only known tablet to burn has been an iPad...

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season....

          The iPad has sold so many units that - statistically speaking - we'd see a few breached lithium cells by now.

          Microsoft has accomplished the feat of burning their users without a manufacturing defect or battery-puncturing user-error. +1 those guys.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season....

            Yet, it the only one to be know for having self-ignited.

            1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

              Re: With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season....

              Again, any devices shipping with Lithium battery packs in the volumes achieved by the iPad will have some units that do this. Boeing airplanes do this.

              That Microsoft hasn't' had a surface spontaneously combust is merely an indication that they've shipped a pitiful amount of them, nothing more. All sorts of consumer - or even professional, industrial and military - electronics that ships with lithium packs have had the same self-immolation issues over the years.

              That isn't bad design. It isn't bad engineering. (Well, Boeing...) It's bad quality control and razor-thin manufacturing margins. The only problem with attacking Apple for that is that Microsoft's kit is made by the same companies on the same bloody lines. (Actually, IIRC, Apple has the best QA in the business and some of the highest wages for the assemblers.)

              There are lots of reasons to lay into Apple. That isn't one.

  3. Snivelling Wretch

    I see the old adage of waiting for the .1 release still holds true...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Typical

    MS has absolute control, including the hardware and they still fcuk things up! Chuck em in the bin.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season, Microsoft seems to have made a calculated gamble that having a hot tab is better than one that’s handicapped. Two thousand Surface 2s have been shipped to the UK."

    I'm sure they are handicapped regardless as it is a Microsoft product.

    1. Hellcat

      Come up with that one all by yourself or was it originally written as "I'm sure they are handicapped regardless as it is a.Apple/Samsung/Oracle/Sun/Citrix/Cisco/<insert hated technology company name here> product."

  6. Zot

    Are all their employees chiefs?

    Where have all the programmers and designers gone? Not to mention any testers.

    Well that's what it seems like anyway.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Are all their employees chiefs?

      "Testers?" That would imply that Microsoft products are potentially imperfect as designed. Clearly you don't understand Redmondian culture. Take "not invented here" mix with 30% total planetary arrogance, whip on medium for 15 minutes and serve using sharks with frikkin plasma beams attacked to their frikkin tails.

  7. Bladeforce

    This company really is..

    the Osama Bin Laden of the tech world

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This company really is..

      "the Osama Bin Laden of the tech world"

      I was thinking more like the Norman Wisdom.

  8. Mikel
    Windows

    Unleash the astroturfers

    Quick! Get those bloggers out there bragging how the subdued contrast is so much easier on the eyes than the harsh glare of an iPad screen.

  9. RaidOne

    "With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season"

    This has made my day! Potentially!

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: "With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season"

      Under the Christmas Tree might mean being burried in the back garden on the 12th night as we re-plant the tree until next year.

      Sadly doing so would probably kill the tree.

  10. Rallicat

    Because only Windows has bugs...

    ... oh, wait.

  11. Paul Webb

    'With Surfaces potentially going on the Christmas fire this season'

    Especially any self-immolating ones - won't be roasting my chestnuts near one though.

  12. chivo243 Silver badge
    Windows

    Return Shipping!

    Only 2000 of those? Shipping them back won’t cost much....

  13. A Butler

    The Surface 2 good news story from 2-3 days ago not reported on The Reg...

    As per usual The Reg will NEVER publish any semblance of a good news story regarding the Surface tablet.

    A few days ago it was widely reported that the device had sold out in the US, sourced from various retailers not just Microsoft marketing. Of course no mention of it here..... only sniping anti-Surface news welcome.

    Here ye go for a bit of balance:

    http://mashable.com/2013/12/15/microsoft-surface-pro-2-and-surface-2-sold-out-at-many-locations/

    1. tempemeaty

      Re: The Surface 2 good news story from 2-3 days ago not reported on The Reg...

      "“With regards to specific inventory levels or sales numbers we don’t comment on those specific figures... "

      Right out of the article itself.

      I'm glad they sold out but of how many?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The Surface 2 good news story from 2-3 days ago not reported on The Reg...

      they've run out of stock before christmas - and you think that's good? what numbers are involved?

      1. A Butler

        Re: The Surface 2 good news story from 2-3 days ago not reported on The Reg...

        No doubt the Surface 2 is not selling near the quantities of the iPad which wins as the best tablet for messing about on the couch after a days work. The Nexus being the best android offering, almost all other cheap Android tablets are useless and will be broken by the end of January.

        However its sales are growing, the majority of users who have purchased one (The Surface RT / 2) use it as a combined tablet and laptop replacement ideal for work like editing documents, presentations, emails and ease of access to you files on the full size USB port.

        The surface is the most innovation and distinct tablet in the market currently, ok some parts of windows RT have a few rough edges however that is progressing as can be seen in the 8.1 upgrade.

        The Reg from the get go have been trying to blacken the Surface and Windows RT from the start, this article is more of the same.....

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: The Surface 2 good news story from 2-3 days ago not reported on The Reg...

          "almost all other cheap Android tablets are useless and will be broken by the end of January."

          [Citation needed]

          "However [Surface's] sales are growing, "

          [Citation needed]

          "the majority of users who have purchased one (The Surface RT / 2) use it as a combined tablet and laptop replacement ideal for work like editing documents, presentations, emails and ease of access to you files on the full size USB port."

          [Citation needed]

          T"he surface is the most innovation and distinct tablet in the market currently,"

          [Citation needed, should contain reviews from a number of sources addressing everything from ease of use to user satisfaction, adoption rate to ecosystem size, developer response to hardware reliability]

          "ok some parts of windows RT have a few rough edges however that is progressing as can be seen in the 8.1 upgrade."

          [Citation needed, general opinion seems to be that 8.1 was "not good enough." You have to do a lot to prove otherwise.]

          "The Reg from the get go have been trying to blacken the Surface and Windows RT from the start, this article is more of the same....."

          Bullshit. We aren't trying to "blacken" the Surface or Windows RT at all. I think you'll find that most of us don't care one way or another about the Surface (except for Tim Anderson, he loves it) and even fewer care about Windows RT at all (except for me, I think it's the biggest missed opportunity in modern computing and I lament the mismangement of what could have been the saviour of modern endpoint computing. I love RT. I hate how it was handled.)

          You have a lot of proving your statements to do here. Get to it.

      2. Mikel

        Re: The Surface 2 good news story from 2-3 days ago not reported on The Reg...

        Each one is lovingly handcrafted in Hawthorne, CA by a semi-retired VCR repairman named Hank.

    3. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: The Surface 2 good news story from 2-3 days ago not reported on The Reg...

      I'll publish something nice about Surface when something nice about surface exists to be published...and proof of that crosses my desk.

  14. SVV

    The Surface 2 is HOT right now!

    As in "ouch my fingers are burning, turn it off til it cools down!"

    In another quote, "Microsoft attributed screen dimming to “extended, high CPU intensive actions – like gaming.”"

    So, it's not suitable for gaming, which is lucky because nobody uses their tablets for gaming do they?

    Roll on Surface 3, and keep those receipts safe if you've bought one of these.....

  15. Troy Wilson

    Microsoft ---> Customer:

    Honestly....you really need to be brave.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cooking the Turkey

    Would this have made a more seasonal headline?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: Cooking the Turkey

      You mean Microsoft marketing was wanting to pitch the Surface as a turn-key solution and Engineering misread it as a Turkey solution?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    With Surfaces potentially going under Christmas trees this season

    The only Christmas trees that surface tablets will be under this year are the ones down the dump on Jan 2nd....

  18. PeterM42

    Oh Dear

    Microsoft failing to TEST PROPERLY - AGAIN!!!!!

  19. David Goadby

    to rushed ot carry out testing?

    It appears that Microsoft are starting to panic and, as a result, are not thoroughly testing their code. Having missed Xmas last year, and with RT a flop, Microsoft need to get someone at the helm that can manage a big company - and FAST. They are rudderless at the moment. Yes, they have a cash mountain but it won't last forever.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    People actually buy those turd Surface tablets?

    Couldn't they have at least waited till the next major write-off from Microsoft? At least there will be a hefty discount.

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