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.***

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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

2017-11-04T15:21:12+00:00

I have tweeted to Panos & Nadella no reponse.

I've contacted editors at the Verge (Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn - no reponse) and Mr Mobile (he responded saying he's keeping an eye on the issue, and wanted to know if the nSP was also affected. I only remember seeing one post referencing a similar issue on the nSP.)

I have also tweeted to Ed Bott & Lance Ulanoff, Bill Gates, TechnoBuffalo & Jon Rettinger, Joshua Topolsky, Paul Thurrot.

I've made posts onTabletPCReviewand on reddit (and also requested the mods pin a thread with the issue, no response) they haven't gotten much traction. I've also posted on almost every SP4 thread on reddit. Also posted on Neowin & WMPowerUser articles.

I filed a Better Business Bureau claim & have left a review and pointed a Microsoft Support Engineer at their escalation team to this thread. ZERO acknowledgement, all they would address is that I would be outside of a refund window after 30 days and that all they could offer is a prorated refund of Complete if I hadn't already used it for a replacement.

You can also submit a review to the BBB here
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Barb Bowman 80,815 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2017-11-04T15:19:21+00:00

It's really important that you capture a video of screen shaking while in the

UEFI and on the Logo screen (but UEFI in particular).

1.Shut down your Surface and wait about 10 seconds to be sure it is off.

2.Press and hold the volume-up button on your Surface, and, at the same time,

press and release the power button.

3.When you see the Surface logo, release the volume-up button. The UEFI menu

will appear within a few seconds.

Capturing a video of shaking on the UEFI screen demonstrates it is not a driver

or Windows issue.

>>We all need to put a little effort into this now.
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Anonymous

2017-11-04T14:28:46+00:00
We all need to put a little effort into this now.

A link to flickergate.com needs to be dropped in comments, complaints and reviews of any Surface Pro product on the internet. We need to crowdsource this so if everybody drops it at 10 or 20 places, it might get some traction :

Some suggestions:
- Every thread on this microsoft forum where screen-issues for the Surface Pro are discussed. There's almost a hundred relevant threads, so let's get started.
- On reddit/r/surface whenever a topic on the screen issue pops up
- Reviews on amazon.com
- Tweet! (somebody post a list of relevant people and hashtags to tweet this at?)
- On relevant Facebook pages (anybody got a list?)
- Review websites that allow comments? (anybody got a list of relevant review articles that we can already post to?)
- ... more suggestions welcome!
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Barb Bowman 80,815 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2017-11-04T13:10:30+00:00

Post the info here on all you have contacted. And DO post a video of the

flickering in the UEFI screen. Very important that you do so. That may stop the

paid agents from constantly suggesting people reimage and jump through non

working hoops.

>> Got very positive response from lots of them and some have already started giving coverage to the issue.

>>

>>

>>

>>Unfortunately mine one flickers in UEFI screen as well and I believe that's the case with most of the effected devices.
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