Thinking of upgrading my SP3 to SP4 - a few questions...

[Pedrom]

Hi all.
I'm hoping a few SP4 users could help me out. If you had an SP3 in the past too, that would be even better

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with my SP3 - I rage almost daily now. I think I blame Windows 10 more than the device itself, but whether it's a case of just doing a fresh install or not, I don't want to be doing that every few months just to get it to function how it should!

So:

1: Does your SP4 ever get confused if it's in Tablet Mode or not?
My SP3 frequently gets this wrong. I turn it on/wake it up with my keyboard tucked away, and it's still in Desktop Mode - and vice versa; keyboard out but goes to Tablet Mode (even though the keyboard/touchpad are still recognised and function)

2: Does your SP4 ever get hot and fans whirl up when simply doing nothing or even just watching a video file?
It gets really annoying when I'm sitting on my commute home watching something and I see my battery draining way faster than it should and heating up. Some system crap running in the background that I can't turn off! It's kind of embarrassing that it appears to struggle playing videos when people sitting next to me with their iPad smallThings breeze on.

3: Does your SP4 sometimes fail to turn on?
It's been happening more and more lately that when I turn my SP3 on, it gets stuck on the bank "Surface" screen. I have to do a hard reset to get it to work again.

4: Last but not least, does your SP4 suffer from insomnia?
All too often I go to get my SP3 and find it's been awake and on the lock screen for quite some time. I've played around with trying to see when this happens. While I can't find the trigger - sometimes when I lock it and then close the cover, it wakes up again (as if closing the cover is the cause - but not always)


I love my Surface. It worked almost flawlessly when 8.1 was on it. But since 10 has come along (and I do like 10), I've been having nothing but problems. It's time to change. Whether that's to an SP4 or something entirely different, I don't know yet. But if a few of you could enlighten me with your experiences, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks,
Ped

 

[hughlle]

Those sound like Windows issues to me. I've experienced all those issues, and still experience some now. I'm on the insider program and luckily it seems to have ironed some of the links out, but Windows 10 is still riddled with issues.

For what it is worth, I've both, and other than the screen size and lack of the Windows button on the bezel, I would not be able to tell which one I was using. For average Joe kind of use, they're pretty much the same machine.

 

[leeshor]

For me:

#1 NO
#2 NOT that I know of but I haven't watched that many videos
#3 NO
#4 NO

My SP4 has had a lot of modifications done to the settings, especially background apps and a few things just turned off, like phone related stuff as an example. I'm stock, I don't use Cortana or Edge if that helps. Like I said, that's for me, ymmv no matter what else you do or don't do.

 

[Pedrom]

Those sound like Windows issues to me. I've experienced all those issues, and still experience some now. I'm on the insider program and luckily it seems to have ironed some of the links out, but Windows 10 is still riddled with issues.

For what it is worth, I've both, and other than the screen size and lack of the Windows button on the bezel, I would not be able to tell which one I was using. For average Joe kind of use, they're pretty much the same machine.

Thanks for the replies.
Hughlle, I find that particularly interesting. Makes me wonder now if I should stick it out with the SP3 or change to something like a Yoga 900. What would you do?

And thanks Leeshor, I think turning a few things off will help out. I've just turned off a couple of settings that send MS my usage data. It seems to have sorted the constant CPU usage when idle - but it has only been 10 minutes. Will report back in a day or two if it's fixed it for definite. I like to keep various settings on for Cortana though.
I'm all for sending MS my usage data - I want to help the Win 10 experience, and I'm not one of the paranoid type who thinks they are spying on me (they can if they want tbh, it would be pretty boring though!) but I just wish they could do it in a more efficient manor. Maybe only when the device is plugged in, for a start! But as a result, it has led me to turn it all off to gain back the performance and battery life.

Any more SP4 users, please share your experience too!

 

[Pedrom]

For me:

#1 NO
#2 NOT that I know of but I haven't watched that many videos
#3 NO
#4 NO

My SP4 has had a lot of modifications done to the settings, especially background apps and a few things just turned off, like phone related stuff as an example. I'm stock, I don't use Cortana or Edge if that helps. Like I said, that's for me, ymmv no matter what else you do or don't do.

Just to confirm, you've never (not even once) had the issue described for #1? It's so frequent with me, I don't know if you're insanely lucky - or I'm unlucky!

 

[ScottyS]

In my experience with 2 SP3s it was yes to all 4 issues at times in the past, but not so much now. Updates have fixed some things, but broke others. I did several resets with my last SP3 and I'm convinced that sometimes Windows gets everything installed right and it works, and sometimes not everything goes right and you have a buggy machine.
My current SP3 was a replacement from a MS store because the old one wouldn't recognize the keyboard and high def sound wouldn't come out to my monitor via the mDP. They swapped it for a refurbished SP3 running Win8. They upgraded that to Win10 via a USB stick and I gotta say pretty much every thing works right now.

So don't let those kinds of bugs influence your decision. I'm glad to hear what @hughlle said "other than the screen size and lack of the Windows button on the bezel, I would not be able to tell which one I was using. For average Joe kind of use, they're pretty much the same machine."
That's why I'm waiting for the SP5.

 

[Philtastic]

#1. I don't use tablet mode at all (even when being used as a tablet) so I turned off automatic switching and can't comment on it being in the wrong mode.

#2. Early on, yes but, in the last ~4 months, basically never. This will probably vary a lot with what you have installed and have running in the background. Videos run fine and cool. The SP3 was known to have heat issues so I'm not surprised that the fan runs more often.

#3. Early on, occasionally, but never stuck at the Surface logo, just a black screen. Again, in the past ~4 months, this has never happened.

#4. Common theme but, early on, yeah, this happened often enough that I didn't use sleep but, again, in the past ~3-4 months, I generally don't have this problem any more. The only time it does happen is if I put it to sleep and then remove the charger which wakes it up and causes it to never go back to sleep. I should note that I have disabled the cover from triggering sleep because there are times where I want it still on but with the cover closed (eg. just carrying it over to another desk).

At least for me, my SP4 unit has been working pretty much how I imagine it should for the past 4 months. Currently, my only concern is relatively high clock speeds at idle that drop when I use any inputs.

Unless you have money to burn, I would actually recommend you try to refresh your SP3 before buying an SP4 since they're similar enough that I personally don't think it's worth it. I went from an SP2 to the 4 which was a significant change.

 

[leeshor]

Just to confirm, you've never (not even once) had the issue described for #1? It's so frequent with me, I don't know if you're insanely lucky - or I'm unlucky!

I think I would have remembered that. I rarely operate in tablet mode anyway.

 

[kundas1]

I would second doing a refresh, it seems to really get the kinks out when you do a refresh... if and when your still not satisfied with how your SP3 is working then get something else or send it back for and exchange.. mine NEVER exhibits the behaviors that your describing

 

[Pedrom]

Oh I switch to tablet mode all the time. I would be more inclined to use it in desktop mode all of the time if Win10 was smart enough to bring up the virtual keyboard when I tap a text field with the keyboard tucked away...*sigh*

Ok, maybe one more refresh and I'll see how it goes. But like I said, I don't want to be doing that frequently. I shouldn't have to!
What would you recommend is the best method for doing a refresh? Just via the settings option, or complete wipe and fresh install from USB?

I can't exchange it any more. It's out of warranty.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Pedrom]

.....
That's why I'm waiting for the SP5.

What are you hoping to be different with the SP5? Wouldn't you expect it to have the same issues?

 

[Philtastic]

Oh I switch to tablet mode all the time. I would be more inclined to use it in desktop mode all of the time if Win10 was smart enough to bring up the virtual keyboard when I tap a text field with the keyboard tucked away...*sigh*

Ok, maybe one more refresh and I'll see how it goes. But like I said, I don't want to be doing that frequently. I shouldn't have to!
What would you recommend is the best method for doing a refresh? Just via the settings option, or complete wipe and fresh install from USB?

I can't exchange it any more. It's out of warranty.

Thanks for all the replies.

You can have the virtual keyboard auto-pop up in desktop mode by going to Settings -> Devices -> Typing and toggling on the bottom option "Show the touch keyboard...."

If you have never cleanly installed Win10 on this machine (ie. only upgraded it from Win 8.1), I would recommend doing the USB approach.