Microsoft has pulled a recent Surface Pro 2 firmware update following a number of complaints from angry stylus-waving owners.

According to posts made on the company's community forum, many people can't get their tablets to wake up from sleep mode after applying the update, while others are finding it impossible to charge the device and are reporting longer-than-usual boot times.

Causing further confusion, the update apparently displays installation error messages for many owners but still subjects devices to the same symptoms.

Unhappy holidays

In a responding forum post, Microsoft says it has pulled the release, which was outed on Patch Tuesday (December 10), and is "working to release an alternative update package after the holidays".

Additionally, it confirmed that the update "prevents some devices from entering sleep mode (and other low power states) properly during periods of inactivity", adding that any updated firmware version would need to be fully tested with drivers to make sure it won't cause further problems.

Because testing things before they're released is a good idea, right?

Worth the wait?

The update promised to bring a number of benefits, including improved system stability (somewhat ironically), an updated Wi-Fi driver for improved wireless display and connectivity with hotspots, improved Surface Cover interaction including power-saving sleep functionality and optimised two-finger trackpad use.

You can't really blame owners of Microsoft's beefy slate for rushing out and installing the firmware update though, as the last firmware version released in November delivered a healthy 25% battery boost.