Surface Pro 4 at 1909 never get offered 2004

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I have a Surface Pro 4 that is stuck on version 1909 and never offers me 2004. I assumed that they were still sorting out issues with Surface Pros and 2004, but from what I read 2004 should now work on the SP4. Can anyone confirm that 2004 is working on the SP4 and offer any suggestions about how I can get the upgrade to be offered on my old SP4. I’d also be happy to jump straight to 2H20 for this.

 

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You don’t say if you have Win10 Home or Win10 Pro. The methods are different depending on which Edition you have.
Several questions you need to answer before you start:
+ Are you using or have you ever used any third-party update blockers? If so, you need to be sure that the changes they have made have been reversed (even if you have uninstalled them).
+ Do you have Conexant Audio drivers? MS has a block against these and they must be uninstalled before you will be offered the upgrade. See Control Panel\Device Manager.

See AKB2000016 Guide for Windows Update Settings for Win10.

If you have Win10 Home, there are several methods in Section 2 for setting TargetReleaseVersion (TRV) to upgrade to the version you want, 2004 or 20H2 (Susan recommends either/both). Probably Susan’s .reg files is the easiest. (You will have to remember to run a different .reg file when it’s time to change versions again)

If you have Win10 Pro, you can use Group Policy to control updates. See Section 5 for instructions. At a minimum, you will need to set “2” (notify download/install) under WindowsUpdate and TRV under Windows Update for Business.
There are screenshots under the instructions to show you where each of these settings are. Scroll down.

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Stargazer

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Thanks PKCano,

I didn’t mention Home or Pro, because AFAIK MS Surface Pro’s only ever came with Windows 10 Pro – it’s definitely Win 10 Pro. Further, its an MS device, so surely they know what drivers they have installed in their own devices!! According to Device Manager the audio devices are Realtek. Video is Intel HD Graphics 520. No blocks on updates and no third party blockers. It’s still updating 1909 automatically and/or manually.

I have read of horror stories where people forced SP4’s and other SP devices to upgrade and bricked the device. So I’m looking for specific information about whether an SP4 should be able to be updated or whether there are known problems.

According to Mary J Foley as late as July 2020 there were still blocks on some SP devices. See https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-has-not-unblocked-the-windows-10-2004-update-for-surface-devices-after-all/ 

I can’t find any more recent or precise information.

 

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Be sure that you have sufficient storage to take the update.  I have a Surface Pro 3, with 128 GB of storage, and have to keep shuffling things over to OneDrive to keep sufficient free space for OS updates.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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Stargazer, PKCano

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I keep forgetting about the problem with hard disk/SSD space.
Glad someone remembers it.

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Interesting idea ScotchJohn, thanks, but it had 68.6Gb and I just deleted an account (this was my wife’s machine, which I’ve always maintained, but she’s now on a MacBook Pro so I deleted her account) and it now has 129Gb free and still no offer of 2004 when I run Windows Update.

It seems like MS still have a block on the SP4 (although I can’t find anywhere to confirm that beyond the block mentioned by Mary J Foley in July last year). My concern is what happens when they drop support for 1909 in May! (It’s not like 2004 or even 20H2 add anything worthwhile, it’s just about ongoing security support).

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[EP]

@Stargazer

maybe ask Paul T as to why you are still not getting either 2004 or 20H2 on your MS Surface Pro 4 device.

wonder what Paul T has to say about it – let’s wait for a response from him

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by EP.

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Why me? I don’t have a Surface, but I expect the lack of upgrade is Windows usual “not happy” about something.

You could try downloading an ISO, double click it to mount and run setup.exe.

cheers, Paul

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[Alex5723]

Have you tried running Surface Diagnostic Toolkit ?

From searching online it seen Surface Pro 4 does run 20H2.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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Surface Pro 3 certainly runs 2004 and 20H2

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Stargazer

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Thanks Paul, Alex and PFC. Paul, I was reluctant to use an ISO because there were quite a few references to it causing problems with the SP’s. Alex, the SDT was a good idea – it reported no problems. PFC, I knew that the SP3 was running fine now but could not find any details on the SP4.

I’ve bitten the bullet and Downloaded the Media Creation Tool and running it in Upgrade mode now. We’ll see what happens as this will upgrade to 20H2. It’s either going to work or result in a BSOD at which point…

I’ll report back what happens. <span style=”color: #993300;”>Chances are it will just work, but as I said there were reports of an issue with SP4 (and 7 I think) and the recommendation in the middle of last year was to not try forcing it as it was resulting in BSOD’s. </span>

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Is your SP4 up to date with drivers and Firmware ?

Latest updates are from 2/26/2021.

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Stargazer

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[Stargazer]

Isn’t firmware for the SP4 meant to be delivered by Updates? That page is referring to the creation of custom deployment images etc and AFAIK I should not need to install them manually. But hey, it’s Microsoft, anything is possible, they change processes so often and their information pages are all so clear, like mud. I also cannot find out how to check what version of firmware is installed, but there is no version on that list which matches my current Win 10 version!

Right now the upgrade to 20H2 appears to have been successful. Also, DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth followed by a sfc/scannow report no problems so…

Still no idea why I was not being offered a version update by the Windows updater.

Thanks to everyone who dipped in an offered suggestions.

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Stargazer.

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Alex5723

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[EP]

maybe some outdated drivers [like video/graphics or audio] (or maybe some outdated telemetry & windows update cache stuff that need to be cleared) on the Surface Pro 4 are preventing the 2004/20H2 upgrade from Windows Update

to clear/delete telemetry data, delete the C:\Windows\appcompat\appraiser folder
to clear windows update cache, read this thread.

btw, here’s the MS support article on Surface Pro 4 update history

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by EP.

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Stargazer

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Thanks EP. I suspect it was indeed something to do with the cache. Hopefully now it will settle down given that it’s been upgraded to 20H2. I’ve even developed a theory as to what might have happened relating to the “on again/off again” blocks that MS applied with Surface devices for 2004 last year creating a glitch in the cache but have no way to explore or prove it.

My real concern and why I started the thread was trying to find out whether the SP4 was still blocked or whether MS had solved the problems with Surface devices. I had assumed that the SP4 was not offering the upgrade because it was still a problem and I couldn’t find a definitive answer to whether they had or not. I found the answer in the end by just biting the bullet and running the Media Creation tool and finding that it did not brick the device.

I’ll keep your advice in mind in case I need it in the future (I did look at the threads).

 

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Stargazer wrote:

I’ve even developed a theory as to what might have happened

Spending more time playing games would be more productive. 

cheers, Paul

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Stargazer

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