Surface Pro 4, Screen Flickering, Shaking

So, it turns out, after about 9 months of using my Surface Pro 4 (I got mine in September 2016), I encountered the same issue. I started having the problem yesterday when I was writing my doctorate thesis while having lots of academic journal papers opened in Adobe Reader and Mendeley (a software for managing research papers). I started getting double-vision-like effects on my screen, and everything seems to be vibrating up and down by a few centimetres intermittently. Essentially, it's exactly like this (not my video by the way): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTBOaM9voD0

As a lot of you have already mentioned, it stops vibrating whenever the screen content needs to be changed or updated, only to return after a few seconds if nothing else moves on screen. This observation seemingly suggests that it could be very likely due to firmware-related power management issues. In particular, I suspect it to be a problem with how the firmware is handling Panel Self Refresh (PSR). If your engineers could look into it, it will be great.

Also, I think Microsoft should at least provide more details on what have been done so far to diagnose the problem, given that the issue has been in the wild for quite some time. The lack of transparency by Microsoft in this regard is really discomforting. Is it really that hard to post an update to the official Surface TechNet blog? Having your support representatives giving out the same comments over and over again about how the problem is currently being looked into does not inspire confidence. Even if the specific cause has not been found by your engineers at this point, it would be nice to get some updates on what has or has not been looked into. So, a write-up by one of your technical staff is definitely overdue.

I know I could return my Surface Pro 4 for replacement. But, what are the chances of having it occurred again on the replacement device? Considering my sole dependence on the Surface Pro 4 for productivity purposes and my impending deadlines, I don't think I could afford to send it back without the assurance by your technical staff; I live outside of the US. Your support staff could say this and that, but it doesn't work unless we hear it firsthand from your engineers. I really hope more details on the issue are disclosed as soon as possible. 

Anyway, my Surface Pro 4's spec is: Core i5 6300U, 4GB of RAM and 128GB for the capacity of the SSD.

Microsoft just push new firmware for SP4, not sure it help to fix the fickering problem or not, as mention in article below

https://www.onmsft.com/news/a-new-surface-pro-4-firmware-update-is-now-available-for-download

I want to give an update ...

After months of trying to get help, I finally found a tech who pushed my concerns up the line and I received a new Pro4 last week. So far, it is working without any of the problems I had with the last one. Of course, It's only been a week, but here's hoping!

No flickering yet.

Fan not running continually yet.

No getting hot like the other one.

Hoping - Praying this one was checked out thoroughly before being sent to me.

I had my surface switched off for about 2 weeks and I turned it a while ago and installed the updates. After that, I turned on all my heavy software and the surface went really hot but didn't flickered a bit.

I then opened the task manager and to my surprise the processor was running very low. I have core i7 modal which overclock to 3+ Ghz during my routine usage. I don't know if surface has super optimized the firmware or was it the effect of non usability. But I think my processor power has been limited. Is anyone else having the same issue? 

Also I am thinking about summarizing all of this conversation in a blog post and then refer to it tech review websites and Youtube channels. I think we have seen enough irresponsibility and kinda disrespect. We all are waiting for someone else to take the step. If anyone is up to help me spread the voice then kindly let me know. The issue went from 100 to 262 almost within a month. Its about time

I really hope more details on the issue are disclosed as soon as possible. 

Meanwhile if you have another machine and your OS is W10 Pro you could try using Remote Desktop Connection.  I had to do that with my Surface 2 Pro by using my Surface RT when the W10 CU had all kinds of ridiculous problems with its peripherals.  How can RDC outperform a normal configuration?  (Including Multiple screens being controlled remotely!)  This configuration is amazing, even for battery life (but not for the Surface RT's battery life of course <eg>).

A related idea would be trying screen casting.  Does the problem symptom occur with that configuration too?

Also, one hopeful possibility I can suggest is the (Surface Pro) Software Repair Tool.  I recently did that and so far am not tempted to go back to my RDC workaround.  However, this was my second try at using that tool, so I reserve my judgment on how effective I think it may be permanently.

However, considering how you are implying that you need to use it I suspect your machine might be on the small side, so I'm wondering if you have looked at any specific tuning ideas on that tack.  FWIW mine is 8 GB RAM and I'm wondering if it sometimes is thrashing; then in such circumstances I will do what I have often done: kill explorer.exe and use my Desktop the way I have been familiar using it since W3.1   <eg>

Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle