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Surface Pro 10 with Snapdragon Processor and Printer Installation Problems
Greetings all. I took the plunge and picked up a Surface Pro 10 with the Snapdragon Elite processor to use for my work computer. So far, things have gone pretty smoothly and I have all of my regular applications installed and functioning. There is, however, one area that the Surface Pro with ARM architecture appears to be totally unusable: Windows Printer Drivers. I have installed Adobe Acrobat, the current cloud version on the Surface Pro and Acrobat seem to run okay, but no matter what I've tried, the Adobe PDF printer will not install. There are several ways to install the Adobe PDF printer manually and even an older patch to get it to install, but none of them work. I also tried to install printer drivers for several Brother printers and a Canon printer but they all fail to install. Sometimes they generate an install error and other times they simply fail to complete the installation and hang. Here I am referring to the official Windows drivers supplied by the printer manufacturer that include any supporting utilities such as Brother's Control Center for scanning documents. None of them will successfully install. I spent the afternoon working with Brother to try various things to install the printers, but nothing worked. They finally recommended that I contact Microsoft, so I did that too and they couldn't get anything to work either. When I received a follow up email from Microsoft, the technician and marked the case as solved and closed it, even though nothing worked. Now, if I install the printers from Windows 11, letting Windows discover the Brother printers, Windows will install a driver that I can print with and even recognizes the scanning capabilities but the scanning software that Microsoft provides for free won't scan to a .PDF file. So, while I can get the printers to work, I cannot access the "normal" printer drivers and utilize the manufacturer-supplied utilities with the printers. This limits their usefulness considerably. I haven't yet been able to get Windows 11 to recognize and add the Canon printer. I believe this to be a Microsoft problem with their ARM-compatibility app, whatever it is called, but I'm not sure how to go about getting feedback to Microsoft to get them to look into this. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Surface pro 9 Volume button stuck. Can't escape UEFI
My Surface Pro 9 fell tragically from my bed on the rim of a glass EXACTLY where the volume button is. Now, it can't pass its UEFI because the volume+power button is the exact combination that triggers it. I do have the extended warranty that covers accidental damages. Since it's been a while since I sent one for repair, I forgot that they format them before sending them home. Is there a way to bypass UEFI, or is there software I can use to access my data by connecting it to another Windows machine? The device otherwise is 100% functional Any idea or advice is appreciated.Surface Pro Screen flicker issue.
A little over two years ago I bought my first Surface Pro, and after about a year of usage, I started noticing this screen flicker problem. It's widely reported withthousands of threads and reports of screens flickering on surface pro products. Most reports mention heat as a factor and cooling it down can sometimes reduce the flicker. Here is a link to a 2000 post long thread just about this issue. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro4-surfdrivers/surface-pro-4-screen-flickering-shacking/570165cb-50a0-4d71-bcb1-310ddd869d1d?rtAction=1517820905738 I just got my 2nd replacement device last month. And noticed flicker again only 1 month after I got the new one. This time there is no idle flicker.... for now at least. And it only flickers when the device get hot. When gaming or doing some other heavy task. Luckily I've always been under warranty when this problem occurred so I've been getting my device replaced a few times now, but it's getting a bit tedious. My first one (my original purchase) got flickering after about a year. Idle flicker when nothing was moving. My second (replacement device) got flickering about 8 months after I got it. Idle flicker and constant flicker under heavy load. My third (the latest one) got flickering while gaming after just 1 month. So far only under heavy load. I'm starting to think that ALL Surface devices are defective. Some people just don't get the problem because their device never really get hot enough to cause any damage. It seems that Surface Pro's can't handle heat very well at all, and is not suitable for any heavy tasks, gaming, or anything else that might cause it to get hot. Since some people are reporting it even on new models like Surface Pro 2017 it seems they have not fixed the issue. And probably won't be fixed any time soon, as this is probably an engineering or design flaw, that causes some chip to be unstable and damaged due to heat. It seems the only fix is to downclock your surface device to keep it from not getting hot enough to cause the damage in the first place, and don't use it for any heavy tasks. Some people that don't use the device for any heavy tasks still report this issue so it's not the CPU/GPU getting too hot, but rather this little part here. Even on an idle machine with low CPU temps touching the lower part of the screen with the back of your hand this area is the hottest part. And is probably housing the chips that get unstable due to heat. Replacing the LCD will fix the flicker issue, so It seems like chips related to the LCD will get damaged over time. Weather it be from the heat produced by the device itself or external heat, as there is no active or passive cooling for any of the chips related to the LCD screen. If there's any engineers on this forum, place fix this issue in future devices. It's a great device and the CPU/GPU will get cool enough even under heavy load, but the LCD must chips have been overlooked.
Surface Pro 7 not booting off USB for Ubuntu install
Hi all. I've got a Surface Pro 7 that's getting a bit long in the tooth. I've read that various Linux distros run well on it. Ubuntu in particular has quite a few detailed set-up guides. So I decided to give it a shot. The problem is, the Surface won't boot from a USB key. The UEFI/BIOS is set to boot from USB first, before anything else. I've tried: -- 5 different USB keys (various sizes (apparently 64GB don't work) from 32GB down to 😎 -- writing the Ubuntu ISO to the key using balenaEtcher, Rufus, and the dd command from a command prompt in a Linux virtual machine. -- setting the security setting in the Surface's UEFI/BIOS to off and third party (not Microsoft Only) -- turned off all other boot devices, so that it ONLY tries booting from the USB -- openSUSE Tumbleweed instead of Ubuntu -- Windows 11 (for poops and giggles, just to see) instead of Linux -- turned on the Surface normally, and while holding the down volume button. Nothing works. It just sits there with the white Surface/Windows logo on a black screen, like it's mockingly judging me, until I eventually turn it off. I've left it like that for as long as an hour, just to see if the trhing would figure out what I wanted it do do. How on earth to I get the thing to actually boot off USB and into the Ubuntu installer?
Surface Pro 4 with mouse/touch bubbles in the screen
I have a Surface Pro 4 that was working just fine until yesterday, when it started showing some kinds of "bubbles" (the same they appear when you touch the screen with your finger) in the screen, several in the same line, like I was touching the screen in all those points. When they appear, I cannot use the touchscreen, and mouse pointer keeps going to those bubbles. I'm not sure if it is a hardware or software problem, but if anyone could give my advice, I'd be pleased. Thanks in advance.
