SP3 i7/256 - black screen of death"

[jnjroach]

Online will always skew towards the negative and the failures, I have 4 Surface Pro 3's that I own and all work as expected, one is a day one launch and the other two purchased a week later, the last one I received as a gift in November....

Its a bummer when they break, but in all mass produced product lines there will be defective items....

 

[goodintentions]

Well, to be frank Surface pro 3, as a concept is just what I'm looking for : nomade use of my same software as at my desk... and it's the only device that offers it today i have been able to use it a few, and when operating, this is real nice product.

Then it crashed to death with no reason ( internet streaming of one movie with silverlight ).

I first thought I had been unlucky with my purchase, but then browsing the net made me feel one amongst many, which was annoying... Is this reliable device did I wonder ?

I was looking for all possible reset things to try before returning it for replacement. And got confirmed it was screwed... Now time for it then .

Not saying that X is better than Y or Z ( I'm switching... ) but I assumed that for high end devices like this one ( come on, that's not cheap ), the fail ratio coulda been lower. Let's see with the new one, hoping I'll not be entering the neverending replacement cycles some have apparently been facing

Thanks for all views, I'll keep posted

Online opinions and reviews are always skewed toward the negative.

Most people don't say anything at all when things are fine. But at the first sign of trouble they will go online and post a dozen times how horrible it is. Trust me, as a former business owner I know.

Or to give you a real life example at the moment. I develop apps nowadays as a side job. Any app developer can tell you what a pain it is to get people to review their apps. People just don't want to rate or review apps when they have a positive experience. A few months ago, I accidentally used a compiled package I purposely used to test some crash scenarios. Half a day later, I caught my mistake and quickly uploaded the correct app package. It was a span of like 6 hours that users would be using the bad package. And in that 6 hours, more negative reviews were written about that particular app than all the reviews written in the previous 3 months.

After that episode, I asked myself "where the hell were all these reviewers at all the time that my app was working fine?"

Just think about it this way. How many active members do you see here complaining about hardware failure? How many sp3 have been sold? If there were that many hardware failures as you think, the surface line would be out of business months ago.

 

[Fredwalks]

@double07 : good point indeed, I've also tried with power connector up and charging, and down and charging. It did not work either, so, i'll get a replacement soon

@jnjroach : sure, on mass production item there can be defective items, but when you do QA ( i've been working as product quality engineer on hazardeous equipments ) and apply AQL on manufacturing or at shipment FRI, you can nail down the risk of releasing faulty products. Inspection has a cost, clearly, maybe why

@goodintentions : yes, i'm with you on the fact only negative aspects are highlighted on the net ( mostly, say ). I've clearly purchased that device because I think it's the right one for me And using it did confirm that. I just felt very frustrated when it died so quick never happened to me before you know.

So, to avoid polemics ( not my point at all ) i know there is not much i can do but changing it, and will do it. If it's fine then, brilliant, i believe i'll be very happy. if not,... It runs outside normal defect probabilities.

I'll let you know

 

[goodintentions]

@goodintentions : yes, i'm with you on the fact only negative aspects are highlighted on the net ( mostly, say ). I've clearly purchased that device because I think it's the right one for me And using it did confirm that. I just felt very frustrated when it died so quick never happened to me before you know.

So, to avoid polemics ( not my point at all ) i know there is not much i can do but changing it, and will do it. If it's fine then, brilliant, i believe i'll be very happy. if not,... It runs outside normal defect probabilities.

I'll let you know

Well, just to be clear I'm not saying you won't get another bad one if you exchange now. I just have a lot of experience with electronics. MS is a business like anyone else. This isn't China where bad and fake products are allowed to run rampant without any consequence. This is a reputable company we're talking about here. Realistically, they have a failure rate just like everything else in life. But if their failure rate rises above a certain percentage, they'd shut it down right away and address the issue.

My sister is a head engineer of 2 branches of Omron, a multinational electronic company. I've toured their production lines before. It's incredible the layers of quality controls they have. My sister assures me that they would shut down a whole production line if they found out something is wrong right away and recall the units that had already been sent out. Why? Again, this isn't a cheapo Chinese company where fake and bad products are allowed to run rampant without any consequence. To people like my sister, letting defective batches to go into the wild is more costly than recall the units, shut down production, and have the engineers figure out what's wrong and how to fix.

Your great disappointment is understandable. Since I've owned a business and am familiar with how failure rates should be, I have a slightly different perspective than yours. To me, a defective product, even if it was $5k, isn't a great disappointment like I've seen in people. I just follow the procedures to secure a nondefective one.

Added by edit.

To give you an example of the kind of fake and cheap products coming from fake and bad companies of China, a few months ago, I ordered a "smart watch" from Hong Kong just for fun. When it arrived I tested it out. Then I found a weakness. There was a specific combination of 2 of the 3 buttons that would cause the watch to freeze up. The only way to get out of it was to wait for the battery to run down.

I contacted the seller and returned it. I also wrote them a lengthy explanation of how to reproduce the bug. Some 5 months later, I ordered another one. Before I ordered I told the seller of my problem before and asked him if it was fixed. He said oh yeah he passed it on to R&D and everything was fixed. When I got it, I tried the combo of the 2 buttons and the watch froze again.

That's the kind of stuff that Chinese companies are pumping out.

I know the sp3 is also made in China. But I'm sure MS is doing everything they can to make sure it's not just another cheap Chinese product.

 

[Fredwalks]

Well okay, let's see

In all cases, whatever MS reputation, i'm under the impression that - just sticking to the facts i've read - having faulty devices more than once on replacement programme ( it ain't recall, it's guarantee, and limited replacements # , i don't expect a new device to be a fixed one you see ) is not really normal you know ...

 

[goodintentions]

Well okay, let's see

In all cases, whatever MS reputation, i'm under the impression that - just sticking to the facts i've read - having faulty devices more than once on replacement programme ( it ain't recall, it's guarantee, and limited replacements # , i don't expect a new device to be a fixed one you see ) is not really normal you know ...

True.

So, what do you plan to do?

 

[Fredwalks]

Don't get me wrong here.

I want this one, and I think i'll stick to it anway.

To me, surface pro represents the future of computer, it already brings our powerful high end desktop softwares ( cad,... ) at fingertip, and is at the same time ready for new UI more intuitive, that we still have to build, for our professional and also amateur activities. #brilliant

You know, with usb3, and mini dv, and SD, it also has something of the original PC world spirit ( open ) and it also gets the tactile ( do you remember compared to HP 86 ? ).


Cheers, gentlemen

 

[malberttoo]

Thanks for all views, I'll keep posted

Please do!

 

[Fredwalks]

As a thought, and why I'm looking for an MS device, because, OS and Hardware are paired much better when the same company does both,.

 

[Fredwalks]

Alright
Got my new on fully installed. It's working fine, and not heating so much

First impression ?

True !

Let's move forward.

 

[Fredwalks]

Now few weeks of usage, the Surface Pro is just what I expected.
It may heat a bit from time to time, but it's about the same compared to my MBP i7 ( similar use : 3D, and Audio ).

Hardware :
- I quite enjoy the flashdrive as a secondary "invisible" drive.
- Booting up the device is very quick, out of sleep also. A fingerprint reader to unlock the device would really be a plus in that way.
- Using the pen to take notes and quick drawings is very convenient, close to "zero paper"
- Touch control is very nice.
- A4 size, not so "handy", but you have more on your display ( my choice ).
- Very good display resolution ( too high for some of my softwares, btw ).

OS :
- handwritings recognition is very promising. ( couldn't we login that way ? )
- Desktop/Metro modes are ok, but interactions between each other are strange to me ( two different "same" browsers ? )
- OS is stable and quite reliable ( file manipulations, ... / volumes-amounts )
- Surface Pro 3 handles ( on native installation ) use for : VMWare ( WS11.0, vm files on flash disk also ok ), real time audio ( Ableton 8 ) and 3D ( FormZ 8 ) quite well. I still need to check with real time video ( Isadora 1.3 ).
- Let's see what Win 10 will bring to this device

A true mobile desktop ( and I'm travelling a lot )