Surface Book 2 15 inch overheating?

[TheArtiszan]

Hello all,

I just got my Surface Book 2 15 inch with i7-8650U, 16gb Ram, and 1 tb ssd. To see how things are working I tried running Cinebench and Aida64 and was shocked at how bad the thermals on this unit are. At just about 1 minute into stability tests with Aida64 FPU test only (or CPU only test), it is thermal throttling to up to 50%. Temps on the CPU are between 96C and 100C on the individual cores and on the package. It is just doing horrible and it doesn't seem like the fans spin up until it has been that way for a while and even when they are running, it is doing basically nothing to help with those temperatures.

I was wondering if anyone else got one of these and have seen the same behavior and if there is anyway to fix that or if there is just a problem with the unit that I got.

 

This is with it just running windows update and not even a benchmark at this point.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest Generallee]

I do not think you're supposed to push a Surface Book to its limit with a synthetic CPU benchmark, this is pretty much expected

 

 

[TheArtiszan]

The OG Surface Book I have does run it no problem and never gets over 77C

That is the biggest reason I am shocked.

And the temps in that image are with it not acutally running any sort of synthetic test there. That is just the computer doing Windows updates.

[Guest Generallee]

2 minutes ago, TheArtiszan said:

The OG Surface Book I have does run it no problem and never gets over 77C

That is the biggest reason I am shocked.

And the temps in that image are with it not acutally running any sort of synthetic test there. That is just the computer doing Windows updates.

If it reaches 100c while doing windows updates, id consider returning it as it is probably defective AF

[TheArtiszan]

That is pretty much my thought on it as well. Talked to 2 different Microsoft reps and they keep saying that they need to escalate to an engineer. Doesn't seem like they think the same thing. 

If this was on a system I built, I would swear up and down that either the cooler is faulty or I forgot thermal paste (that hasn't ever happened).

[TheArtiszan]

Microsoft just put up the recovery image for the 1703 version it shipped with so I am going to try downgrading to that and see what it does. If that still fails, going to compare to one at the local Best Buy on Monday and see if that does the same thing.

[Anghammarad]

Aren't there only Intel Core I 5/7 from the 7xxx series inside? Those are hotheads... But then the new 15" Flagship including the GF 1060 or 1050, not sure about the gfx right now, shouldn't go that high... if it does, then it's a design flaw... 

 

Ok ignore that, just looked over a spec sheet and they really put in a up to date intel I5/7 8xxx... those afaik aren't getting that hot as the 7xxx series... so yes I would say time for a RMA.

 

[TheArtiszan]

nah the 15 inch model is the i7-8650U

just finished the restore back down to the 1703 shipping version of windows and am still seeing the same issue ao it wasnt fault of 1709 upgrade

will need to compare to the at best buy after they set it up for display here.

[TheArtiszan]

Really think there is just something wrong with the one I got now. Even with only 50% CPU load to start Diablo 3 to character selection screen and exit it again right away, the CPU hit 100C too.

[TheArtiszan]

After speaking with Microsoft today again, they came to the same conclusion that I did. Something is causing the processor to draw too much power. They will be sending me out a new unit within the next 5 days according to their support department. Hopefully the new one will work better.

[arvinabadilla]

I have the same spec'd SB2 and I think I am overheating as well. 

 

I tried to use it for an entire work day doing photoshop sketching as well as SolidWorks CAD, and the system seemed to bog down over time.The screen felt very hot to the touch. Is is possible that the heat is affecting performance?

[NepgearGo]

You've got a quad core CPU under a fanless "cooler" that looks like this. Even with a fan it struggled to cool the original dual core Surface Book. Now that it's fanless, what do you expect?

[Christafa]

I just got the surface book 2 15” and it seems to overheat during video rendering... gets incredibly hot, and I only just got it. I may have to do the same thing.

[TheArtiszan]

The Surface Book 2 15 inch does actually have a fan based cooling solution. It is only the 13 inch SB2 that is fanless. With the OG Surface Book, I never experienced any issues with thermal throttling on that machine in anyway. The max temp that that machine ever gets is in the mid to low 70s and that is it and that is in 90F ambient temperatures.

I would suggest those that are having problems, install and run the Intel Processor Diagnostic Utility and allow it to run a test on it. My old one would actually fail in that as the cooling solution was allowing the processor to hit 100C. You can also use other tools like Aida64 to put it under synthetic load and see where the temperatures will go up to. As long as it doesn't go up about 90 or so consistently it is probably okay. These machines are definitely going to be warmer running machines when on full performance and under a load due to the limited size of the computer. But should not get to and stay consistantly at 100 like my first one was. 

[kerneldump]

On 11/17/2017 at 12:17 PM, TheArtiszan said:

Hello all,

I just got my Surface Book 2 15 inch with i7-8650U, 16gb Ram, and 1 tb ssd. To see how things are working I tried running Cinebench and Aida64 and was shocked at how bad the thermals on this unit are. At just about 1 minute into stability tests with Aida64 FPU test only (or CPU only test), it is thermal throttling to up to 50%. Temps on the CPU are between 96C and 100C on the individual cores and on the package. It is just doing horrible and it doesn't seem like the fans spin up until it has been that way for a while and even when they are running, it is doing basically nothing to help with those temperatures.

I was wondering if anyone else got one of these and have seen the same behavior and if there is anyway to fix that or if there is just a problem with the unit that I got.

 

This is with it just running windows update and not even a benchmark at this point.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Artiszan,

 

I too seem to be having the same overheating issue you described here. I originally had the first version of the surface book  and it never reached past high 70's under high load.. I am now on my second surface book 2 15 inch, the first one was maxing at 100 degrees when doing updates or simply streaming a video over the browser, and this second unit replaced by Microsoft appears to be doing the same:( I installed the Intel processor diagnostic tool and it consistently  fails with message to check thermal solution.  I  can't imagine Microsoft considers this normal operation? Was your replacement unit doing the same,  I'm curious if you are experiencing the same..

 

-Ren

[matthew0901]

I have this same issue.  Picked up a surface book 2 yesterday night, 15 inch model 512gb.  Upon first launching it I installed hwinfo as I always do on every pc I've ever owned.  While doing updates and nothing else I noticed the CPU was reaching 99c, so today I took that unit back.  The "tech" at the Microsoft store told me I must have a defective unit and exchanged it for a new one.  

 

Well I have now been home with the new one almost 1 hour, and it has the exact same problem.  This time I let the windows updates finish hoping that might solve the problem, but no.  

 

I would urge anyone who has purchased the 15 inch model to test their unit.  No, this is not a problem with a few people trying to use their machine past it's limits, even under heavy load this machine should not reach 99c, at idle it shouldn't even break 70c at best.

 

Just for giggles hoping I would burn it down since I am now angry that I have to drive back to the store to return this unit, I tried running prime95 to see what would happen.  Of course as expected all 4 cores sat at 99c and were randomly shutting down.  Oddly I didn't get a blue screen of death though.

 

I should also note that I tried running the unigine benchmark superposition.  This seemed to run fine (average of 40fps on 1080p high preset, which is about average for a 1060).  The cpu was reporting it was running extremely high as I thought it would (99c), but the gpu was normal (normal as in, it reached about 80c peak, which is kind of high, but for such a slim laptop I would say normal).  In comparison it scored the same as my alienware 13 with a 1060 gtx, although that machine the 1060 only reached 71c.

 

I'll be taking this unit back in the morning, and while I would like to exchange it because I want to love this thing, I'll be opening the box at the store to test the new unit (#3 for me) to see if it has the same problem. I am suspecting it will.

 

Again to anyone with the surface book 15 inch model, please test your system, and don't settle for anyone telling you "this is a thin and light device, don't expect it to run super cool" or some BS like that, anything over 90c is not normal, even if you set the power mode to maximum performance.

[mario64]

Just like to add that I have now gone through two SB 2 15” units and both overheat. Even with a 100 millivolt underclock I’m seeing upper 90s. As much as I would love to keep it I will be returning it. That can’t possibly be good long term especially given that the CPU sits right next to the screen and battery

[NepgearGo]

On 1/25/2018 at 1:47 PM, mario64 said:

Just like to add that I have now gone through two SB 2 15” units and both overheat. Even with a 100 millivolt underclock I’m seeing upper 90s. As much as I would love to keep it I will be returning it. That can’t possibly be good long term especially given that the CPU sits right next to the screen and battery

If you look at the Surface Book's cooler design you will know why. It's essentially a piece of copper covering the CPU, and a heat pipe. My original Surface Book which has a fan in addition to the plate runs up to 100 degrees with enough Chrome tabs opened (around 10). The Surface Book 2 kept the copper plate design but had the fan removed. As much as I like the Surface series I will never buy the Surface Books again until they work out a new and better cooler design.