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
    2020-01-16T17:59:21+00:00

    Ok worked like a charm after updating Intel Graphics Driver (7584) from Intel 

    The laptop was constantly full fan speed after i connected to my additional screen - battery was low and obviously became a hot pan after i plugged the charger and fan noise did not stop (by now its 3 hours - fans did not stop) 

    I installed the drivers - rebooted - fan noise was there initially for 1 min or 30 sec - and now went quiet (work load, applications, nothing changed - everything is the same) 

    If i stick my ear close to the vents > i can hear the fan noise still but very very faint. I can live with that - good news atleast for now - the heating issue is a lot under control. 

    I am going to wait for few days to test this. 

    Can anyone else confirm this? I returned my core i7 13" because of this random fan bursts when connected to dock, even when there was no big cpu load

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-16T20:16:36+00:00

    I did use the laptop for 3 to 4 hours constantly on USB C charging and connected to 34inch screen also checking the fan noise. I didn't hear the noise so bad to quiet. I'm not gaming. 

    I'm not celebrating yet. I will have to test for a few days in all types of situations when fans used to kick in. 

    Just curious what type of problem you had? And what did they say when u returned.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-18T02:33:52+00:00

    here is my update!

    I installed the intel driver 7584 successfully follow by the manual steps in howtogeek. Unfortunately, the buzzing fan noise issue is still there. After restarting the device, the fan started buzzing on and off about less than 30s. However, the moment I'm typing this (with 10 chrome tabs open) the fan is really quiet. So I guess the new driver somehow manage the issue better than previously. 

    I will spend more time monitoring and testing it. will keep u guys updated! mine is SL3 i7, 16GB, 256GB.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-01-18T03:38:08+00:00

    Yes I noticed the Fan noise is quieter now. Still didnt get the chance to fully test it yet. But will keep this forum

    posted on status.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-01-20T06:46:46+00:00

    So the Intel graphics driver really efected on fan noise? My problems occurred when the laptop was docked, it got hot and fans were bursting without high cpu load

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