Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 grab three Intel updates for power management

Best microSD expansion cards for Surface Book
Best microSD expansion cards for Surface Book

If you are using a Microsoft Surface Book or a Surface Pro 4 you will want to head into Settings > Update & Security > Windows update > Check for update to grab a three new Intel drive updates for the popular two-in-ones.

The drivers were released sometime last evening (US time). Some users, however, have had the drivers auto-install so check your update history if you do not see any available as they may already be updated.

Checking our various Surface devices, we see three drivers that are getting updated and none require the OS to restart so this won't disrupt your workflow. Those drivers are:

  • Driver update for Intel Xeon E3
  • Driver update for Intel 100 Series Chipset Family SMBUS
  • Driver update for Intel 100 Series Chipset Family PMC

PMC refers to the Intel Power Management Controller and is responsible for power state transitions (so, wake, sleep, etc.). The SMBUS applies to System Management Bus and it too is related to "communication with the power source for ON/OFF instructions" and a laptop's rechargeable battery.

Finally, as to the 'Gaussian Mixture Model' and Xeon E3 we are not to sure. However, at the very least, this update should continue to improve sleep/wake states of the new Surface series based on Intel Skylake as well as general power management.

Thanks, Lance, for the tip!

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.