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SP3 i7 heats up during I/O

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
Well see laptops obviously have cooling issues too, I've owned two that did, my current one gets hot but doesn't shut down I had an Acer in the past that actually would crash right out due to heat.
 

double07

Member
I have had different experience with mine. I started off with i5 version when it was first released. The fan on mine kicked in all the times with my normal usage and at the point, I think it is not going to work for me. I now have i7 version. I have not seen such issue, fan hardly kicked in. I just did the most recent update yesterday including 18 updates and firmware. Fan never kicked in. knocked on the wood...
 

GTiceman

Active Member
I am really grateful to hear reviews form those who have had both. I considered ordering an i5/256 to test against my i7. The $240 difference isn't much but if the difference is heat I might consider stepping down if it can handle my goPro videos.
 

Dozer12JK

New Member
Yes same issue here i7 512Gb gets hot a specially while IO.
No thermometer image on this device till now but I couldn't hold it in my hand.

I had one with defective screen (the pen was not recognized on parts of the screen) same thing but with showing the thermometer image.

The fan kicks in fast playing 1/3 of MS Sudoku ramps up the fan to 100%.

Maybe it is the 512Gb SSD?
 

Dozer12JK

New Member
My I7/256 received 46 updates including firmware yesterday. As I was installing the the updates and listening to the fan spin away, I was reading comments on the forum from folks who had various mini-scares with the updates. Those experiences had me concerned, but mine actually updated, installed, and rebooted with no issues. Of interest, is that when I rebooted it later, it told me it was updating the system (again?), and that update seemed to be the firmware update as it all happened in "black screen mode". Over-all, I surprised that it went as smoothly as it did after reading other comments.

Yes same thing here after the update I saw missing FW drivers in Device Manager so I rebooted and it did the FW update.

But mine was extreme hot the whole time.
 

GTiceman

Active Member
Yes same issue here i7 512Gb gets hot a specially while IO.
No thermometer image on this device till now but I couldn't hold it in my hand.

I had one with defective screen (the pen was not recognized on parts of the screen) same thing but with showing the thermometer image.

The fan kicks in fast playing 1/3 of MS Sudoku ramps up the fan to 100%.

Maybe it is the 512Gb SSD?

My 256 gets really hot and it is right where the processor is. It gets hot and the fan spins even when just sitting on the Start Screen with live tiles going.
 

Dozer12JK

New Member
My 256 gets really hot and it is right where the processor is. It gets hot and the fan spins even when just sitting on the Start Screen with live tiles going.

No this is not the case with mine. I have to run something to get the fan spin. But after 5 min just typing it starts.
 

skim175

New Member
I have had mine (i7/256) for about a week. I haven't seen a battery icon due to a heat issue even though it gets really hot during any firmware update or installing any program. Just web browsing, e-mails and MS office (back and forth) did not turn on the fan while the right corner gets warm. I have done a couple of hours of Netflix with other windows open and this did not turn on the fan yet.
 

Zog1971

Active Member
Hello all. Just thought I'd share my experience with my 256/i7 yesterday. I've been comparing it with my SP1.

The updates installed without a hitch for me. The SP3 did get very warm and the fan did ramp up to its highest speed. I feel that the fan has maybe 2 or 3 levels. I only really notice it when it kicks into it's highest setting and even then I feel it is very quiet. I also had to reboot 2 times in order for the firmware update to occur but it went through fine. In general, at its warmest, I do think it gets warmer than my SP1, but not by that much. I have yet to receive the dreaded Thermometer of Death, knock on wood. :)

After the update, the unit cooled quickly and fan lowered and turned off. I was in OneNote just doodling and playing around and set it down for a few minutes and all of the sudden heard the fan kick on again. Went and picked it up and sure enough it was very warm again. At first, I was upset because I thought if the SP3 is going to get this warm from running the very program MS is pushing the most for this device, then it was definitely going to get returned. But then I brought up my task manager. The CPU was at 3.0-3.2ghz and between 40-50% usage. I finally discovered that a program called Windows Installer Worker was the thing that was running in the background and maxing out the CPU. While I was googling what the heck that program was and if I could disable it, it finished, the CPU went to under 1ghz and barely any CPU usage. The unit cooled and fan went off. Turns out that it was something that was trying to compress files after the updates and is a known CPU hog. Also, worth noting that during the 4 or 5 minutes that the program was running, the CPU never throttled down below 3ghz. I think that is interesting to note since I feel that I will very rarely be doing anything uber CPU intensive for more than 4-5 minutes so I'm putting to rest any fears I was having that the throttling of the CPU will really affect me.

In everyday use, I have yet to push the unit to the point that the fan kicks into its highest setting. It does get warmer than my SP1 but not by much. Everyday tasks like websurfing, watching Netflix, working in Office and Adobe never heat the unit up too much to the point where the fan hits its highest or comes on at all. The reality for me is, even if the unit did get hot, the heat doesn't really affect me as I am not usually touching the area that gets warm.

Overall, I am very happy. The SP3 is one sexy little beast. :)
 
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Dozer12JK

New Member
MS Sudoku uses a library from a 3rd party that is extremely bad coded.

can be I checked Netflix out watched 1 h boring things; no fan. Paying 5 min MS Sudoku the fan runs on max speed. Still the CPU is a 3% usage.
Maybe the i7 is closer to the limit and the fan has to kick in earlier. But hot is different.

Like the thread started the updates is the thing that gets it hot.
 

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
can be I checked Netflix out watched 1 h boring things; no fan. Paying 5 min MS Sudoku the fan runs on max speed. Still the CPU is a 3% usage.
Maybe the i7 is closer to the limit and the fan has to kick in earlier. But hot is different.

Like the thread started the updates is the thing that gets it hot.
Exactly, this is another proof that it's met the CPU the one triggering throttling it's the GPU.
 
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