Following reports that the May update to Windows 10 was causing a number of issues with the second Surface Book, Microsoft has confirmed that it will be blocking the update to Surface Book 2 models that include the Nvidia dGPU.
Practically, a number of apps and games were crashing because of a incompatibility with the graphics card and the discrete GPU going AWOL from the device manager. Details on the temporary hold can be found on Microsoft’s Windows 10 support page:
Microsoft has identified a compatibility issue on some Surface Book 2 devices configured with Nvidia discrete graphics processing unit (dGPU). After updating to Window 10, version 1903 (May 2019 Feature Update), some apps or games that needs to perform graphics intensive operations may close or fail to open.
To safeguard your update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on Surface Book 2 devices with Nvidia dGPUs from being offered Windows 10, version 1903, until this issue is resolved.
For those who have already installed the update Microsoft is recommending a full restart on the device or to scan for hardware changes in the Devices Manager to mitigate the issue. Work is progressing on a fix (and other issues in Windows 10 v1903 have been addressed in short order) but there are no indications yet on a timescale.
To have to pause the rollout on one of the most recognisable Surface machines is somewhat of an embarrassment for Microsoft. If there is one portfolio of devices that you would expect the development team to have access to, it’s the Surface range of computers. If there’s one portfolio you’d expect to be part of any internal ‘test out the unreleased builds in a hostile environment’ it would be the Surface range of computers.
Windows 10 has to accommodate a very large number of hardware combinations (far more than macOS) so issues will occur, but the key is how they are handled, how open Microsoft is over the issues, and the speed of the fixes. This specific issues with the Surface Book 2 will be watched very carefully.
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