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
    2020-05-05T22:45:12+00:00

    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?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-27T06:15:13+00:00

    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

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T14:23:42+00:00

    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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T13:53:57+00:00

    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...

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-04-26T13:33:19+00:00

    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 !

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