Surface Pro 3 'best' or?

[Wayne Orwig]

Just recently, I posted a comment in a thread about the Surface Pro 3 being the best.

This is my 'new' story. I'm starting to worry.

I bought a Surface Pro 1 when they were first available. I really like the machine. Didn't care for Win 8.0. Liked Win 8.1 and like Win 10 on it. The battery life was mediocre, but an external battery pack when traveling, fixed that.

I replaced my antique laptop with a Surface Book the first day they were out. The drivers and Win 10 had a few initial glitches, but the hardware was good. But now the Book firmware/software is good and stable. So all is well.

Then, late last year I damaged the Surface Pro 1 while traveling. Rats. I lived with the damaged screen until it completely failed. Then about 6 weeks back I found a Surface Pro 3, refurb, I5, very cheap. I couldn't pass it up, even though I preferred a 10 inch model, this was fine. I was VERY happy with the Pro 3. Good performance, good enough battery life. I was a happy camper. Then, two weeks ago, it just shut down. Dead to the world. I took it to a Microsoft store, and they handed me another refurb. I was bummed that I needed to configure another tablet, but happy for the quick replacement. Then, last week, that refurb would not boot. The screen would only flash a few times when powered up. I took THAT back and the tech could not get it to do anything, so here I am, setting up another refurb.

So my question is, am I doomed to setting up refurbed units for the next 11 months until the warranty is up, then I will have a dead Pro 3? As in, are all of the refurb units going to fail?

I really like the unit, when it works, but I am getting worried.

 

[Cuchulainn]

Hopefully it is just bad luck of the draw. I have had that happen even with brand new computers, where you go through 2 or 3 before getting one that is right and will last for years. Hopefully your current one will be *that* one that lives a trouble free life for awhile.

That said, will they do anything for you on warranty, given the streak of failed refurbs? The business warranty will allow you to extend the machine warranty to 3 or 4 years, depending on the option you choose, but I believe that has to be done while new. But perhaps they could make an exception and allow you to pay for the additional business warranty after the fact?

 

[theveterans]

My 3 year old SP3 still works as good as new. I'm currently on the latest Surface Pro and so far everything works as expected.

 

[ScottyS]

I'm on my third SP3 and this one has been the best. The 1st was replaced by a new one at the MS store because of a pen issue and replacement had the same issue (but it was not the pen, they tried a new pen on the 1st and it didn't work).

The 3rd replacement was a refurb and it has worked the best. I figure what ever could have been wrong with it was fixed, so it was someone else's headache but it's been fixed for me. You never know.

 

[Wayne Orwig]

That said, will they do anything for you on warranty, given the streak of failed refurbs? The business warranty will allow you to extend the machine warranty to 3 or 4 years, depending on the option you choose, but I believe that has to be done while new. But perhaps they could make an exception and allow you to pay for the additional business warranty after the fact?

They have bumped the warranty to a full year on each replacement SP3.

I'm just hoping that I don't get into some type of refurb-hell so to speak. It performs so well, that I spend a lot of time setting up all of my programs and tools, only to have to start over. I keep very good backups, and even disk images. But I can't (I assume) just toss an imagine onto a machine with a different serial number. So a few days lost each time. But, "SurfacePro3c" as I named it, is again a great machine.

 

[convergent]

They have bumped the warranty to a full year on each replacement SP3.

I'm just hoping that I don't get into some type of refurb-hell so to speak. It performs so well, that I spend a lot of time setting up all of my programs and tools, only to have to start over. I keep very good backups, and even disk images. But I can't (I assume) just toss an imagine onto a machine with a different serial number. So a few days lost each time. But, "SurfacePro3c" as I named it, is again a great machine.

I'm not sure if you can toss the image on another machine or not with Windows. You certainly can with Macs, as I've done it many times. I don't think the serial number would matter, as the OS detects that from the firmware.