Surface Book 3 Throttling at 0.19 GHz

Same problem, I suspect bad firmware.

A quick interrogation with Throttle Stop to see what's going on shows TPL1 (Power Limit 1) being hit repeatedly, almost to the point of constantly being on. 

Scenarios investigated all baselined with SB3 on a Surface Dock 2 with it providing power, running 2 * Dell external monitors over USB 3.  Also baselined without the dock and external monitors. 

Scenarios that seem to cause this:

1. Any VC apps, Teams in particular
2. Some CPU intensive games (not so much GPU side of things)
3. Standard Aida64 CPU stress test.

Eventually the TPL1 will become a ProcHot as well and the back of the screen feels ready to fry eggs.  A reboot results in a shutdown on some occasions and the "im too hot" screen on boot leaving you with a few minutes of waiting for it to cool down.

MS - this is not good... all laptops throttle yes... but pretty much constant TPL1 followed by a runaway thermal spike that nearly cooks the device???

I finally fixed it - after two Surface Book 3 (both 13.5, i7/32/1tb), I started drawing my conclusions: it throttles because this specific version has only ONE fan in the base, but not in the tablet (where the CPU lies). My final decision was to get the 15" inch, which I received today. Doing the same type of things I was doing with the 13.5 books (4k remote desktop, connected to 2 4k displays, and Surface book in Studio mode), it did not throttle. The 15" inch is perfect for anyone that's having these issues. I know it's more expensive, but the 15" inch does have two fans (in the tablet and in the base). I think this is why the 13.5 inch throttles, but the 15” does not.  Also, you also get a better GPU. 

On another note, for anyone that still is in the 30 day period for returning it, you should do it.  So I think that if you can still get it refunded, I would go for it. The 15" inch is a much better product.

Hello,

My 2 week old surface book 3 ( i7-1065G7) is now throttling at a very low speed of .19GHz.  

I have a standard mouse plugged in, and a Microsoft USB-C Travel hub connected.  To the travel hub, i have a 2nd monitor connected via VGA cable.  This system worked well until i plugged in an Ethernet cable to the hub from my router.

I have unplugged the travel hub, and have restarted the computer 2 times now with no luck.

Update:

I unplugged everything and waited a few hours.  Seems the computer got too hot and that was the reason, i assume,  it throttled slowly

I have been using it for a few weeks now, without any issue, as of now.

Just opened task manager

Same issue here, SB3 13.5" i7/512/32 

Throttles to 0.19GHz a lot these past days. Started happening during gaming, but activity doesn't even have to be that intense now; this started happening in a Zoom call, and while playing 4k video files in Adobe Bridge. This happens both off and on the charger, and on the dock (1) with one 4K monitor connected.

Sometimes detaching the tablet portion will make it temporarily stop throttling.

Reboot with the power button + Volume down button seems to always work to get it back to normal, but yes Microsoft should get to work on that firmware update. Seems like the same issue the SB2 and SP6 had with the devices throttling to 400MHz.

I'm guessing this affects only the 13" model since the 15" has a fan in the tablet?