Pushing Your Surface

[hadrian]

Hi,

I just recently got a i5 8gb 256gb SP3.

I think it is a great machine, but I have concerns about heat and the fan. My surface generally runs at about 50-68 degrees Celsius even when doing light browsing in chrome. If I am watching a youtube clip or have maybe 15 tabs open at once the fan will go off. Typically when the fan starts it won't stop running even if I just leave the machine on ceasing any activity. If I leave the machine on all night the fan will run all night as well.
(The CPU usage at this time is rarely over 3%, and there appear to be no programs pushing the CPU). Sometimes the fan will not go off but over the course of a day the fan will invariably kick in.

Also, if I open up multiple HD videos at once the system will struggle with heat and will eventually freeze, giving me a blue screen. I can do this with my desktop PC and feel that perhaps the SP3 requires a certain degree of ginger handling. Do some people leave their surfaces most of the time?

In some threads I have read people will say they have not heard their fan run more than a handful of times or that their unit never gets hot. This strikes me as odd, and I am just trying to figure out whether I should return the unit and try a new one or if there is any way to test if my unit is indeed running hot.

I returned my i7 because it sounded like angry baby vacuum all the time, and I returned the i5 I replaced it with because of bad backlight bleeding. This is the third unit and it has very little backlight bleeding, no wifi issues, but an easily excitable fan. Is this the experience of most users or should I look into it more deeply?

I greatly appreciate the feedback.

 

[hadrian]

Any idears?

 

[IT_Freggel]

Do you have the same experience using a different browser? There are alot of posts in this forum stating that the Chrome browser makes the SP3s to heat up...

 

[gdir]

You are probably using the stable Chrome version 37? Chrome 37 still has the clock tick bug which results in too much energy consumption and higher temperatures (see Chrome Issue 153139). This bug has been fixed in the meantime and should reach the public with Chrome 38.

I'm using Chrome 39 (Dev channel). I usually have 4 to 8 tabs open. In battery mode with display set to 45% and while powering a LTE stick, the Intel Power Gadget shows a power consumptions of 0.5 to 1.0 W when Chrome is idle. When I open a new tab or switch to another webpage, the power consumption shows short peaks of 4.0 - 9.0 W. The temperate is typically around 40° C ± 5°C. When connected to AC, the idle power consumption raises to ~ 2.0 W. Temperatures are also slightly higher.

That's light browsing for me. Overall my i5 shows reasonable temperatures and power consumptions. When I push it hard like playing a game, it starts getter warm and the fan kicks in. In hard use I have seen temperatures around 70°C. When I use it only for light surfing, it stays cool.

I don't know if you have high temperatures just because you're doing more than light surfing or if something else is wrong. I think that the clock tick bug in Chrome 37 increases the temperatures, but not by 20°C.

 

[hadrian]

View attachment 3756 Thank you for mentioning Chrome. I had no idea about Chrome 39, and yes I am running chrome 37. Where do I download chrome 39...search for a beta version?

I left my machine on all night and now the temperature is hovering from 60-69Celsius.

Last night I had around 12 tabs open and when streaming a video in full screen was getting 70degrees. So I don't know what to do. I considering returning the thing and getting a laptop, since I am quite tired of the tinkering. I don't have the patience I used to.

 

[GreyFox7]

Thank you for mentioning Chrome. I had no idea about Chrome 39, and yes I am running chrome 37. Where do I download chrome 39...search for a beta version?

I left my machine on all night and now the temperature is hovering from 60-69Celsius.

Last night I had around 12 tabs open and when streaming a video in full screen was getting 70degrees. So I don't know what to do. I considering returning the thing and getting a laptop, since I am quite tired of the tinkering. I don't have the patience I used to.

Your laptop wont run any cooler it just has more insulation around it so you don't notice. in fact my Lenovo X1 runs quite a bit hotter.

If your tired of tinkering uninstall the monitoring software and just enjoy using it. That monitoring software is just driving up your temperature and the devices temperature as well.

 

[hadrian]

Generally a laptop has better cooling. My laptop fans do not spin up all night on a browser and my laptop would certainly not freeze playing several HD videos at once.

Monitoring software does not drive up temperatures and CPU usage all that much; certainly not enough to account for the difference. A machine that runs hot is more prone to failure in the long run, I imagine.

And as you can see my package pwr0 figure is many times higher than the insightful gdir's--albeit I am idling with the power plugged in

 

[gdir]

Chrome comes in 4 distributions:
- Stable channel: This version is meant for productive use, at the moment version 37.
- Beta channel: This is the version not quite ready for productive use. It is one version number ahead of the stable channel, has new features and usually still some bugs. Currently 38.
- Dev channel: This is one version newer and more buggy than Chrome Beta. It usually gets updated once a week. Currently 39.
- Canary: A nightly build of the latest development.

Stable, Beta or Dev channel can't be used side by side. I usually disencourage using anything apart from the stable channel unless you are aware of the consequenses (bugs, difficult downgrade, etc). If you want to test if your problem will be solved with a later Chrome version, you can try Chrome Canary. It can be installed side by side with any other Chrome version without ruining your profile.

As the others suggested you should try a different browser. IE MUI should be the most energy efficient.

Nevertheless I don't think your problem is mainly caused by a browser. Please have a look at the other threads here in the forums. There are several threads about background tasks, temperature issues and solutions.

 

[kundas1]

have you done any of the latest updates? because the last update is supposed to fix the SP3 from running hotter... also get rid of the older chrome and install the newer one..

 

[hadrian]

I have done all the updates, but the heat and fan has been fairly consistent. The task manager has never shown any programs using too many resources, so I have always been baffled by that.

The pic shows the task manager's regular results:

 

[hadrian]

And thank you Gdir for the explanation on the versions of chrome...will get that now.

However, just now the power0 figure has dropped to 2.11-4.0 and the package temp is showing 50-51. Fan is off as well.

I have no idea why it is suddenly working smoothly whereas the fan was going all night. I imagine this is how it should be operating on a regular basis with a light load--I cannot account for the difference between now and five minutes ago.

Anyhow, I am sure it will go back to heating up again...unfortunately

 

[Geek.Verve]

And thank you Gdir for the explanation on the versions of chrome...will get that now.

However, just now the power0 figure has dropped to 2.11-4.0 and the package temp is showing 50-51. Fan is off as well.

I have no idea why it is suddenly working smoothly whereas the fan was going all night. I imagine this is how it should be operating on a regular basis with a light load--I cannot account for the difference between now and five minutes ago.

Anyhow, I am sure it will go back to heating up again...unfortunately

It saw you post about considering exchanging it for a laptop and calculated that it was in its best interests to step in line.

Seriously though, did you reboot after installing the latest updates? I wouldn't think standby would suffice for actually activating updates that you install.