Surface Pro 4, Screen Flickering, Shaking

Anonymous

Hi All,

Update: Flickergate is now having a forum to bring all affected users at a single platform to plan for resolvement of issue. Please join at

https://forum.flickergate.com

UPDATE: Check FlickerGate.com for videos of the problem and to submit your own.

I purchased SP4 device a few months ago and it was working fine for a month. Then I noticed that when the CPU is at its max, the screen flickers a bit. Investigating further revealed that it flickers even if it is setting idle. It does not flicker if at least one of the following thing is done:

A video being played in browser
If I keep the touch screen busy by either taping it or keeping a finger on it
If I use the touchpad
If keyboard is used for typing

This resulted in making the device completely unusable while reading articles or ebooks. I am a developer, most of the time I have to read the code and to do that, I have to constantly keep a finger on the touch pad or the screen. I contacted surface support in October and November and was told that the developers are working on the patch. Looking at the updates the developers are pushing since then, I don't think anyone is even aware of the problem there.

My previous support ticket numbers are:

***deleted personally identifiable information***

Just wondering if anyone else had the same problem (and the fix) and if not, what's the procedure for the refund? I will rather go for a mac then sacrificing $2000+ for a dancing screen.

Kind Regards,

Abbas

***Personal information deleted by the moderator. Please see the Microsoft Community Frequently Asked Questions for more information on how you can protect your privacy.***

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.

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Anonymous

Hey Everyone,

Creating the best products and experiences for our customers is our top priority.

We have heard your feedback and after careful examination, have determined that a small percentage of Surface Pro 4 devices are exhibiting a screen flicker that cannot be addressed with a firmware or driver update.

To support customers affected by this issue, we will replace eligible Surface Pro 4 devices for up to three years from the date of purchase, free of charge. If you believe your device is experiencing this issue, please visit our Surface Pro 4 screen flicker article for more details.

Bryan [MSFT]

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2,779 additional answers

Anonymous

2018-01-18T12:19:47+00:00

I use my uag cover to fan mine but a bit of cardboard will suffice.
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Anonymous

2018-01-18T12:43:55+00:00

I do wonder what area is heating up too much.. I agree, it does seem to be that as I push mine a little ... and I mean literally a few chrome/FF tabs, outlook and then open Excel, it will kick in.

BUT

if it was heat, why are the fans not going nuts? in fact most of the time mine are very slow spinning when it starts shaking,

Anyway I've had speedfan running the past hour or so and again what it reports back does not tally up with temperature ups and downs.

For instance:

Idle = I'm browsing with my cursor, stop for a few seconds and it shakes until I move cursor (or just leave task manager running on the side)

Shaky = Shaking while I'm using trackpad/keyboard/working away and nothing is stopping it including task manager running

Very shaky = this is as shaky but as good as unusable as it's too much shaking (here the fans do go slightly higher but not full or even nearly full).

*All temperatures below are in degrees celcius

Idle Temperatures:

HD 0: 38

Temp1: 47

Temp2: 0

Temp3: 37

Temp4: 40

Core 0: 33

Core 1: 26

Shaky Temperature:

HD 0: 41

Temp1: 48

Temp2: 0

Temp3: 40

Temp4: 43

Core 0: 31

Core 1: 28

Very Shaky Temperature:

HD 0: 40

Temp1: 52

Temp2: 0

Temp3: 39

Temp4: 44

Core 0: 45

Core 1:44

When it stopped shaking altogether:

HD 0: 39

Temp1: 46

Temp2: 0

Temp3: 39

Temp4: 42

Core 0: 31

Core 1:31

When it start shaking (shaky not very shaky)

HD 0: 39

Temp1: 51

Temp2: 0

Temp3: 38

Temp4: 43

Core 0: 39

Core 1:36

As you can see, it's not obvious.

It's not HD0 temp as it was shaky @ 41, stopped @ 39 and shaky again @ 38

It's not Temp1 as it 48/51/52 when shaking but 61 when it stopped

It's not Temp2 as these are not monitored (so maybe it is who knows)

It's not Temp3 as these are very close and stopped @ 39 but shaky @37/38

It's not Temp4 as it stopped @ 42 but was shaking @ 40

It's not Core1 as it was shaky at 28 but stopped @ 31 yet started at 26

The only close one is Core0 which in every result of shake was equal or higher to when it stopped but it's so close... who knows

Anyway it's not my job to analyse and diagnose a product that is clearly faulty across thousands of people so I'll leave it at that.
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Anonymous

2018-01-18T18:51:06+00:00

Same problem here for me in France.

I bought a used SP4 3 month ago without any issue.

But last week during a reinstall (to make clean install), the screen started shaking (even in UEFI) when i use it for a long period of time.

It stops when i touch the trackpad, but not when run "task manager".

It seems to be the beginning of the end.

Too bad, i love this formfactor.
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Anonymous

2018-01-18T19:01:31+00:00

You should definitely check your warranty status. You might be lucky and have still coverage. I bought my SP4 in late December 2015 with warranty until mid March 2018, so slightly longer than 2 years.
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