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First off, the specs are: 13.5"/i7/32GB/512GB/1650 Max-Q
Not sure if this will be the case for all users, but I am currently troubleshooting a issue with the Surface Book 3 going into a thermal throttle state from just restarting or trying to update even basic things.
The first few days were fine - though attempting to run Minecraft didn't actually engage the dGPU for some reason. Eventually got the dGPU to work by installing NVIDIA's GeForce Experience, or whatever it's called.
Then I noticed that the fan would spin up even when the SB3 should have been in sleep mode; I fixed this by just having it hibernate instead. Since then, I haven't heard any fan noise at all, even when the thermals were hitting well into the upper 90s C and even a few cores hitting 100 C.
Now, I can't seem to cool the thing off. I was trying to install Adobe Acrobat Pro and the latest Intel drivers (apparently one was released on 5/20?) the screen shut off and a little thermometer popped up (which I assumed, and later confirmed, meant that it had overheated and shut down to prevent damage).
Like I mentioned just above, now I can't seem to get the darn thing to run cool enough to even install it's routine updates. I have a box fan pointed on it to try and help, but even that doesn't seem to be effective.
When last I checked (which admittedly was a few hours ago now since I'm trying a factory reset to see if one of the updates caused this) the CPU was capped out at 400 MHz, but it hasn't overheated since. It sure does take a heck of a long time to do a reset when your CPU is capped to 400 MHz.
I'm hoping that this factory reset will fix the issue (hey, ya never know 'til ya try, amirite?), but otherwise I assume that I will likely have to warranty this particular SB3.
Not really sure where I was going with all of this, I guess I was wondering if this is something that could be caused by updates and drivers or if there is a more serious hardware issue.
I spent far too long trying to see if I could force the fans to spin regardless before just giving up on that.
I'll add a link here that has a picture (would've done a screen cap, but it's in the middle of resetting) and some video showing what I'm talking about.
Thoughts or suggestions?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Selecting the "Recommended" Power mode seems to have mitigated the overheating issue for me. It was previously set to "Best performance" when plugged in but "Recommended" when unplugged (I have never experienced the overheating issue while unplugged), so I thought it was worth a try based on feedback on the Surface Book 2 found here: link
Okay, so quick update. I haven't been able to replicate the issue again after loading the original factory image. I've had a few other quirks like the GPU not recognizing that it has the ability to run OpenCL (which I fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the NVIDIA drivers). I've been stress testing the bejeezus out of the SB3 and it will not thermal lock again.
I have no idea what caused the original lock and both the Microsoft tech and myself have no clue why it is now working after resetting to the factory image.
I found something interesting while stress testing it, though: if you disconnect the tablet from the base, PROCHOT will come on for a few seconds and the CPU will throttle to 400 MHz. I'm not sure if this is what caused the original issue (maybe a sensor incorrectly reading that the tablet was disconnecting or something?) but it is interesting to note nonetheless.
The device gets toasty. I was averaging around 70 C doing various benchmarks. As a real-world example, I ran Minecraft Bedrock on max settings for around 2.5 hours and averaged 3091 MHz across all cores with an average temp of 58 C. Doing a Blender run, it put out 3550 HMz across all cores and averaged just over 69 C. I'm reasonably impressed that it can put out as much power as it does for nearly 2.5 hours straight. I guess at the end of it all there's not much to say.
There isn't an issue currently, which is rather bizarre, and the issues there were are now gone.
It seems weird to me, but i dont thibk theres a fan in the tablet. My Surface Book 1 definitely had some form of fan in the tablet half, but I'm not so sure about the Book 3.
Even weirder is that it looks like it has unstuck itself. After having been stuck on PROCHOT for over a day, and the CPU being stuck at 400 MHz, the CPU is now back to normal.
I've been benchmarking it and stress testing it for most of the afternoon and there is no sign that it has slipped back into its old ways.
I'll probably let it run some more stress tests overnight and see if the CPU continues performing well.
We used HWiNFO to start creating logs. It's a surprisingly powerful little program and it's free.
To be clear, we were only concerned about the thermals because I had gotten the little thermometer to pop up several times despite it not really being all that hot.
If your experience is anything like mine, then a Microsoft rep should be getting in contact with you shortly.
I just received my laptop Microsoft Surface book 3 and I've experienced the same exact heating issue it get so hot it burns my lap in either mode it seems that Microsoft book 3 has issues in this area along with other issues I'm definitely sending this thing back I have not had it very long I'm not sure why there having issues with this thing overheating the way it is considering it over $2000 piece of equipment I'm astonished at this situation as well as customer service...
You would think as in Microsoft company a tech company they would at least be able to get their phone systems correct I am very ticked off I'm not sure if Dell is fully being informed of this situation and 2boo
t I'm having to pay for the damn thing
Thanks for the quick response! Where did you find statistics/analytics about the PROCHOT status?
