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I have the same problem as many other Microsoft users (summarized below)
What is Microsoft's solution to resolve the Surface Pro 4 flickering screen?
ISSUE
Due to the pandemic, I now need to work remotely and use this Surface for 8 or more hours each day. The first full day was a surprise when my screen started flickering. I see that Microsoft knew about this issue and arranged to extend the warranty to 3 years. Unfortunately, my Surface Pro 4 is just past the 3 years. I feel that since my Surface was registered when I bought it that Microsoft should have notified me that my Surface was in the batch of known hardware defects. Had I known about this issue, I would have taken care of this issue immediately. Instead, I was left to discover this on my own over time. Now, Microsoft support has offered to replace my Surface with a used certified Surface for an additional $599.99 with only a 90 day warranty. I don't really want to spend an additional $599.99 but I will if I have to so I can continue to get some work done. I have 2 issues with this, one is that Microsoft had my contact information from my registered device and never contacted me to say I had this known hardware issue and second is that after I spend $599.99 I will get a used device with only a 90 warranty.
1) What is Microsoft's resolution to this?
2) How do we implement the solution during the COVID-19 crisis?
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.
I have the same problem here. The flickering/ scrambling appears at a 'cold' start. When the surface is awake for like 5 minutes the scrambling disapears and become workable... rebooting the surface i does not cause flickering, but restarting after like 20minutes of downtime, the machine is cooled off, and the flickering starts again. Also when I start with Ubuntu OS on USB stick...
I did re-imaging , the flicker disapeared, ...... but it re-appeared after a while why, even the surface was "cold" in temp ?
You see, behind my back win10 had upgraded the drivers to a new set of **** drivers that is not fitted for this machine at all. I need to find a way of disabling updates or just work without being connected to the net.
Hello there
I also have the same issue with Microsoft Surface Pro 4 device, yes it is a few years old however it has been well looked after ( it was a secondary device which I mainly used for OneNote) and I then replaced it with a Surface Laptop 3, so it was spare and an ideal option for my 8-year-old son when COVID and home schooling struck! I promptly reset the device for his school use. After only a couple of weeks of a school day and Minecraft workload, the screen started flickering/degrading. I have read some of the reviews and I am not prepared to try freezing the device! But once cooled the device and its screen do work again for a short period of time. This appears to be a fundamental (and well known) failing of Microsoft hardware. Now my son uses the Surface Laptop 3 and I have reverted back to the MacBook (which has always been reliable)
I very much doubt that Microsoft will do anything for older devices, I hope that they learn and improve their products as this is very damaging for the brand. What will I choose next time, Microsoft or Apple hardware... even my son (now 9-years-old) has an opinion on this!
After my good old Dell workhorse died, i had the choice:buy a new good chineze laptop, or for the same price buy a secondhand great A-brand I7 surface, with all accesoires., worth of almost 2k newprice.... Was very happy with it. Video editing & lightroom, no problem at all. My flickering and scrambling only appears after starting up the surface, and last for ca 5minutes. Then it dissapears and gets workable... When rebooting directly the flicker does not come back, only of like 20 minutes are between reboots... It is also showing more of a transparent black layer over my screen... when i read this forum, i might be the lucky one... Or are these just the first signs?
The most symptoms i read are the same... more or less. Only mine appears mainly at a 'cold' start, not as reaction of overheating the surface...
for yucks I'll give this a try but not expecting much.
I did notice last night when I was trying to keep my SP4 cool by use a cpu heatsink on back that when it was flickering like mad if I touched the screen or moved the mouse it would suddenly stop for a moment. After about an hour of youtube videos and benchmarks (I was trying to heat it up to see if the heaksink would help) touching the screen or moving the mouse didn't stop the flickering anymore.
