Microsoft really needs to fix their surface pro's.

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So I am an owner of the Surface pro 2.

I bought it 6 months before the Surface pro 3 came out. I've used it every day since.

I bought the surface so that I could complete work before bed as I also own an iPad 2 that I used before bed but

you can't really do much on an iPad that's productive. I've been using the Surface as my main computer for the past

three months because I am re-building my main computer which is taking a while since I've been waiting for parts to be stocked.

Here are some issues that I've noticed, most of the issues still happen on the Surface pro 3.

 

• Bending the touch/type cover back will randomly cause your Surface to reboot.
• Touch screen often becomes unresponsive, happens a lot when running Chrome.
• Windows all together just crashes. (Even after a system restore)
• If you leave the Surface plugged in while it's fully charged in sleep-mode, you will hear a tazer-like buzzing.
• You cannot move icon's all the way to the right even though there is room.
• The mouse randomly disappears and needs a restart to fix the issue.

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

Most of those just sound like generic Windows 8 problems and are not only related to the surface

[TheKDub]

They also really need to fix their operating systems.

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Most of those just sound like generic Windows 8 problems and are not only related to the surface

 

I've never personally has any of these issues related to windows 8.1.

Snapping the touch cover back then having the surface reboot is really really bad, I've lost a lot of work before.

[ShadowCaptain]

I've never personally has any of these issues related to windows 8.1.

Snapping the touch cover back then having the surface reboot is really really bad, I've lost a lot of work before.

 

thats a strange one, never heard/seen that before

[zappian]

I would prefer an asus netbook to a surface pro honestly

 

Just my two cents.

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I would prefer an asus netbook to a surface pro honestly

 

Just my two cents.

 

I bought the Surface instead of a laptop of some sort because I wanted that tablet feel I had with the iPad.

Honestly I really do like the feeling and would take a tablet/laptop combo over a standard laptop any day no matter the specs.

[Sauron]

Ubuntu is the solution to all your problems

[zappian]

Ubuntu is the solution to all your problems

 

This , if i didnt use the machine for gaming i would use linux all day every day of the week.

 

Its the most confortable OS for me anyways since I program alot.

 

Cant use it on my gaming machine because reasons.

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Ubuntu is the solution to all your problems

 

Nah, ubuntu doesn't allow me to play the games I play on my surface or obviously executables I need.

I personally don't think linux is a great personal alternative for every day usage even though people use it for that.

I use Linux every day on servers though, it's great.

 

EDIT: Actually I may give Ubuntu a try on my surface, I'm feeling adventurous.

[Sauron]

Nah, ubuntu doesn't allow me to play the games I play on my surface or obviously executables I need.

I personally don't think linux is a great personal alternative for every day usage even though people use it for that.

I use Linux every day on servers though, it's great.

 

EDIT: Actually I may give Ubuntu a try on my surface, I'm feeling adventurous.

 

Give wine a try, it works very well with light games and most other windows executables

[zappian]

Give wine a try, it works very well with light games and most other windows executables

 

Just remenber wine is not an emulator.

 

I love recursive acronyms sorry.

[Atomika]

Give wine a try, it works very well with light games and most other windows executables

 

I don't like Wine, I prefer to run Windows. To be fair, I prefer Windows 8.1 over anything...

 

#NoHatePls

[OhhTee]

Hm, I haven't experience any of these problems at all. I flip my pro 2 around a lot to switch from pen to keyboard to take notes. Maybe I'm just lucky.

[Sauron]

I don't like Wine, I prefer to run Windows. To be fair, I prefer Windows 8.1 over anything...

 

#NoHatePls

 

That's another mater entirely, wine is a way of mitigating the compatibility issues if you choose ubuntu for other reasons.

[Speedbird]

I would prefer an asus netbook to a surface pro honestly

Just my two cents.

I have an Asus netbook with an Atom N570, 2GB RAM and a 32GB SSD and I'd really have a Surface Pro to that. The performance of the netbook is just horrible, applications take at least 5 seconds to load, despite the fact that I'm running Linux Mint on it. And 2GB RAM is just not enough for multitasking. Also, no touch screen.

[Prastupok]

Ubuntu is the solution to all your problems

 

Debian (including Ubuntu) distros are by far my favorite.

 

If all else fails, just dual boot

[Badly Browned]

I have the Surface Pro 3, I don't use it as my main though, I got it for notetaking/studying at school, where I previously had an iPad 3 in this role.

 

How do you mean how the desktop icons do not go all the way to the edge? Looking at my Win 8.1 desktop right now, I can see that my icons are further away from the right edge than the left edge. However, it does seem that the space is noticeably bigger on my Surface. 

 

I have found that my mouse pointer disappears sometimes, but just removing my Type cover and snapping it back gets it back most of the time. Sometimes it does require a reboot. 

 

Other than that, I can't say I have run into the same issues. I definitely do not get buzzing noises from my Surface when charging, and just snapping my type cover wont cause my device to crash. (/knock on wood)

 

Imo, the #1 worst flaw of the Surface is the camera, and it sucks. A lot. Who the hell decided a fixed focus camera was a good idea? So when I need to take pics / scan documents for class I just use my phone and transfer to my Surface via dropbox. 

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I have the Surface Pro 3, I don't use it as my main though, I got it for notetaking/studying at school, where I previously had an iPad 3 in this role.

 

How do you mean how the desktop icons do not go all the way to the edge? Looking at my Win 8.1 desktop right now, I can see that my icons are further away from the right edge than the left edge. However, it does seem that the space is noticeably bigger on my Surface. 

 

I have found that my mouse pointer disappears sometimes, but just removing my Type cover and snapping it back gets it back most of the time. Sometimes it does require a reboot. 

 

Other than that, I can't say I have run into the same issues. I definitely do not get buzzing noises from my Surface when charging, and just snapping my type cover wont cause my device to crash. (/knock on wood)

 

Imo, the #1 worst flaw of the Surface is the camera, and it sucks. A lot. Who the hell decided a fixed focus camera was a good idea? So when I need to take pics / scan documents for class I just use my phone and transfer to my Surface via dropbox. 

 

Surface pro 3 doesn't seem to have this issue as the screen size is larger.

I've tried numerous times to fix the mouse disappearing issue, I've installed old and new drivers. Sometimes even the touch cover doesn't respond haha.

The buzzing noise is rare but does happen, it's very quite and people are speculating it's a hardware issue with the 2 even though the 3 has had reports. 

Hopefully you're lucky, I don't think it's very bad but I have noticed sometimes the screen shifts colors, looks almost as if the contrast goes up then reverts to normal. The camera is like a potato located in panama. Yeah I take pictures with my phone then just email it to myself.

 

I'll see what happens when I install ubuntnu.

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Running Ubuntu on the surface right now haha, managed to get everything to work. Only issue is, Ubuntu treats touching the screen as a mouse so you can't really scroll unless you grab the scroll bar and Ubuntu is zoomed out which I cna obviously fix but yeah. Other than that this is really neato.

[GoodBytes]

I have a Surface Pro 2 and it is my daily driver. And I mean daily driver.

• Bending the touch/type cover back will randomly cause your Surface to reboot.

Not suppose to happen. There is a short that is occurring. Ensure that the contacts are clean on both side. Use rubbing alcohol. If that doesn't help, contact Microsoft for a warranty replacement of the keyboard (hopefully it is not the Surface pro 2 itself)

• Touch screen often becomes unresponsive, happens a lot when running Chrome.

Not supposed to happen. I don't use Chrome, but if I play say Civ 5, it works fine.

If it happens when you are on battery, that is the CPU that can't keep up with the processing of the touch screen and Chrome. Or if it only in Chrome that is not responsive, then the problem is Chrome. I don't use Chrome, but it EATS my Pro 2 battery life, like it did on my laptops. It is a horrible web browser. You should use something else. ANY web browser will do. For max battery life, based on reviews, IE11 is the best with considerable margins and has the best touch screen support, and high-DPI support, but it is IE11.

• Windows all together just crashes. (Even after a system restore)

I am assuming no BSOD, and just a crash. Never had it crashed. DO a system refresh (wipe everything, re-install Windows), update Windows to the max, and see if you have your crashing problem. Avoid installing programs.

• If you leave the Surface plugged in while it's fully charged in sleep-mode, you will hear a tazer-like buzzing.

Coil whine noise. Nothing you do about it. My laptop did the same the PSU and system. Even a high pitch sound if you come your head close to teh keyboard when on idle on battery. Replace your Surface Pro or change electric grid (change state/province/country) to hopefully correct the problem, but expect the problem to be something else somewhere else.

• You cannot move icon's all the way to the right even though there is room.

Windows. By design.

• The mouse randomly disappears and needs a restart to fix the issue.

You installed a program that does this. I had this problem with Mousewithout borders on random.

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I have a Surface Pro 2 and it is my daily driver. And I mean daily driver.

Not suppose to happen. There is a short that is occurring. Ensure that the contacts are clean on both side. Use rubbing alcohol. If that doesn't help, contact Microsoft for a warranty replacement of the keyboard (hopefully it is not the Surface pro 2 itself)

Not supposed to happen. I don't use Chrome, but if I play say Civ 5, it works fine.

If it happens when you are on battery, that is the CPU that can't keep up with the processing of the touch screen and Chrome. Or if it only in Chrome that is not responsive, then the problem is Chrome. I don't use Chrome, but it EATS my Pro 2 battery life, like it did on my laptops. It is a horrible web browser. You should use something else. ANY web browser will do. For max battery life, based on reviews, IE11 is the best with considerable margins and has the best touch screen support, and high-DPI support, but it is IE11.

I am assuming no BSOD, and just a crash. Never had it crashed. DO a system refresh (wipe everything, re-install Windows), update Windows to the max, and see if you have your crashing problem. Avoid installing programs.

Coil whine noise. Nothing you do about it. My laptop did the same the PSU and system. Even a high pitch sound if you come your head close to teh keyboard when on idle on battery. Replace your Surface Pro or change electric grid (change state/province/country) to hopefully correct the problem, but expect the problem to be something else somewhere else.

Windows. By design.

You installed a program that does this. I had this problem with Mousewithout borders on random.

 

Honestly I think Windows 8.1 caused almost all of those issues. Been running Ubuntu on it for an hour and nothing has happened so far.

I actually reinstalled Windows 8.1 6 times to see if it was a programs fault but the issues still persisted. If I get sick of Ubuntu I'll be reinstalling Windows 8.1 Pro N onto

the surface from the official Microsoft media creator & hopefully those issues will disappear because it's super annoying. I was thinking the touch cover was short-circuiting too but It's not doing it anymore so yeah... ???