Surface Book running excessively hot, even during relatively simple apps?

[Stephaaaan]

People have complained that the screen hurt. I've read it can get hot when you're pushing it real hard, but it gets hot enough for people to complain about the heat, even when using pretty simple apps. Someone was drawing on a cool little app that makes a mirror image of what you're doing, to make a cool looking effect, and said that their forearm was hot. I really didn't think simple apps like that would push the device hard enough to get that hot, especially in an air-conditioned room. If it has a tablet function, I'd expct to be able to pull it off the base without it hurting my hands holding it. When it gets its hottest, I'd probably break the screen if I sprayed it with a screen cleaner.

The one that I got is the 128GB i5 version (and yes, I have it updated to the latest version of Windows). It can easily get over 70C, I'm assuming that value in Speedfan is the CPU heat. The glass gets hottest on the lower left quadrant, just left of the middle of the screen, around the bottom of the screen. Does device seem defective, getting that hot? I really like the tablet, and will happily exchange it, but if the heat is "just how the device is", I'll save the money and wait til they make a revision.

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

That's not the typical experience the Surface Book owners I know are having. Check the task manager to see what is using the processor. I suspect you have an different app sucking up your CPU. Do you have any supplemental AV or other security software installed?

 

[jnjroach]

The operational temp is 90 degrees C.....

 

[Stephaaaan]

Whatever the normal temp is, I exchanged it, and the new one is running cool as a cucumber. I'm really glad I exchanged it, though I was a little apathetic about it. I've been throwing games at it to test it out and it's barely even warm.

 

[rlwmeyer]

Stephaaaan, could you tell me exactly what you did to get your surface book to run cool? I am having the same problem.

I have the i7 surface book and while running simple programs like chrome, the back of the screen gets too hot to touch. I also run a game at times and have the same issue, with sometimes my game crashing. I have no idea how to fix this. I run photoshop for my photography business as well and same problem. Everything still runs pretty fast and smooth though, just over heating.

 

[jnjroach]

Try tuning Chrome - it tends to keep the CPU churning on Windows and Macs to increase performance, which can cause the systems you're describing and it also can cut battery life by 50%...