Surface Pro 3 screen too hot to touch

[mitchellvii]

I live in San Diego, California. The weather is mild.

I went ahead and replaced my surface pro 3 i5 for an i7 at the Microsoft store. While the computer was installing the latest firmware it showed the temperature icon and shut off. It wouldn't turn it back on for about fifteen minutes, even though I was pressing the on button. Is this normal?

Later, I ran Postmark and while running the i7 reached 90 C.

90C during regular use is way too hot but when benchmarking is hot but not dangerous.

 

[GreyFox7]

I'd say 90 is not unexpected at times and given that Lenovo runs the X1 at 97C I wouldn't worry about it. If you see the Thermometer on the screen and it shuts down, that's a different story. They should be able to sustain operation at 90 but the case would likely get too warm for most peoples liking so it will usually back off at that temperature and stabilize in the 70s. IMO they could and should go higher ... like 76-80 for sustained operation.

 

[Jordi32]

Thank you GreyFox7. I wonder why the unit shut off because of heat during the latest firmware installation after the temperature icon appeared. I couldn't turn it back on for at least 15 minutes. Is it normal to get so hot during firmware updates?

 

[GreyFox7]

Thank you GreyFox7. I wonder why the unit shut off because of heat during the latest firmware installation after the temperature icon appeared. I couldn't turn it back on for at least 15 minutes. Is it normal to get so hot during firmware updates?

I can only speculate ... until shown otherwise the last firmware update fixes that problem. The problem being the thermal management algorithm was wrong. Like the Mars Lander that used the wrong units to calculate the distance to the surface and crashed, something was off and resulted in Temperature icon shutdown. Whether it got too hot and shutdown or miscalculated and shutdown when it wasn't necessary the end result was the same from a users perspective.