Just returned my SP3 i5...

[SeeVuPlay]

I know, seriously, who would attempt to play a game on the sp3 that was advertised to work on the SP3! Amazing same thing happens to me. Business class device? Last time I checked it wasn't just advertised to business. Stop trying to protect the device, it's broken, I returned mine too, and have many others. I'm 100% sure many, many others have returned theirs as well because of overheating. If the problem didn't exist, why do you see so many topics on the forums on it?
Fanboys need to protect their investment i guess.

Um...mine not broke...mine work good...only my english broken. Surface pro 3 good.

 

[mohcho]

Thanks for your reply atoms83. I am debating whether or not I rushed into my return, and I am considering requesting an alternate device on the chance mine was particularly "hot". I really like the device a lot in all other regards.

As for the poster asking why I bought a "business class" device as a gaming rig: I didn't. I bought a device that claimed it could replace my macbook air, and one that claimed it could play casual games. It couldn't. As I said, there is a chance I could have jumped the gun on the return, but to say this is purely a "business class" device is to willfully ignore Microsoft's own marketing.

Sorry to hear about your situation, but a one-day test of the device isn't giving it much of a chance and your return may have been a bit premature.

Did you update the device once you opened it? Before installing the games? The most recent updates 08/19 did resolve some issues with the throttling.

 

[jnjroach]

Thanks for your reply atoms83. I am debating whether or not I rushed into my return, and I am considering requesting an alternate device on the chance mine was particularly "hot". I really like the device a lot in all other regards.

As for the poster asking why I bought a "business class" device as a gaming rig: I didn't. I bought a device that claimed it could replace my macbook air, and one that claimed it could play casual games. It couldn't. As I said, there is a chance I could have jumped the gun on the return, but to say this is purely a "business class" device is to willfully ignore Microsoft's own marketing.

Have you applied the updates (specifically the 8/19 Firmware)? You never told us the games you tried to play, my teenage son is a prolific gamer (Steam and Otherwise) and plays games on his SP3 all the time and I would hear of issues as he'll be the first to tell me about any lag he experiences.

Prior to the SP2 and SP3 his gaming rig was a Quad Xeon (older) with NVidia Gaming Card, but he didn't like being tied to a workstation...

If Excel had issues, we could potentially assist with that as well, I do heavy BI in Excel using very large Pivot Tables, if you were using a 32bit install doing BI I can imagine running into what you describe...

 

[ismaris]

Yeah, I did the updates. My only concern with having to dethrottle the device to play something like WoW on low-settings would be that Microsoft probably throttled it for a reason. Am I going to be damaging either the chip itself, thermal paste, or neighboring components by running the cpu too hot? These are questions that led me to return it.

 

[jnjroach]

Yeah, I did the updates. My only concern with having to dethrottle the device to play something like WoW on low-settings would be that Microsoft probably throttled it for a reason. Am I going to be damaging either the chip itself, thermal paste, or neighboring components by running the cpu too hot? These are questions that led me to return it.

Nope - the SP3 has a dedicated Power Management and Thermal Firmware System that is designed to protect the system that runs below the OS and is tied with UEFI System.

 

[atoms83]

I read that at around 80 degrees Celsius for prolonged periods is bad for the device. But at 80 degrees it doesn't feel nearly as hot as say when I run AutoCAD, and I do that a lot when I'm out in the field for work.

I feel your pain about being disappointed about the gaming performance but it is what it is. The tablet and pen aspect alone sold me anyway. Steam in home streaming as I mentioned above works great if your at home. And with Nvidia's GRID service.. who knows where mobile gaming will go.

 

[ismaris]

Thanks for your reply Jeff. I believe in my original post that I did mention WoW (World of Warcraft) and Hearthstone. These are games that I can play in the living room with my girlfriend in the evening while we watch TV after work. Just casual stuff. I play them on low settings, but it could be that I was trying to run them at too high of a resolution, perhaps. The more I think about it, the more I am thinking the device deserves a second chance.

 

[malberttoo]

Thanks for your reply Jeff. I believe in my original post that I did mention WoW (World of Warcraft) and Hearthstone. These are games that I can play in the living room with my girlfriend in the evening while we watch TV after work. Just casual stuff. I play them on low settings, but it could be that I was trying to run them at too high of a resolution, perhaps. The more I think about it, the more I am thinking the device deserves a second chance.

Give it a second chance. It makes no dif to ME of course what you do... but you may just end up with a device that you really love.

If you DO encounter some issues, then jump on here and ask for some help! You can see there's a lot of knowledgeable folks here.

If you still wanted to return it after that, then I'd say you at least gave it a fair chance and wouldn't fault you!

 

[ismaris]

Hi malberttoo. Yeah, I did a fair amount of research on this device. I have been following them since their inception, as I said. I watched performance videos, and I must admit, I came across one video of a poster blowing a box fan on his device and showing much improved performance and clock speeds, which was a source of concern. However, I believe this user was on an i7 device, so I was able to rationalize that this could be the cause.

I realize you are not trying to "blame the buyer", but you are presenting a line of reasoning which suggests that my dissatisfaction is probably due to poor research, and this is not the case. I will admit, when Microsoft told me I could exchange the device back and get a refund, no questions asked, I did not consider that this only applied to my money, and not my macbook air. This is one thing I did not consider, and also it is important to note, this is also something that the employees did not tell me.

 

[jnjroach]

Thanks for your reply Jeff. I believe in my original post that I did mention WoW (World of Warcraft) and Hearthstone. These are games that I can play in the living room with my girlfriend in the evening while we watch TV after work. Just casual stuff. I play them on low settings, but it could be that I was trying to run them at too high of a resolution, perhaps. The more I think about it, the more I am thinking the device deserves a second chance.

Sorry - I missed the titles (it was a long post )... My son plays quite a few RPG based games in full screen....

It is also possible that there are SP3's whose thermal profile is less than they should, faulty fans or poorly done heat pipes or even not enough thermal paste....

Others have had an update get stuck and cause the Windows Installer Module to go haywire, this is more of a Windows 8.x bug.....

My Pivots include millions of records.... multiple filters and joins....

 

[ismaris]

Jeff, may I ask the specs of your SP3? Sounds like I may have had a bad apple.

 

[jnjroach]

Jeff, may I ask the specs of your SP3? Sounds like I may have had a bad apple.

I have the middle of the road i5/256 with a Class 10 64GB Micro-SD card installed, I pre-ordered and it was delivered on launch day.... My son and wife got theirs (Same Spec Machine) about a week later...