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Poll Who's experiencing white flashes during startup/restart?

Do white flashes occur on your SP3 during startps/restarts?


  • Total voters
    67

Grumpy2

Member
One thing I know for sure: prior to the May update I had no white flashes when booting up AND my i5 SP3 seldom heated up much and the fan seldom spun up. Since the May update, I have the white-flash syndrome AND my SP3 heats up fairly regularly and the fan spins up regularly. My use of the device hasn't changed, and I'm using the same software then as now. Something in the May update did something I do not like - white flashes I don't mind, but the off-and-on heat/fan thing is something brought about by the May update, and I'm not pleased by that.
Here, Here. I second that.
 
It happens to mine too but thankfully I don't have the white flash when waking up from connected standby. Temperatures and battery life are still the same though prior to the May update. Also, the white flashes doesn't happen on the newer manufactured SP3s which tells me that the white flash firmware update is only apparent on certain SP3 hardware configuration..
 

xbliss

Member
why are you harping on a white flash on a boot up? it has zero effects on you! what is the big deal?
Like most unexplained issues on this forum, and with this crowd which generally being on the bleeding edge... it is the desire to understand an issue that comes out of nowhere, doesn't have an obvious explanation, and the most annoying... goes FLASH FLASH every time you start your machine.
Those little issues that must be conquered.... :cool:
These kind of flashes were eventually BAD hardware problems in batches of products (that I have bought) -
- Thinkpad T61 NVS 140m - The NVIDIA GPU before certain batch was found faulty and started collapsing just after 1 year warranty ended or even sooner.
- Gateway XHD 3000 - Google around and you'll find how this $1600 Super Monitor was flawed from before

What does not bother you now, does not mean it wont turn out to be a bigger fault later. These both started as FLASHES..
So, if something is no SUPPOSSED to happen BY DESIGN.. IT should NOT BE HAPPENING.. IF IT IS.. There is some FAULT.. Hopefully only a minor one and not some BATCHES of FAULTY HARDWARE.

So that makes me curious. Any way we could force install the older firmware and then skip to the June?
I went straight to June - Just bought it fresh from Costco.

I know have four white flashes. One before the Surface Logo and three after. This is getting worse. If any moron from Microsoft/Intel is reading this then please pull your fingers out and fix the problem. I am convinced these people at Microsoft are nothing more than a bunch of incompetent fools. I understand the administrator of this site -JNRoach is either an employee or ex employee of Microsoft. Perhaps Mr Roach you can take this up with Microsoft?
They could blame OEMs before as the huge number of drivers and hardware was hard to iron out.. But for their Flagship product which is release only once every year.. They need to tighten the ropes.

I'm neither....I am a Surface MVP and TabletPC user for the past 14 years. Have you opened a support ticket or posted in the Official Surface Forum?
Mr. MVP - Please point us to both of these you have suggested. Where is the official surface forum and where/ how can we all open tickets or CROWD support a ticket?
PS: I have been using an X61T also, and you might want to read up on the GLUE LEAKAGE in the LCD SCREEN issue as well.

It happens to mine too but thankfully I don't have the white flash when waking up from connected standby. Temperatures and battery life are still the same though prior to the May update. Also, the white flashes doesn't happen on the newer manufactured SP3s which tells me that the white flash firmware update is only apparent on certain SP3 hardware configuration..
This is exactly the issue we faced with the Thinkpads. By the time we figured out it was too late. So, better NOW than later to CROWD diagnose and get MS to CHANGE HARDWARE if its not a small bug fix.

Lets start posting hardware info.. Any way to figure out manufacture date/ batch from the machine (in addition to the Hardware config)?
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Mr. MVP - Please point us to both of these you have suggested. Where is the official surface forum and where/ how can we all open tickets or CROWD support a ticket?
PS: I have been using an X61T also, and you might want to read up on the GLUE LEAKAGE in the LCD SCREEN issue as well.

Gee.... since you asked so graciously....

Official Support Forum:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum (this is US English)

As mentioned above:

https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/contact-us (Again, US English)

I'm quite aware of the x61T issues, I owned one.
 

xbliss

Member
Gee.... since you asked so graciously....

Official Support Forum:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum (this is US English)

As mentioned above:

https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/contact-us (Again, US English)

I'm quite aware of the x61T issues, I owned one.
Thank you. My intent was to not be rude, but it bothers me that people downplay what I have experienced as "valid concerns" given the history of electronic/ computing hardware. And Microsoft is new to the game with a flagship single product and still messing up. Not cool.
I am guessing that's one of the reasons why their SP4 is delayed.. or not on the table with Win 10 issues also being worked out.

I am surprised that they are not participating on these forums. I remember this person from Thinkpad was constantly responding to people on Thinkpad Forums. Same thing with a gentleman from Former CO/ United on FlyerTalk.

These are your "MVCs" Most valuable 'feed back giving' Customers. Something a 1000 paid surveys will not gather for them.
 

cliffr39

Active Member
Out of curiosity I did the live chat (from link above) and the rep (and her lead) suggested to replace the SP3. They said, after watching the video I recorded of it, that it may not be simply a software issue and rather play it safe to replace the hardware. They did some troubleshooting for about 40 minutes and we're doing the advanced exchange :)
Not what I expected, was just hoping to get a ticket for them to escalate and find a patch (did put it up on the insider app before).
 

malberttoo

Well-Known Member
...I am guessing that's one of the reasons why their SP4 is delayed.. or not on the table with Win 10 issues also being worked out.

I am surprised that they are not participating on these forums. I remember this person from Thinkpad was constantly responding to people on Thinkpad Forums. Same thing with a gentleman from Former CO/ United on FlyerTalk.

These are your "MVCs" Most valuable 'feed back giving' Customers. Something a 1000 paid surveys will not gather for them.

My guess is that SP4 won't be released until Microsoft gets a stable and working Skylake proc from Intel. But I'm no expert and that's only a guess.

Of course Microsoft has no reason to participate on these forums, they already have their own forums on which they DO participate on...
 
OP
J

jonypx09

Member
Out of curiosity I did the live chat (from link above) and the rep (and her lead) suggested to replace the SP3. They said, after watching the video I recorded of it, that it may not be simply a software issue and rather play it safe to replace the hardware. They did some troubleshooting for about 40 minutes and we're doing the advanced exchange :)
Not what I expected, was just hoping to get a ticket for them to escalate and find a patch (did put it up on the insider app before).

This can't be a hardware issue; I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the May firmware....
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Thank you. My intent was to not be rude, but it bothers me that people downplay what I have experienced as "valid concerns" given the history of electronic/ computing hardware. And Microsoft is new to the game with a flagship single product and still messing up. Not cool.
I am guessing that's one of the reasons why their SP4 is delayed.. or not on the table with Win 10 issues also being worked out.

I am surprised that they are not participating on these forums. I remember this person from Thinkpad was constantly responding to people on Thinkpad Forums. Same thing with a gentleman from Former CO/ United on FlyerTalk.

These are your "MVCs" Most valuable 'feed back giving' Customers. Something a 1000 paid surveys will not gather for them.
The "boot screen flash" is an issue but a minor issue it is a driver issue introduced by a firmware and driver update. And why do you believe the SP4 is delayed?
 

cliffr39

Active Member
This can't be a hardware issue; I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the May firmware....

I completely agree that it should be a software issue. But I'll take a replacement since my kickstand also gives out but never bothered with it.
 
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