SURFACE LAPTOP 3 - Overheating when charging and excessive Fan Noise

Anonymous
2020-01-07T23:58:07+00:00

Edit: 16 Jun 2021

Laptop is going OK - not much fan noise or heating as I haven't been using it much. mostly my work laptop

Got a better data USB C to USB C cable to plug into the dock and using a Lenovo Dock Gen 2 for the additional screen, think they are helping in better handling and keeps fans not to rev so much

Being my 3rd laptop (replaced 2 before) battery is performing better than the other two. Haven't run the full tests yet - still in progress to test real word batt life (office work, no games, no memory or cpu intensive apps)

Edit: 17 Feb 2021

Well, this 3rd laptop replacement is not as bad as the other two, however, the rocket engine fan noise is not completely gone. 

this laptop is for light use only, any slightest workload "WHEN hooked up to an additional monitor" + Microsoft teams video call, 3-word documents, 2 webpages, this laptop cannot handle. It runs however fans rev up and won't stop until we close a few applications or disconnect additional monitor. 

I think its the quick charging or charging which using additional display via display USB-C. Not much was done during the testing phase. 

I hear dell XPS's and some other laptops rev fans too, however only when there is significant load, not just basic office work.

Example: I had sticky notes, 1 webpage, and a TEMAS interview video call: Laptop fans did not stop revving at max speed until the end of the interview and I closed all applications. 

For this time there is nothing more I want to do - there is no fix for this, so i will have to s*C* it up and make a better decision next time. 

Edit:28 Oct 2020

Nothing changed its still overheats when plugged to an external display. Fans still rev high when on Microsot teams meeting or charging. Laptop battery looks like it gave up (3 to 5 hour max) on light use. What a shame this issue is not getting enough attention. 

Edit: 28 Aug 2020 

No change - Laptop still goes crazy when plugged to an additional screen

All Microsoft Stores are temporarily closed until further notice. So I have to escalate this again to Microsoft


Edit: 17 Apr 2020

The issue still continues, Couldn't attend MS Store because of COVID lockdowns.

At this stage im hoping they can fix this via software patch. However, after research, this has been a problem for a few MS products (charging, especially fast charging) 


Edit: 21 Jan 2020

Still did not go to Microsoft store. With this COVID 19 going on, working from home most of the time.

I will give away my laptop to the store soon to test. 

Biggest change I noticed.  Battery is being effected. When ever the laptop is hot during couple of hours of work connected to dock.... remove from the dock....u get 3 hours or so max on full battery... guessing due to excessive heat I guess. 

I tried multiple times charging with power adapter. Works fine without issues, no heat, battery lasts longer a little. Daily heating issue is causing battery to deterioate quickly 


Surface Laptop 3 - 13inch, i5, 8GB, 256GB SSD.

Surface laptop overheating on every charge - even with no applications running. Brand new laptop, room temperature is under 21 C. After plugging in the charger, if you listen closely near the exhaust vents - there is a faint static electric noise, not to mention is scary as i don't want to use this anywhere close to me. 

Laptop has already been replaced with a new one, still same issue. With some research a lot of people are experiencing the same issue. Any solution for this ?????

Surface | Surface Laptop | Power and battery

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-01-08T22:37:11+00:00

    Yep, me too - surface diagnostics toolkit is not useful in this situation

    Shame, i like this laptop - best for work purposes due to its aspect ratio. BUT if it keeps heating up on charges. I cant use this mobility wise -will be uncomfortable to hold or work.

    I'm also worried how heating will be when you dont have to shutdown but lock it in laptop bag for travel on the bus or train (will it explode in the bag?) So far i have traveled and doesn't seem to be an issue, however if i just finished charging - the laptop is hot enough to boil an egg - i dont want to keep it a bag - have to wait for it to cool down and then travel.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-08T00:43:24+00:00

    Hi eagelfox,

    Thank you for reaching out Microsoft Community. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

    This sounds weird if it's overheating even though there's no application running. Most likely, if a device is charging and certain applications are running, it is actually okay if it gets warmer than normal, but if no applications running, that's really odd.

    Well, to sort things out if your Surface device is having a hardware issue,  we would like to know if you were able to double-check if there were no background applications running in Task Manager. Were you able to reset this device back to its factory settings? Is it doing the same thing after the reset?

    To make sure that there's no applications running in the background, kindly open Task Manager by: 

    Right-clicking on Windows Icon on your task bar. Select Task Manager, then click Details

    If there's no applications running, you can reset the device if you haven't tried resetting the Surface by:

    Going to Settings > Updates & Security > Recovery > click Get Started underReset This PC option, then select Remove Everything.

    After resetting, kindly set it up again, then install the updates available under Updates & Security

    If issue still persists after doing the above-mentioned steps, we highly recommend to contact support for replacement options again. 

    Kind Regards,

    Crest_Z

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-09T20:22:14+00:00

    In addition to the scary extreme heat during charging, do you also have problems with crashing? Mine often crashes if I try to charge during standby. Or it just does not wake up from standby.

    Did not crash yet. But people in other forums experienced Blue screen.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-01-09T17:08:26+00:00

    I am having the same issue with the same model, It get extremely hot when charging. I will be following this thread.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-01-08T18:05:18+00:00

    Hi eagelfox,

    Thank you for sharing to us that thread. I will raise this concern to our backend support and will get back to you for updates. 

    Kind Regards,

    Crest_Z

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