Surface Pro 4, Screen Flickering, Shaking

Anonymous
2017-01-19T07:47:47+00:00

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:

  1. A video being played in browser 
  2. If I keep the touch screen busy by either taping it or keeping a finger on it
  3. If I use the touchpad
  4. 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***

***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.***

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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Anonymous
2018-05-11T17:59:00+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2017-12-01T17:01:42+00:00

    Agree!

    I just threw away this expensive piece of ****. 

    Moved to Mac. 2 month of usage, Ive never been so comfortable! Can do just work fast and effectively. Not struggling with operating system.

    Happiness!

    PS

    Had Surface pro 4 i5 256 8gb ram. Got flickering problem after only 1,2 year of usage. 

    Now have mac pro i7 512gb 16 ram, 15" screen. I work with battery 1,5 times longer!! than with SP i5 smaller screen. great... same tasks, same job.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-12-01T15:19:38+00:00

    I've got a MacBook air sitting in a purchase account right now.  I've slowly moved my family to macs because I thought when they asked questions about things not working I could just tell them I don't know how the mac works.  They stopped asking questions, so either they are working to figure it out themselves, or there are fewer problems.

    This flickering thing could be the end for me.  Work comp is citrix to MS environment, so it can sit on the SP4 or mac.  I love the config of the SP4 but this is very annoying.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-12-01T14:59:08+00:00

    all these diagnostics done by users, microsoft might well go fully open-source!

    really someone with time and resources should start a class action against them.

    being a fan of bill gates, i thought i'd never say this.

    p.s. my sp4 now shakes uncontrollably after about 5-10 minutes after power-on.

    and the vertical displacement has visibly increased; used to be so fine i questioned my own vision, now it's 2-3 mm at least.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-12-01T10:31:26+00:00

    I'm not totally convinced about the frame buffer diagnosis. My, fairly recent, problem is still mostly limited to a vertical jitter of 1 - 2 or sometimes 3 mm - enough to be extremely annoying and to render the screen hard to read (for which reason I'm currently using an old display as 2nd screen). It's clear, though, that the display contents don't change, they only move up and down. So the frame buffer contents are NOT being corrupted. It doesn't seem very likely that the frame buffer contents would move up and down an exact number of screen lines. It could still be a frame buffer problem, but then surely one of synchronisation, not of corruption. Also, my jitter does NOT go away when the screen is updated - even with a total screen refresh (a new full screen window) the jitter is still there. It does go away from time to time, but never for very long.

    PS. I've tried the vacuum cleaner trick; it doesn't work for me. My machine is more or less permanently on but never overloaded and and I haven't yeard the fan for months, though the machine doesn't seem to get particularly warm...

    You're right! The corruption is not in the memory itself, but rather in some other component which controls the dataflow from the panel framebuffer to the lcd screen. The registers of this component are updated when the GPU becomes active. Because the flicker stops when something changes on the screen. But when damage becomes more severe this update has no effect anymore, and the flicker is persistent.

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