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Surface Pro 3, Falling Apart after 6 months of mild use

Kale1986

New Member
I really want to love my Surface Pro 3, and I did for a while. It has developed so many issues, that I can't wait until the Pro 4 comes out so I can replace it! Hopefully, this May!

1) the magnetic strip on the bottom of the kickstand fell off so now the kickstand just freeballs it and doesn't close properly, also as the strip was slowly falling off, the sharp jagged metal edge hurt.

2) the WiFi has never worked properly, it will randomly drop WiFi connections, or not detect connections even when I set 1 foot away from the router. Considering 99% of what I do is internet based it kind of makes the surface meaningless, I took it to MSFT store several times they just erased everything and reinstalled windows to no avail

3) the pen touch used to be very accurate and a great pleasurable experience, 3 pens later and several AAAA batteries later, it is now writing jaggedly and inaccurately. The Surface Pro 3 was supposed to replace my Wacom Cintiq, which it did do for a while, and now the machine is almost useless. I took it to the store and they ran calibration, which actually made it worse. They gave me new tips for the pen which also didn't help, I replaced the AAAA batteries, unpaired, paired, calibrated, reset calibration, but it is still not working. Considering I also purchased 2 new pens, I will say it's not the pen either.

4) I'm on my second keyboard. Several times I walk away from my surface and come back to find it asleep, only to have the keyboard light up and no response from the computer. Even the power button doesn't do anything, but I know it's on because the keyboard lights up. I have to hold down the volume down button and the powerbutton for like 10 seconds until it restarts, losing all of my unsaved data. I tried making it so it would never sleep but then my battery died quickly.

5) Dock issues, when connected to the dock the headphone jack on the Dock does not work, the sound still comes out of the speakers on the surface. I've tried adjusting the sound manager in every which way, and even did a system restore, and it did not fix the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions for any of these fixes? The Surface Pro 3 is a beautiful device, and it works great when things are working, however that has been a rare occurrence for me. I want to love it again, so any help is greatly appreciated.
 

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Sorry to hear about this, @Kale1986 . Your list of hardware complaints makes me wonder about the origin of your machine.

For fixes, I would start with the software/drivers. Do a Windows 'Refresh'.
 
Yeah, it's disappointing. I thought that some of the software issues, like the WiFi, and pen touch input were from a corrupted windows file or something, but I've done a clean sweep system restore to no avail. I was hoping to find a new magnetic strip or maybe just a new kickstand plate that I could replace. But I'd like to get the pen input working again. The guy at the Microsoft Store seemed to think the pen input issue was from a software glitch but it didn't get better after the restore.

I bought my Surface new from Best Buy in August 2014. It's a 4GB RAM, core i5, 128 GB machine. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on a fix for it. I wish I had purchased the extended warranty. Microsoft Store said I would be better off trying to replace the kickstand myself rather then sending it in. But I'd rather pay someone to fix it.
 
Is there a way to contact the Surface repair team at MSFT before I send it in? I dont' want to send it in and have them say replacing the magnetic strip on the kickstand is not under the warranty and then I'm out the $40 or so dollars it cost to send it in.
 
Not sure what you're speaking about when you say a metal strip on the kickstand. My kickstand has a very complex piece of hardware on both sides of the Surface. I would never make an attempt and dismantling the kick stand to work on it. There is a magnetic strip on the bottom front of the Surface to work in conjunction with the keyboard. I would take it to a MS store and have a tech make the WiFi work.
 
I posted a picture of it, I will post again here. Maybe it's not magnetic maybe it's just a piece of metal that can attach to the magnet on the actual surface. But there is something that holds the kickstand in on the bottom/inside. It is just glued on, and I'm not sure if the adhesive started melting or if my surface just didn't get a full treatment of glue, but check it out here, the strip is completely gone from the bottom of the inside of the kickstand and when it started to peal off the metal was actually curling and very sharp.
 

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Just send it back in. The metal strip was beginning to come off from one side of my stand and I sent it in. It was replaced with a brand new one
 
@Kale1986
1) it seems to me you got a lemon, obviously the bottom should not come off like that at all! why have you not sent it in immediately to be repaired or replaced? why have you gone for so long with your SP3 in such bad shape like that? lol

2) My SP3 never disconnects from any wifi and has never had problems connecting, but I have heard that sometimes outdated router firmware is the reason for disconnections and problems like you're having and I would suggest either buying a newer router or updating your routers firmware.

3) perhaps why your pen isn't working is maybe the screen is defective just like the rest of your SP3 it seems... when you took it to MS why didn't you have them replace your SP3 with the kickstand like that? my pen works great even after all this time I have had it!

4) as for your KB, have you tried just disconnecting and reconnecting the KB to see if it re-initializes and wakes up your SP3? maybe with all your hardware trouble that is why you're having trouble with the KB.

5) again maybe your dock troubles stems from all the hardware trouble with your device... it looks in terrible shape!

conclusion I WOULD DEFINATLY get MS to replace your device! don't bother with any fixes or solutions! get that thing replaced ASAP!
 

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