14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve already reported several times that the Surface Pro 3 is suffering from overheating issues, and it appears that more and more buyers are confirming the same unexpected behavior on their newly purchased tablets.
The latest confirmation comes via a post on Microsoft’s Community forum, where Surface Pro 3 buyer Jarem Archer describes in detail not only the overheating problems, but also the excessive noise generated by the fans, most likely as a result of the first issue.
Jarem explains on the forums that he has already exchanged two different units until now, so he’s at the third Surface Pro 3 tablet, but all have experienced the exact same problems.
Here’s the message he posted a few days ago on the forums:
“Right out of the box, before & after all updates and firmware are installed : the back of the unit becomes uncomfortably hot and its fan spins very loudly on idle and while performing minor tasks such as web browsing (even sites without flash or heavy ad use).
I was surprised to hear it the first time, as it sounds like white noise coming from the right speaker. Even under its idle state, my Surface Pro 3 is currently the loudest thing in my office (and that's including my PC running 3 video cards SLI). At its peak (IE: high octane tasks like browsing slashdot.com and reading OneNote entries), the fan noise is ear-piercing and the heat produced is immensely hot. I mean, it's not something you'd want to hold, immense.”
As said, the same problems have been confirmed by several other owners, and until now it appears that i7 and i5 models are the two models suffering from overheating.
According to data collected from the forums, this problem is experienced at random times, no matter what task is performed on the tablet, be it browsing, watching YouTube videos, or simply when resuming from stand by.
Microsoft hasn’t provided too many details on what’s happening with all these Surface Pro 3 tablets, but most pieces of advice posted on the forums recommend owners who got a faulty unit to go to a Microsoft store and replace it with a new one.
And still, as Jarem writes on the forums, chances are that the new tablet will experience the exact same issue, so it’s up to Microsoft to correct the problems right now.
This month’s Update Tuesday takes place next week, so expect another firmware update for the Surface Pro 3 to be released too, although we’re yet to find out whether fixes aimed at these glitches are likely to be included or not.