SURFACE LAPTOP 3 - Overheating when charging and excessive Fan Noise

Hello u/Jannik76, 

Hi to all,

It appears it's a global problem that is experienced on many SL3 units. If you have scrolled through this thread, you may notice action has already been taken to try and fix this issues, notably answers from Microsoft Support at the very top of the thread that I recommend you to read.

Now, some people have suggested you install the very last Intel 10th-gen. generic driver from Intel's drivers website. 

Some manufacturers generally slightly tweak the display/graphics driver so as to prevent any unauthorised attempt from a third-party install package to update the driver - Microsoft did something similar with the SL3. 

Intel will tell you there is an update available for your display driver when you run their update tool on your machine.

If you run the programme, you might end up seeing : "T**he driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer manufacturer" and the setup process will stop.

-- DO NOTfollow this procedure on a Surface Laptop 3 running on AMD architecture ! 

Type "System Information" in the Windows 10 search box if you're unsure which processor architecture runs on your SL3

Please follow the procedure described in this article to update your Intel display driver anyways : 

https://www.howtogeek.com/343287/how-to-fix-the-driver-being-installed-is-not-validated-for-this-computer-on-intel-computers/

Make sure to select "*Graphics for 10th Generation Intel processors"*when you head over to the Intel Download Center.

You only need to follow these steps once. Any further updates will install seamlessly.

Following the update, some people have noticed a slightimprovement over the heating issue. It appears the computer manages heat dissipation a bit better and the fan will not kick in as much as it used to. Now, it's only a slight change meaning you may still experience your computer running hot on some occasion. 

Microsoft probably does not support this procedure. It's definitely not going to mess up with your computer : it's Intel's generic driver for the processor that's built-in in your SL3 yet it has not been verified by Microsoft, hence why.

The slight improvement observed upon updating suggests it may be linked to mismanagement of heat dissipation because the increased power supply from the AC.

It does not sound like a hardware issue to me - the computer works absolutely fine when not connected to a power source.

If you have a USB-C MacBook charger, I suggest you try connecting it to the USB-C port of your SL3 - however I do not recommend doing that with a 96W charger - the voltage might be too high ; so you can see how it reacts. 

Feel free to let us know about any improvements or not with the steps mentioned above, 

-- DO NOTfollow this procedure on a Surface Laptop 3 running on AMD architecture !

Hi ThomasHelper1,

thanks for your response. Doesn´t the fact, that a newer version of drivers improves the heating performance of the sl3 mean, that microsoft will likely be working on their own version of this new driver? I would expect them to include it with a future uptdate. 

I just don´t want to install something, that may destroy my warranty...

Hello u/Sensation96, 

It really depends on the manufacturer. 

I fully understand your concerns over a potential warranty void.

As far as I am concerned, I absolutely cannot guarantee that there will be no warranty void.

It is possible Microsoft refutes the idea that you are bypassing restrictions to update a driver that you supposedly should not update, resulting in a warranty void .

The main concern is that some manufacturers are known not to continuously update their drivers after they first release it. 

Microsoft is using the same driver Intel provides because your SL3 has an Intel processor whatever happens (if you did not buy an AMD-based SL3).

The driver is just slightly tweaked because Microsoft does not want you to run any unauthorised update packages, even if it's from a trusted source like Intel update package. Microsoft wants you to install driver updates that are confirmed to be working seamlessly with the hardware.

Now, it is possible Microsoft releases an update for the graphics later on, that it will most likely include in a grouped-Surface firmware update, but it's hard to tell. They might as well not.

Having said all this, I can confirm you Windows will handle your Intel driver update just fine, as long as you download the correct update package for the Intel chip in your device. 

However, never install the wrong Intel update package using this method, or an AMD update package over an Intel-powered computer and vice-versa.

The method described above overwrite the preceding installed driver, there will be no warning whatsoever, even if you mistakenly install the wrong one.

Thanks for sharing with us on this.

If some of you are keen to do this, you can opt for this installer (Intel Driver & Support Assistant) provided by Intel (link). It will then help you to identify what are the latest drivers for your system

I am having exactly the same problem. The fan noise is very annoying. This happened when I was allowing a system update. Is there a fix?