What's new

Watch your battery while charging

dcoplien

Member
My SP4 kept getting hot while charging in sleep mode. Thought I had solved the problem by using the power button rather than closing the type cover to put it into sleep mode. Last night I had it turned completely off, woke up this morning to find it so hot that I had to drop the pen. Since it was powered off the fan obviously didn't kick in. I am left thinking my problem is with the battery.

I pulled the charger, opened it up, set it standing with the kick stand to allow for more surface area and it started cooling quite quickly but now there is no way I will charge it unless I am right next to it. About 10 years ago I had a laptop battery catch fire 2 weeks before a recall was issued and do not want that to happen again.

It's possible I just got a defective battery but it's also possible there was a bad lot of batteries. For those wondering, the charger was not hot.
 
OP
dcoplien

dcoplien

Member
I don't know if the battery is the problem but you should get it replaced.
I plan to but for the next two weeks I won't have the time. I suspect unless the case shows heat/fire damage, they probably won't believe me. With my laptop they didn't until I took a photo. Since a recall was issued shortly after, I always thought they were already aware of the problem. Been searching the web for others having the same issue but all seem to have been in sleep or hibernate. It just happens mine needed a reboot but I was ready for bed so I turned it off so it would reboot in the morning.
 

leeshor

Well-Known Member
You said it was shut down/turned off. If the battery is getting even warn completely shut down there is a serious problem. Some people have reported that happening after putting it in a bag or sleeve and I suspect it may have been turned on by accident. That doesn't sound like what happened to you.
 
OP
dcoplien

dcoplien

Member
You said it was shut down/turned off. If the battery is getting even warn completely shut down there is a serious problem. Some people have reported that happening after putting it in a bag or sleeve and I suspect it may have been turned on by accident. That doesn't sound like what happened to you.
It was sitting on a table. Every time mine over heated it was sitting but in sleep or hibernate although I was pretty sure it had never gone into hibernate mode.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
That is a whole different issue to it heating up to such an extent while turned off (sleep, standby, hibernate does not equal turned off).

Skylake devices remaining active while supposedly sleeping is no new topic. do some digging around and you'll see that it is a widespread issue. Supposedly recent updates have resolved the issue, or minimized its occurrence, but i have not checked for myself as i always just shut the device down.
 
OP
dcoplien

dcoplien

Member
That is a whole different issue to it heating up to such an extent while turned off (sleep, standby, hibernate does not equal turned off).

Skylake devices remaining active while supposedly sleeping is no new topic. do some digging around and you'll see that it is a widespread issue. Supposedly recent updates have resolved the issue, or minimized its occurrence, but i have not checked for myself as i always just shut the device down.
When the problem first started I did do some research and thought that was my problem and that the updates hadn't solved the problem. It's rare that I power mine down at night so it never dawned on me that it could be the battery.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
Also something worth considering, is that overnight, the surface may update itself. Recently i've woken up a number of times to continue some work to find that it has restarted itself and updated/is updating.

Have you run a sleep report to see what is happening overnight? (I do not know the process off the top of my head but google will provide you with a guide without an issue)
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
Last night I had it turned completely off,

Every time mine over heated it was sitting but in sleep or hibernate although I was pretty sure it had never gone into hibernate mode.

So did it really get hot while "completely OFF" as Sleep is not Completely OFF. If you do a "Shutdown" from Windows it would be Completely OFF.

If the Battery gets very hot ("so hot that I had to drop the pen") while charging when its completely off Id recommend you stop using it immediately.
 
OP
dcoplien

dcoplien

Member
Also something worth considering, is that overnight, the surface may update itself. Recently i've woken up a number of times to continue some work to find that it has restarted itself and updated/is updating.

Have you run a sleep report to see what is happening overnight? (I do not know the process off the top of my head but google will provide you with a guide without an issue)
I do know the difference between off and sleep. If it is powered off it shouldn't wake up. When I have time it's going back.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
I do know the difference between off and sleep. If it is powered off it shouldn't wake up. When I have time it's going back.
You do realize that the action taken when pressing the Power button is user selectable but Sleep is the default action not Power Off.
 
Top