Recently I upgraded my Surface Pro 3 to Windows 10 Build 10159. With Windows 8.1 Update 1 (which is default installed) the device was making a lot of noise when plugged in. Also with multiple programs open (most of time Internet Explorer and/or Adobe Reader) it was making a lot of noise too. After many firmware updates the issues was still not gone. In March this year, I wrote the following about this behavior:
As mentioned in the links below, this is being caused by the Windows Installer Module and the Windows Installer Module Worker, which start in the background at random times and cause the CPU to work at higher speeds. This causes the heat and the fans to kick into overdrive. When stopping these processes in Task Manager, my Surface is as quiet as on battery in seconds! Hope that this issue is fixed when moving to Windows 10 in a few months. Otherwise a hardware replacement may be needed to resolve this.
Last week I updated my device to Windows 10 Build 10159. After the update the issue is gone indeed. Even during a stress test (screenshot) at almost 100% CPU the fan makes less noise than before. Happy that this issue seems to be gone now! :-)
Downside is, Out of sleep (when in sleep mode, it will wake up. for it seems because of the keyboard?) is back again. This issue was solved on Windows 8.1 after installing a system firmware update.
Sometimes
my device will go out-of-sleep, which is annoying because all open
programs will be gone afterwards. Strange thing that no hibernation is
used for this? For it seems the device stays on, till battery power is
reached a critical state. After that the device turns down. Lucky me
this happens around rarely and not always.
Furthermore I really like Windows 10, and hope to implement it many times this year already! Windows 10 (a.k.a. Windows as a service) is the new generation of Windows. No specials (issues or other things) to mention on Surface Pro 3.
Update 7-7: Still during installing updates (Windows 10 Build 10159 to 10162) my device makes a lot of noise. Next device will be a fanless one :-)
More information about the fan blowing:
Fix found for Microsoft's Surface 3 overheating issues
Excessively loud fan, constant overheating during idle and light tasks
Tools To Simulate CPU / Memory / Disk Load (for testing purpose)
More blogposts on this topic:
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 first experience
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 second experience
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 experience after 5 months
Since November last year I'm using a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 as primary device for my daily work. I wrote multiple blogposts about my experience in November and December. For over 5 months I'm very happy with my choice, never had a doubt I made the wrong choice here. But still there are some minors left. Let's have a look at my experience so far. Pro's and Con's are taken from my post before.
Pro's (changes in bold)
-Fast (with i7 CPU, i5 performance don't know)
-Quiet (on battery always, on power not all the time)
-Battery (approx. 8/9 hours with Office and Internet open)
-12" display (sharp, resolution, pen support)
-Pen (great in presentations)
-Weight (1,1 kg with keyboard)
-New generation device, high wow factor!
-Windows 10 upgrade coming (waiting for RTM to upgrade)
-Kickstand (can be placed in all positions)
-It's both a notebook and tablet
Con's (changes in blue)
-Fan blowing (on power only, not all the time)
As mentioned in the links below, this is being caused by the Windows Installer Module and the Windows Installer Module Worker, which start in the background at random times and cause the CPU to work at higher speeds. This causes the heat and the fans to kick into overdrive. When stopping these processes in Task Manager, my Surface is as quiet as on battery in seconds! Hope that this issue is fixed when moving to Windows 10 in a few months. Otherwise a hardware replacement may be needed to resolve this.
-Out of sleep (when in sleep mode, it will wake up. for it seems because of the keyboard?)
Sometimes my device will go out-of-sleep, which is annoying because all open programs will be gone afterwards. Strange thing that no hibernation is used for this? For it seems the device stays on, till battery power is reached a critical state. After that the device turns down. Lucky me this happens around rarely and not always. Hope this issue is fixed also when moving to Windows 10.
-One USB port only (far too little to connect multiple devices!)
Last week I ordered a Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse Surface Edition, because of this. The mouse works really fine, and benefit of it is a free USB port which I have now. Again no doubt I made the wrong choice here, and it looks great next to my Surface!
-Keyboard function keys (sometimes Fn is needed, sometimes not, which is confusing)
Well, you will get used to it ;)
-There is no insert key on the keyboard (mentioned by @scambler)
Didn't miss it myself actually. What I am missing on modern devices is the lack of pause key, which is really handy during PXE boot. Just have a look HERE for a workaround on the insert key.
More information about the fan blowing:
Fix found for Microsoft's Surface 3 overheating issues
Excessively loud fan, constant overheating during idle and light tasks
Tools To Simulate CPU / Memory / Disk Load (for testing purpose)
More blogposts on this topic:
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 first experience
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 second experience
One month ago my new work device was delivered, a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. I decided to order one because of great look & feel, very good feedback (reviews) and Windows 10 in pipeline. A blogpost about my first experience can be found HERE. Let's have a look at my second experience, after using it for over one month now. Most of my experiences are positive, but some negative ones also!
Still very happy with my device, it's fast, quiet, and have a good battery. It's both a notebook and tablet. Let's have a look!
Pro's
-Fast (with i7 CPU, i5 performance don't know)
-Quiet (on battery always, on power not all the time)
-Battery (approx. 6/7 hours with Office and Internet open)
-12" display (sharp, resolution, pen support)
-Pen (great in presentations)
-Weight (1,1 kg with keyboard)
-New generation device, high wow factor!
-Windows 10 upgrade coming (free?)
-Kickstand (can be placed in all positions)
-It's both a notebook and tablet
Con's
-Fan blowing (on power only, not all the time)
-Out of sleep (when in sleep mode, it will wake up. for it seems because of the keyboard?)
-One USB port only (far too little to connect multiple devices!)
-Keyboard function keys (sometimes Fn is needed, sometimes not, which is confusing)
That's it for now. As you can see more pro's than con's are mentioned, so my total experience with the device is still very good. Hope that Microsoft can fix fan blowing with a future system firmware. Then it will be even better. Microsoft did a great job here!
Last week my new work device was delivered, a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. I decided to order one because of great look & feel, very good feedback (reviews) and Windows 10 in pipeline. In the past I did have a Surface (1) RT, but that was not actually what I wanted. This device however is a real notebook killer, no need to have a notebook next to this one. Great to experience the whole Windows look & feel, with touchscreen and pen functionality. With Windows 10 in pipeline this will become even better! Really happy with my choice here ;)
Because Surface Pro 3 is delivered with Windows 8.1 Pro, and Enterprise is needed for Direct Access functionality, I upgraded my device. Just start an inplace upgrade, so no need to format or remove anything. After the upgrade type in the new Windows Enterprise key and you're done! Just leave the recovery partition inplace, so when there's something wrong you can start a rollback. I did that once, so just leave it when needed sometime. After the upgrade however I did not see Windows 8.1 Update 1 features setup. This will be done at a later moment, when more software updates are installed.
When the power button on the start menu is needed, use registry instead. For it seems the power button is not displayed always, given the fact the operating system can be used in desktop or tablet mode. Just start registry editor and browse to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > ImmersiveShell". Expand the tree and create a new key called "Launcher". Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value here called "Launcher_ShowPowerButtonOnStartScreen". Give it a value of "1" to activate it and start the device again. Now it will be visible at once.
Nice thing that I worked whole day with type cover and pen. No mouse? Actually I didn't miss it today. With the pen you can do all daily operations also, without the need for a mouse. Curious if I switch back to a mouse or using the pen instead. Time will tell ;)
Can't wait for Windows 10 to complete my Surface experience! Expect more to come in a few weeks, when I did more on my device!
-My personal experience with Windows 10 Technical Preview
-Windows 10 Technical Preview updated with 7,000 changes and fixes
When the pen isn't working right (open OneNote with a single click and Screen Capture with a double click) check these guides too:
-Quick Things to Try If Your Surface Pro 3 Pen Doesn’t Work
-Deploying Surface Pro 3 Pen and OneNote Tips
-Troubleshoot Surface Pen
Today I wanted to revert my Surface RT from Windows 8.1 Preview to Windows 8.0 again. Lucky me I created a Recovery Drive before, so no worry about that. How to create a Recovery Drive is described here: Guide to create a USB Recovery Drive for Windows RT. This time I mention the steps to revert it back again.
You have the choice to Refresh or Reset your Surface. When Refresh your PC you don't lose any files. When Reset your PC all of your files are removed. Tost be careful!
Important warnings: Things you need to know before resetting Surface. After a reset, Surface returns to its factory settings.
-All your personal files, settings, and apps will be gone. You’ll have to set up Surface as if it were brand new.
-Windows and the apps that came with Surface will be reinstalled as part of the reset process, but you will have to reinstall Windows Store and desktop apps that did not come pre-installed on Surface.
Reset Surface from a USB recovery drive
- Open the Settings charm, tap or click Power, and then tap or click Shut down. (Or, tap or click the Power icon in the lower-right corner of the sign-in screen.)
- Attach the USB recovery drive to Surface.
- Hold the volume-down (-) rocker.
- Press and release the power button.
- When the Surface logo appears, release the volume rocker.
- Choose your language options.
- Choose your keyboard layout.
- From the BitLocker screen, tap or click Skip This Drive.
- Tap or click Troubleshoot.
- Tap or click Reset your PC.
- Tap or click Next.
- Tap or click Windows RT 8.1 as the operating system currently on your Surface to be reset.
- Tap or click No, keep the existing partitions.
- Tap or click Just remove my files.
- When Surface displays All ready to go, tap or click Reset.
Surface will reset back to factory settings.
Everything went fine in my situation. As long you have a Recovery Drive, you can revert to default in just a few minutes. Just great!
As mentioned in my blogpost before, Windows 8.1 Preview is available for download. I choosed to upgrade my Surface RT already, because You'll be able to upgrade to the final edition of Windows RT 8.1 when it becomes available. If you're currently using Windows RT, you won't be able to uninstall Windows RT 8.1 Preview. Just enjoy the new Windows 8.1 experience!
I prefer to create a USB Recovery Drive first. This is very handy when your Windows RT device will not boot properly. It can be used to recover back or repair your Surface RT.
Let's get update my Surface RT. First you need to install a Windows Update which will - after reboot - make the necessary connection to MS Store. After selecting "Download" the update process is starting.
Just wait till the update process is finished. There will be a few necessary restarts during the update process. In my situation it all went fine. After a few hours (didn't watch at time) it was finished.
Just great to have Windows 8.1 Preview ready on my Surface RT now! What I didn't expected is a 3GB more free space available then before (from 12GB to 15GB free space). How's that possible?
First experience seems very good to me!
Update 16-7-2013: If Windows 8 users decide to simply wait until the final version of Windows 8.1 is released, and bypass installing the preview build, the good news is that they won't have to reinstall their apps. Some more good news: Windows 8.1 is expected to use less hard drive space compared to Windows 8, thanks to Microsoft making the move to remove older and temporary files, along with improving NTFS compression. Source: Neowin.net
When I'm talking about Windows 8 at customers they say, first wait for Service Pack 1. For Windows 7 it's the same. After installing Service Pack 1, there are still more then 100 critical and security updates needed. There is no Service Pack 2 yet, so no way to create an easy up-to-date OS image. The reason for this is Microsoft doesn't want to release Service Packs anymore, but they need to. Windows 7 SP2 and Windows 8 SP1 should come in late 2013 or early 2014. Till then monthly updates will be released as usual.
Microsoft is busy writing a big update for Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox 360 called Windows 8.1 also known as "Blue". Windows Server 2012 will have it's own R2 update also. In late June the release will be showed on the Microsoft Build Developer conference. The final 8.1 update is planned for October this year. This update brings more integration between Windows devices and a better SkyDrive experience. Also the Start button will be back, and it's possible to start to desktop again after boot.
Because of bad sells, Windows 8 needs a big update. For myself I'm happy to own an Xbox 360, Surface and Windows Phone 8 already. That way I can experience "Blue" on all devices when it's released later this year. Let's hope Windows 8.1 will be great!
This week there's a lot of information about Microsoft Surface and Windows RT. But what's Surface and Windows RT actually?
Microsoft Surface
Microsoft Surface is an upcoming series of tablets designed and marketed by Microsoft itself. Microsoft Surface will be available in two versions, Surface and Surface Pro. The Surface model will run Windows RT and use an ARM CPU. The Surface Pro model will run the Windows 8 Pro and use an Intel CPU. More details in the comparison.
Windows RT
Windows RT will be a version of Windows 8 for ARM devices such as tablets. The RT acronym does not officially stand for anything, much like NT or XP in past Windows branding. It will officially only run software available through the Windows Store or included in Windows RT. Among the applications included with Windows RT will be Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote 2013 RT.
Windows 8 Pro succeeds Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate and is targeted towards enthusiasts and business users; it includes all the features of Windows 8 and many more.
Microsoft has officially confirmed that it will release its upcoming Surface tablet to coincide with Windows 8 US availability on October 26th. It starts at $499 for the 32GB version, but will not come with the touch-cover. Those who want one, would need to pay $100 more. The 64GB version will cost $699 (with touch-cover included). The touch-cover comes in 5 colors: blue, white, black, pink and red.
I'm very excited about the upcoming Microsoft Surface and Windows Phone 8 releases. Hope you like it also! More information about Surface can be found HERE.
