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3 generations in and still: Ghost image glitch on lock-/welcome-screen

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
If something as insignificant as this creates uncertainty for you, then you are sod out of luck then. You'll probably have a meltdown on the spot when you encounter a wifi issue or one of the other known bugs that can occur. This is the least of your worries. Doesn't sound like this device is suited for you. But then again every device will encouter a bugg or random issue at some point, be it microsoft, lenovo, or apple. So I don't know how you manage.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
I've seen it occasionally, its an artifact from the Profile Syncing and isn't unique to the SP3, it happens across all Windows 8.x/RT Machines (and sometimes on WP 8.x). Unless you have another mobile device that you are syncing with you'll only see it on the slowest of your devices. I have only mobile devices so I've seen it on some devices, like my Dell Venue Pro 8 my other SP3 and my NUC (it uses the Haswell U Chipset like the SP3).
 

goodintentions

Active Member
It's not just a bother, at times in can be a fear for the fact that even though one bought an expensive (top of the class) device, the people made it payed less attention to detail than on a 299 dollar Lenovo fx. How does one know that it does impact and prolong the login experience?

Secondly: I actually had mine with a client for a showcase, where it happened very obviously and my client went: What was that? And i went: I dont know. These small things might seems irrelevant to some, but it might also prohibit others from getting a good/great impression of a product. Again, it creates a uncertainty for no reason at all.

I just shut down and restarted my sp3 3 times while intently watching for the ghost image you describe. Still nothing. A video demo by you would be really nice.

I remember back when windows 8 first came out when the start button wasn't there. There were many who cried bloody murder on the internet saying they couldn't do any work because the start button was gone. I remember thinking to myself: If they can't be productive because the start button was gone, what good are they?

When I interviewed for my current job, I sold myself on the account that I've been a cop, computer programmer, lab researcher, and now I'm sure I can handle being an engineer. In other words, I sold myself on the fact that I'm a versatile person that tries to solve a problem when it comes up rather than whine about it. So, you can understand when I see all this whining on the internet, it kinda bothers me to think that I have to work with people who... whine. Because I do work with people who whine rather than try to solve the issue at hand.

I have not been able to replicate the split second ghost image problem that you describe. But I'll take your word for it. How does this "problem" impede the sp3 as a good tool for what I do? I'm currently working from home (because it's damn cold outside and I don't feel like going to my office for the rest of this week, or at least until the cold spell is over) with my sp3. Can you give me some examples how the split second ghost image would affect my productivity with the sp3?
 

ynohtna

Member
ya there's no point to laugh away someones post. It seems to be valid question and even got an explanation.

Though I'll say I don't see this on my sp3. I assume pressing ctrl+alt+delete then lock will see it? I never changed my back ground since using a surface rt though.

I just changed the lock screen back ground and use ctrl+alt+delete to goto lock screen and each time it fades to black briefly then the lock screen back ground.

That said, it's an odd albeit minor concern :) At least you're not having crashes :D
 

goodintentions

Active Member
ya there's no point to laugh away someones post. It seems to be valid question and even got an explanation.

Though I'll say I don't see this on my sp3. I assume pressing ctrl+alt+delete then lock will see it? I never changed my back ground since using a surface rt though.

I just changed the lock screen back ground and use ctrl+alt+delete to goto lock screen and each time it fades to black briefly then the lock screen back ground.

That said, it's an odd albeit minor concern :) At least you're not having crashes :D
I don't think anyone is laughing at this. At the same time, I think he's too focused on a weed to notice the forest.

I'm questioning how this split second ghost image affects my work. If this is such a big issue, why not just drop the sp3 and get an ipad?
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
I don't think anyone is laughing at this. At the same time, I think he's too focused on a weed to notice the forest.

I'm questioning how this split second ghost image affects my work. If this is such a big issue, why not just drop the sp3 and get an ipad?

Ha, i bought an ipad air 2 to launder some scholarship funds, and the thing locked up during the initial setup. Hence my earlier point that all devices no matter the vendor will have an issue. So the argument doesn't hold much merit if any alternative will be equally possible of showing an issue or bug. The main angst seemed to not be the bug, but that microsoft has it on their surface but many laptops don't, yet it has now been stated that this is a known thing and it effects many machines other than surface, counter to the OP, meaning i don't really see what all this fuss is about here.
 

ptrkhh

Active Member
Try this:
0. Make sure you only have 1 user account in your SP3
1. Sign in to the only user account
2. Sign out
After the signout process finished, you would see the default Windows lockscreen wallpaper for a fraction of second before it got replaced by your personal lockscreen.

As you may have probably guessed, its not really a glitch actually.
After you sign out, Windows would have to display a lockscreen. But it doesn't know whose lockscreen it should display, hence it displays the default lockscreen. If you only have one user account, Windows doesn't get confused on whose lockscreen it should display, since there is only one user account, hence it would display your lockscreen. But for a fraction of second, it got confused. You could probably reduce the 'confusion' time by opting the i7 CPU and fast 256 GB SSD :D
 

goodintentions

Active Member
Try this:
0. Make sure you only have 1 user account in your SP3
1. Sign in to the only user account
2. Sign out
After the signout process finished, you would see the default Windows lockscreen wallpaper for a fraction of second before it got replaced by your personal lockscreen.

As you may have probably guessed, its not really a glitch actually.
After you sign out, Windows would have to display a lockscreen. But it doesn't know whose lockscreen it should display, hence it displays the default lockscreen. If you only have one user account, Windows doesn't get confused on whose lockscreen it should display, since there is only one user account, hence it would display your lockscreen. But for a fraction of second, it got confused. You could probably reduce the 'confusion' time by opting the i7 CPU and fast 256 GB SSD :D
I will definitely try this as soon as I finish running my program for work.

That being said, I do not deny that this happens. What I'm trying to get at is how this would affect my work performance or why this is such a terrible thing that the powers that be must stop everything to change this or the world will end at midnight tonight?

I get that OCD people tend to rise up the ranks of the corporate ladder faster than the rest of us. But I still would very much like to know how this very terrible thing affect my work performance.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
It affects your work performance because the other lock screen is obscene or radical :)
Oh Oh, what was that!
 

Cask

Member
Its not a Surface glitch but a Windows glitch. I have seen this also happen on my HP Elitebook 9470m I use for work.
 
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