SP3 i5 only 5 weeks old. Overheats like crazy. Anyone else?

[Paul Towmy]

It seems obvious now with the tightly packed thin design that over-heating was going to be an issue - I just naively thought that wouldn't be the case/modern tech heat dissipation would have come on.

There is nowhere for the heat to go other than out the very tiny 1mm holes in the top half/around the edges. Was my purchase ill thought out/anyone else? But all the heat seems to concentrated around the quarter section behind the USB port. Left side completely cold, right side - almost too hot to touch. Or do I have a faulty fan - it's on constantly/working but seems to be working wayyy too hard.

Such a shameful waste of money but no surprise for new technology - always the bloody way. Perhaps I should concede and go Ipad - thoughts please anyone?

Then there's the weird little software glitches, like desktop/icons and one icon in particular refuses to stay where I put it; then on tilt, the window rotates and re sizes to portrait but then when tilting back, it doesn't go back to landscape?? Disappointing for 21st century technology - I expect more.

No such thing as official SP3 covers either - only 3rd party and they're only online. It's a bit of a slippery character in more ways than one!

 

[spinachpie]

Yeah it does get hot, but only after a while of usage for me. If it's getting hot after less than 30 mins of use i'd be worried.

But yeah it gets hot. I don't mind so much because I only use it in tablet mode for 10-20 mins at a time and the rest I use keyboard on my lap.

 

[Chris Grew]

I take it the fan is running in overtime as well?

Check out indexing on the forum. You will probably have to turn it off or at least parts of it.

Since doing so, I have not had any problems.

Best regards

Chris

 

[Chris Grew]

Here you go:

http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/overheating-overworking-fan-on-all-the-time-sp3.12386/

Regards

Chris

 

[Paul Towmy]

Yeah it does get hot, but only after a while of usage for me. If it's getting hot after less than 30 mins of use i'd be worried.

But yeah it gets hot. I don't mind so much because I only use it in tablet mode for 10-20 mins at a time and the rest I use keyboard on my lap.

Hot after 20mins for me. That's way too short in my view for modern day/brand new gadget. Many thanks for reply.

 

[Gavin Lewarne]

what is interesting is that the two teardown videos on youtube seem to show that Microsoft are using some of the really dry, wafer thin, claylike thermal interface material between the CPU and heatsink. if this were a laptop I would immediuately replace it with something better, but we cant do that.

Has anyone attempted using something like Prime 95 for 24hrs to see if the constant heat output will phase-change the material enough for better thermal conductivity, similar to when "burning in" pastes like arctic silver 5 ?

 

[Paul Towmy]

ooh. no. tks. will look into that. Never heard of P95. I'm not techy; just average Jo. Sp3 looks and sounds good, mostly is, functionally speaking but how is one ever going to know about heat nonsense til buying and using for a period. I bought mostly as I tend to historically, wait for eons, then get the latest, fastest/best value, as far as I can make out. sp3 i5/i7 largest memory/processor available with the detatchable/sensible/real.not touch pad - keyboard option.

 

[Paul Towmy]

Here you go:

http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/overheating-overworking-fan-on-all-the-time-sp3.12386/

Regards

Chris

Extremely thoughtful and helpful TKSVVVVM!

 

[GreyFox7]

I suppose one mans overheating is another mans normal operations. Its not overheating until it shuts down.

However, do pay attention to the indexing and track down any abnormally high CPU utilization that might be observed in Task Manager or Resource Monitor, you typically shouldn't have tasks running 20% CPU unexpectedly.

I don't remember for sure off the top of my head but id say CPU temps in the low 40s C at idle is not unexpected and low 70s C during moderate usage. It will throttle at 90-91C and is to be expected as all modern systems take advantage of the designed operational envelope. Shutdown if necessary will occur within a safe upper boundary the operational envelope.

Within these limits I have measured up to 43 C/110 F on the back of the case, it's normal.

 

[mitchellvii]

Doing every day tasks my fan almost never runs and remains cool at all times (on 8.1). Only time it runs is when watching videos (even then not much) or playing a game. Turning off indexing should help and not really necessary with an SSD anyway.

 

[VickiFL]

I have an i5, and it has never over-heated. It has been really hot while watching Netflix a lot, but cooled down immediately when I was done.

 

[jnjroach]

It seems obvious now with the tightly packed thin design that over-heating was going to be an issue - I just naively thought that wouldn't be the case/modern tech heat dissipation would have come on.

There is nowhere for the heat to go other than out the very tiny 1mm holes in the top half/around the edges. Was my purchase ill thought out/anyone else? But all the heat seems to concentrated around the quarter section behind the USB port. Left side completely cold, right side - almost too hot to touch. Or do I have a faulty fan - it's on constantly/working but seems to be working wayyy too hard.

Such a shameful waste of money but no surprise for new technology - always the bloody way. Perhaps I should concede and go Ipad - thoughts please anyone?

Then there's the weird little software glitches, like desktop/icons and one icon in particular refuses to stay where I put it; then on tilt, the window rotates and re sizes to portrait but then when tilting back, it doesn't go back to landscape?? Disappointing for 21st century technology - I expect more.

No such thing as official SP3 covers either - only 3rd party and they're only online. It's a bit of a slippery character in more ways than one!

You've given us way to little information - what are you running? Which browser? Chrome? Firefox? IE? Are you playing games on it? Are they casual games or FPS? Also comparing a SP3 to an iPad is like comparing a Nissan Leaf to BMW i8 - yeah both are electric cars but they are very different.

The SP3 is essentially a full fledge Ultrabook in a Tablet Form Factor, the iPad is an iPhone in Tablet Form Factor.

What was your use case for the SP3? I've owned the SP3 since launch day and have never had it overheat, the fan comes on as it should for a Core i5 Machine with 8GB of RAM and 256 SSD.