Microsoft fixes Surface Pro 4 & Surface Book display adapter driver crashing issue with December firmware update

Microsoft pushes December firmware update for Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book to address display adapter driver crashing issue.

Surface Pro 4 at the Microsoft Store

In October, Microsoft introduced a number of new devices, including the new Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. The Surface Pro 4 is thinner, little lighter, faster, and featuring a slightly, but yet beautiful display, and the Surface Book, which is the first laptop designed by Microsoft with dual graphics and detachable display.

Both Surface are without a doubt great devices, but unfortunately not everything went as planned, as many users have reported a number of issues, including excessive battery drainage caused by Windows Hello or simple low battery life, trackpad and keyboard issues, screen flickering, popping sound from speakers, Type Cover issues, and more.

Although, the software giant has been proactively working and releasing firmware updates to address various issues, Microsoft had yet to resolve one of the biggest complaints — that is the display driver crashing issue.

Today, on December 2nd, the company is pushing a new firmware update title “System Hardware Update — 12/2/2015” through Windows Update to address the error:

“Display appears to hang, and then you will get a message that the display adapter has reset. Usually happens in certain scrolling situations on web pages.”

The following update will be listed as “System Firmware Update – 12/3/2015” or “System Hardware Update – 12/3/2015” within the Windows Update History.

  • HD Graphics 520 driver update (v20.19.15.4326) improves display stability.
  • Surface Display Calibration driver update (v1.1.381.0) supports compatibility with the updated graphics driver.

After installing the update users will also notice that the Intel display driver for Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book changes to version 20.19.15.4326.

Interesting enough, as noted by Windows Central, the display driver issue isn’t only happening on Microsoft’s Surface devices. Other computer brands, such as Lenovo, HP, and Dell featuring Intel’s sixth-generation Skylake processors are suffering the same problem. Therefore, the driver update should in theory fix the issue for a lot customers.

If you own a device featuring an Intel Graphics 520 display adapter, you can also download the driver (beta) version 20.19.15.4326 from Intel’s Download Center.

Have you come across any of these issues? Did the update fix the display adapter problem in your Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book? Let us know your story in the comments.

Source Surface Update History, Microsoft Community via Windows Central

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.