New SP user with some concerns

[sanderb134]

Hey guys I just got my surface pro and I really like it except for a few things.

1) The SP gets warm when I'm not doing much. Like right now for example I have chrome open with 3 tabs and the desktop open and it is running at about 60 degrees Celsius. I feel like that is rather warm for not doing much. Does anyone else experience this? The back of it is warm (not uncomfortable). This happens after about 15 minutes booted especially when using it as a tablet on my lap.

2) When writing with onenote i notice that when I had my palm above the front facing camera it would indent down a little bit. It only happens by the camera but does anyone else have this problem as well? Is it just a weak spot by the camera?

I am running the surface with these power settings to conserve battery life: How To: Optimize Microsoft Surface Pro Battery Life but with the CPU at 50% instead of 75%. Does anyone have any other good tips for maximizing battery life?

Also, does anyone recommend a good note taking app for school? Particularly math/physics formulas. I am using one note right now. I'm not sure if im going to use the SP as a notebook replacement since I haven't used a tablet to take notes before. How long does it take to get used to using the SP instead of a notebook?

Do you guys think I just got a bad unit?

Thanks

 

[malberttoo]

Hey guys I just got my surface pro and I really like it except for a few things.

1) The SP gets warm when I'm not doing much. Like right now for example I have chrome open with 3 tabs and the desktop open and it is running at about 60 degrees Celsius. I feel like that is rather warm for not doing much. Does anyone else experience this? The back of it is warm (not uncomfortable). This happens after about 15 minutes booted especially when using it as a tablet on my lap.

2) When writing with onenote i notice that when I had my palm above the front facing camera it would indent down a little bit. It only happens by the camera but does anyone else have this problem as well? Is it just a weak spot by the camera?

I am running the surface with these power settings to conserve battery life: How To: Optimize Microsoft Surface Pro Battery Life but with the CPU at 50% instead of 75%. Does anyone have any other good tips for maximizing battery life?

Also, does anyone recommend a good note taking app for school? Particularly math/physics formulas. I am using one note right now. I'm not sure if im going to use the SP as a notebook replacement since I haven't used a tablet to take notes before. How long does it take to get used to using the SP instead of a notebook?

Do you guys think I just got a bad unit?

Thanks

Sanderb134, welcome to the club!

1. Is your Surface in a case of any kind, or is it obstructed in any way from breathing? Google says 60C = 140F, which is pretty warm. Mine gets "warm" when just being used for casual surface, but that word "warm" is pretty far from "hot". Are your cooling fans kicking on at all?

2. I pressed on mine in that vicinity, and did not see the screen moving, or have any give, at all.

3. I haven't tried to maximize my power life too much (yet), outside of turning the brightness down when I don't need the screen fully bright, and that helps a lot. Also, there are a couple of really good threads on the forum about using external battery packs for recharging the Surface. The one I just got seems to be the biggest (Power Castle) and is the size of a small paperback, and not too heavy. I could see this easily staying in a backpack or bag, and simply pulling the power cable out of the bag to plug the Surface in.

4. You won't find better, IMHO, than OneNote. Combine that with some cloud storage, either the built in SkyDrive, or a DropBox account, and you've got it made. Some of the benefits of OneNote- most of your handwritten notes will be searchable; If you get a small USB mic for recording lectures, OneNote will keep your audio recording synced up with where you were in your notes; Math student you say?? Not only does OneNote come with a large array of math and equation symbols (Do Alt + = to get the menu), that can be hand-written and converted to text, but check this out- Download Microsoft Mathematics Add-In 2013 for Word and OneNote from Official Microsoft Download Center


If the Surface is getting really warm and the cooling fans aren't coming on (maybe something is goofed up in the power settings, preventing them from running??), maybe you do have a bad unit. Personally, I would try resetting the power settings back to default and see if that fixes the problem.

Hope it helps, and welcome aboard.

 

[riggi]

Mine quite regularly gets up to around 65 degrees C. (I'm using HWMonitor_x64 as I was worried when it was getting too hot to hold comfortably) This is apparentyl still within operating spec for the i5 CPU.

That is just with word, excel web browsing, sometimes I get quite a few tabs open, and maybe a few pdfs and a powerpoint file too.

Also, I noticed if you are using the pen a lot, it gets hotter (and drains your battery faster).
Just using a BT mouse and type cover doesn't drain the battery, or heat up as much.

 

[vinumsv]

Mine hangs around 60C too be in mind that Ambient Temp also comes in the picture when measuring

 

[J515OP]

Welcome to the forum. Malberttoo has you pretty well covered. The temp doesn't sound out of line but you may want go into the power settings and set the fans to active cooling instead of passive. This will help keep the temps down. Others have also turned the CPU settings down to conserve power but I haven't sen any specific reports of percents used and battery gained or anything like that. Just try it out and see what works for you. OneNote is very popular and usually the go to but there has also been some discussion about Windows Journal you may want to check out http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/microsoft-surface-apps/4671-onenote-vs-windows-journal.html.

 

[sanderb134]

Thanks for all the replies guys! I turned the fans to active to see how that helps over the next couple days. Also, does anyone else's screen "push" down when palm is down the camera r when pressing on it? Mine does but Malberttoo's does not do it.

 

[mitchellvii]

The SP just runs hot. You want to fry an egg, run Netflix for an hour.

Nevertheless, although it is "lap warm" it won't hurt the SP itself. Intel chips can take a lot. My suggestion is to either buy a case or use the touch cover to protect you hands from the back when holding it. This is an ultrabook in tablet form with teenie tiny ittie bittie fans to cool it.

 

[T3Jn]

#2 I get the slight movement on the screen in front of the camera too... does not bother me, but does feel like there is a bit of give there. Although trying to reproduce it now and it won't. I've just retuned to a cool climate after a few weeks in the heat with it, so that could have caused it. Although I am pretty sure it happened before I went away.

Update: Yup - still happening, slight click from surface when camera lightly pressed.

 

[sanderb134]

Thanks for addressing my concerns guys! So using a case won't cause any additional heat problems? The camera area "giving" a little does not bother me too much but if I begin to use this for notes it will since I rest my hand in that area so I might exchange it for that reason.

 

[mitchellvii]

Thanks for addressing my concerns guys! So using a case won't cause any additional heat problems? The camera area "giving" a little does not bother me too much but if I begin to use this for notes it will since I rest my hand in that area so I might exchange it for that reason.

I use a case and my SP runs no hotter with than without it. Obviously pick a case with reasonably good ventilation.

 

[T3Jn]

Thanks for addressing my concerns guys! So using a case won't cause any additional heat problems? The camera area "giving" a little does not bother me too much but if I begin to use this for notes it will since I rest my hand in that area so I might exchange it for that reason.

Turn the surface round the other way so you start taking notes your palm is on the other side.