Linus please cover 7/8th gen intel SoC devices

[markuess]

I had 3 of these "smoking" within the first 3 weeks I had them. I'm talking about full-SoC Windows devices with soldered RAM, eMMC or NVMe, Ultrabooks / Tablets / Convertibles / 2-1 or however they call it.

 

1.) was a cheap one, don't remember the brand, from Amazon. The device, although new, arrived in a non-working condition and was sent back immediately. It was a 13" Ultrabook with an 7th gen m-whatever, 4GB of RAM and eMMC storage.

 

2.) I thought I should invest a bit more and bought the Acer Switch 3 Tablet, again a full-retar.. erm sorry SoC device with Apollo Lake N4200, pressure sensitive pen (had to purchase separately), 64GB eMMC, 4GB RAM, total cost ~500 USD. The device worked fine at first, I was pleased with the nice screen, the ability to paint on it, and that it was fan-less. That was until it started blue-screening, saying "SDBUS_INTERNAL_ERROR" more and more often until the third week I had it. Windows reinstall fixed nothing. Sent back to Amazon. Had to keep the accesoires.

 

(And also I had started to upgrade my Wifi to 5Ghz / Gigabit routers and a new NAS to compensate for the lack of storage)

 

3.) I thought, well maybe the last one still was cheap. So I paid about 8 times as much as I originally intended and bought an 8th-gen i7 intel tablet with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, planing to keep the device for at least 5-10 years, maybe have the battery replaced at some point. The device smoked after a week.

 

I'm not aware that I did anything to make the devices break, didn't even bring them outside, didn't play Crysis, mostly Office and Web, didn't drop them.

 

Right now I'm pretty pissed. It's a lot of trouble going through sourcing the right device, ordering, installing, customer support, returning, feeling stupid, over and over again. These things seem to be as fragile as my love for Luke (no, just kidding, I will always love Luke).

 

Linus kinda covered this (for about 5 seconds) with the recent Razor Blade update, check the table at the beginning. So what is going on? I cannot find reliable stats on the internet. There's one generic Reuters article about Microsoft Surface more likely to break than other brands laptops. I really hope LMM would dig into Intel-SoC devices and see how likely they are to break. You got any numbers or specific device recommendations?

 

I'm probably spoiled, building my own PCs for almost 20 years, when a piece breaks, I replace that piece.

 

[GirlFromYonder]

No you arnt spoiled. This should not be happening. Maybe it was constant bad luck but fucking hell.....I dont know.....

[v0id]

36 minutes ago, markuess said:

I had 3 of these "smoking" within the first 3 weeks I had them. I'm talking about full-SoC Windows devices with soldered RAM, eMMC or NVMe, Ultrabooks / Tablets / Convertibles / 2-1 or however they call it.

 

1.) was a cheap one, don't remember the brand, from Amazon. The device, although new, arrived in a non-working condition and was sent back immediately. It was a 13" Ultrabook with an 7th gen m-whatever, 4GB of RAM and eMMC storage.

 

2.) I thought I should invest a bit more and bought the Acer Switch 3 Tablet, again a full-retar.. erm sorry SoC device with Apollo Lake N4200, pressure sensitive pen (had to purchase separately), 64GB eMMC, 4GB RAM, total cost ~500 USD. The device worked fine at first, I was pleased with the nice screen, the ability to paint on it, and that it was fan-less. That was until it started blue-screening, saying "SDBUS_INTERNAL_ERROR" more and more often until the third week I had it. Windows reinstall fixed nothing. Sent back to Amazon. Had to keep the accesoires.

 

(And also I had started to upgrade my Wifi to 5Ghz / Gigabit routers and a new NAS to compensate for the lack of storage)

 

3.) I thought, well maybe the last one still was cheap. So I paid about 8 times as much as I originally intended and bought an 8th-gen i7 intel tablet with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, planing to keep the device for at least 5-10 years, maybe have the battery replaced at some point. The device smoked after a week.

 

I'm not aware that I did anything to make the devices break, didn't even bring them outside, didn't play Crysis, mostly Office and Web, didn't drop them.

 

Right now I'm pretty pissed. It's a lot of trouble going through sourcing the right device, ordering, installing, customer support, returning, feeling stupid, over and over again. These things seem to be as fragile as my love for Luke (no, just kidding, I will always love Luke).

 

Linus kinda covered this (for about 5 seconds) with the recent Razor Blade update, check the table at the beginning. So what is going on? I cannot find reliable stats on the internet. There's one generic Reuters article about Microsoft Surface more likely to break than other brands laptops. I really hope LMM would dig into Intel-SoC devices and see how likely they are to break. You got any numbers or specific device recommendations?

 

I'm probably spoiled, building my own PCs for almost 20 years, when a piece breaks, I replace that piece.

 

Could be just a string of bad devices; I've owned several without a single issue in terms of heat management. I know you've been building for twenty years so forgive the obvious dumb and stupid questions, but you are buying from trusted retailers right? You mentioned Amazon as the first one but what about the others? And they are new and non-refurbished? I'm sure you have but just to verify for shits and giggles, I'd like to know  

[markuess]

8 hours ago, v0id said:

Could be just a string of bad devices; I've owned several without a single issue in terms of heat management. I know you've been building for twenty years so forgive the obvious dumb and stupid questions, but you are buying from trusted retailers right? You mentioned Amazon as the first one but what about the others? And they are new and non-refurbished? I'm sure you have but just to verify for shits and giggles, I'd like to know  

Sure mate, of course I don't mind you asking. Yes, only Amazon, only new, not warehouse deals, and all devices where new, didn't show signs of usage, and came in their manufacturers box. Also it was from Amazon directly, not 3rd Party vendors selling on Amazon. When buying that kind of stuff >500 USD, I'm not messing around. It's a lot of money for me.

 

I've been wondering myself if this was just accidental or more than a coincidence. For example, my trusted Nvidia Shield tablet holds on by my side for over 4 years now, not showing any sign of issue - none of my Androids do.

 

But reviews on Amazon of Windows Devices talk another language: Cases like mine seem to be common, especially on those full-SoC devices. Often reviewers speak of a "series", they get 4 devices in a row, 2 had the same issue with speakers, 2 the same issue with a touch pad falling apart. I just wondered if all these Intel SoCs for different brands and models maybe come the same factory (sure, the talked about touch pad isn't part of an SoC).

 

I'm seriously confused and don't know what to try next. I'm generally looking for a real touch screen with pressure sensitive pen for digital painting, a i5-i7 quadcore and a small form factor. Oh and no more eMMC please. That's pretty much all my desires. That and the device not breaking after 5min of looking at it.

 

Here's LMGs experience with the Razor blade, check the table at the beginning closely - it's like 80% of their devices fail on some part:

 

[v0id]

On 2/23/2018 at 1:40 AM, markuess said:

Sure mate, of course I don't mind you asking. Yes, only Amazon, only new, not warehouse deals, and all devices where new, didn't show signs of usage, and came in their manufacturers box. Also it was from Amazon directly, not 3rd Party vendors selling on Amazon. When buying that kind of stuff >500 USD, I'm not messing around. It's a lot of money for me.

 

I've been wondering myself if this was just accidental or more than a coincidence. For example, my trusted Nvidia Shield tablet holds on by my side for over 4 years now, not showing any sign of issue - none of my Androids do.

 

But reviews on Amazon of Windows Devices talk another language: Cases like mine seem to be common, especially on those full-SoC devices. Often reviewers speak of a "series", they get 4 devices in a row, 2 had the same issue with speakers, 2 the same issue with a touch pad falling apart. I just wondered if all these Intel SoCs for different brands and models maybe come the same factory (sure, the talked about touch pad isn't part of an SoC).

 

I'm seriously confused and don't know what to try next. I'm generally looking for a real touch screen with pressure sensitive pen for digital painting, a i5-i7 quadcore and a small form factor. Oh and no more eMMC please. That's pretty much all my desires. That and the device not breaking after 5min of looking at it.

 

Here's LMGs experience with the Razor blade, check the table at the beginning closely - it's like 80% of their devices fail on some part:

 

Then ya got me man, I don't got a clue. Best of luck.