Win 10 on Surface 3, will it ever be good?

[michail71]

I'm starting to think MS doesn't care about Windows 10 on the Surface.

• Bad WiFi performance
• WiFi connectivity issues when turned off in sleep mode
• Absolutely massive power drains with WiFi on in sleep mode.
• Surface pen does not work with Surface app (even after a big update)

Although I think the stuck right click touch may have been fixed.

 

[JamesDax]

Yes.

 

[michail71]

Just getting impatient

Couldn't get my wifi working this morning, lost 70% battery in sleep mode before a meeting today and then the touch screen became unresponsive in the meeting.

I love win 10 on my desktop but the Surface 3 keeps failing me as a productivity tool with it running 10.

 

[rider2040]

Just getting impatient

Couldn't get my wifi working this morning, lost 70% battery in sleep mode before a meeting today and then the touch screen became unresponsive in the meeting.

I love win 10 on my desktop but the Surface 3 keeps failing me as a productivity tool with it running 10.

I had many of the same issues and frustrations - walking into a client meeting and finding that my battery had died within 4 hours in sleep mode. I spent a bunch of time in chat with Surface customer service and they eventually sent me to my local Microsoft Store where I was given a brand new Surface 3. The new machine came with windows 8.1 installed, but it prompted me to upgrade to windows 10. The whole process took several hours because it had to first download over 100 8.1 updates before performing the upgrade.

My new Surface 3 is now running great on 10 (even the pen is recognized in the Surface app) and I'm not having any of those issues around sleep and resume.

I had done a clean install of windows 10 on my original Surface 3 and I thought that I had correctly identified and installed all of the drivers, but my experience with doing the upgrade from a clean 8.1 to 10 indicated that I may have missed something on the clean install. I hope they release a recovery image of 10 for the Surface 3 sometime soon, because I would still like to do a clean install, but I would need to be sure that I would have all necessary drivers and settings first.

 

[cygnus11]

My WiFi on my Surface 3 has been super stable since I configured the network adapter to limit it to a single band. I set it to only use the 5 GHz band. Since I did that, it no longer drops connection and it connects very quickly upon startup or waking from hibernation.

 

[Brian282]

my surface came preinstalled with 10 and for the most part its been stable. The pen is amazing. When you hover over a text box the dot switches to a text input. Tap the text box and instantly you switch over to the writing keyboard. This part I love. I don't have a keyboard yet....

I hate the loss of charms and swipe from right to left for accessing in app options. My favorite apps are handling the option change horribly.

I dot mind how they are handling the multitasking swipe from left to right. They just need to allow you to select a window and it either allow me to snap it or drag it down to delete it. It would save tablet time.

I plan on taking my surface in my nearest window store and have them image 8.1 back onto my emc

 

[oditius]

Mine came with 10 installed, and no problems so far. That is after it was replaced because factory reset bricked it. But MS came through and replaced it the same day. No problems with WiFi that I noticed, but I am still new to it. I have the keyboard, and just ordered the pen. But since it is replacing my other tab, because it crashed and got old. LoL I consider them "Vacation Tabs" because no way will I trade my 17" powerhouse of an HP for a 11" slower tab. But don't want to carry it away from home, so I use the tab. Nice and light, a lot lighter than the Dell Venue I had. Easy to carry and big enough to see on the go.

 

[Stiv X]

I upgraded to W10 and it works great for me. Sorry your having issues. I am loving W10, though I don't care too much for tablet mode. I like to keep it in desktop mode even if I don't use keyboard.

 

[rider2040]

I like to keep it in desktop mode even if I don't use keyboard.

I'm just the opposite! I keep it in tablet mode all the time, even when I am using the keyboard. The only thing that makes this less than perfect is that Win + > does not snap windows when in tablet mode. If they fix this (and I believe they will) then tablet mode will be ideal for this screen size even when used with the keyboard.

 

[michail71]

I upgraded to W10 and it works great for me. Sorry your having issues. I am loving W10, though I don't care too much for tablet mode. I like to keep it in desktop mode even if I don't use keyboard.

It just about always works great for me too. That is until I need it to come through at a critical moment, lol. That's when I find the battery has almost died, the WiFi wants to get fussy or the touch screen acts up.

This morning I woke up and my Surface 3's battery was dead but it was on the charger. The light was even on. Somehow I got it to start charging. I'm about to look at the sleep report to see what happened.

 

[michail71]

Just checked the sleep logs. It looked like the WiFi fully drained the battery in a little over 6 hours. My power options are set to keep wifi on when plugged in and off when not plugged it. Since it was plugged in the WiFi stayed on. However, I'm not sure why it didn't take charge. That's kind of weird. Either that or WiFi outpaced the charge rate?

 

[michail71]

My WiFi on my Surface 3 has been super stable since I configured the network adapter to limit it to a single band. I set it to only use the 5 GHz band. Since I did that, it no longer drops connection and it connects very quickly upon startup or waking from hibernation.

I just set that. Hopefully it helps. I've got massive crowding at home on 2.4. What are your WiFi power settings?

 

[cygnus11]

I just set that. Hopefully it helps. I've got massive crowding at home on 2.4. What are your WiFi power settings?

I have my WiFi set to stay connected while asleep when on battery and when plugged in.

 

[michail71]

I have my WiFi set to stay connected while asleep when on battery and when plugged in.

Do you ever use sleep while not on AC? I'll get over 10% power drain per hour with always connected WiFi.

 

[michail71]

I had many of the same issues and frustrations - walking into a client meeting and finding that my battery had died within 4 hours in sleep mode. I spent a bunch of time in chat with Surface customer service and they eventually sent me to my local Microsoft Store where I was given a brand new Surface 3. The new machine came with windows 8.1 installed, but it prompted me to upgrade to windows 10. The whole process took several hours because it had to first download over 100 8.1 updates before performing the upgrade.

My new Surface 3 is now running great on 10 (even the pen is recognized in the Surface app) and I'm not having any of those issues around sleep and resume.

I had done a clean install of windows 10 on my original Surface 3 and I thought that I had correctly identified and installed all of the drivers, but my experience with doing the upgrade from a clean 8.1 to 10 indicated that I may have missed something on the clean install. I hope they release a recovery image of 10 for the Surface 3 sometime soon, because I would still like to do a clean install, but I would need to be sure that I would have all necessary drivers and settings first.

You're pen gets recognized by the Surface app? I've done 3 Surface 3 setups and never saw the pen working with the app. The old app would work with pressure sensitivity but the new one won't even do that. I've deleted and paired the pen even. The click feature opens OneNote but not the desktop version.

 

[cygnus11]

Do you ever use sleep while not on AC? I'll get over 10% power drain per hour with always connected WiFi.

My Surface 3 sits by my bed off the charger every night while I sleep. I usually close the keyboard at around 55 - 65% battery. When I wake up, I open it up and it comes out of hibernation. It is set to hibernate after 4 hours in sleep off battery. The battery is usually about 5 - 10% lower than it was when I closed the lid the night before.

This is very consistent. I have been seeing this every night for the past 2 weeks at least.

 

[michail71]

Wow, that's amazing. I only see that with WiFi turned off in sleep.

Closing the keyboard puts it to sleep so the 4 hour hibernation shouldn't matter. The only differences I have are the LTE model and I still have 2.4 Ghz enabled. I have one AP I use that only has a 2.4. I'll try hibernating tonight with 2.4 off.

Mine came with 8.1. I used the online Windows 10 upgrade using a delete all option and am on 10525.

 

[cygnus11]

My understanding is that closing the keyboard puts the Surface 3 into sleep mode, which is different than hibernation. After the surface is in sleep mode for 4 hours, it then enters hibernation. That is how mine is configured. Hibernation basically turns the surface power off and stores the state to the drive.

In theory, the battery should not drain at all in hibernation, right? So basically, I see about a 5 - 10% drain in battery after 4 hours of sleep. That seems reasonable to me.

I wonder if the LTE model just still has some bugs related to WiFi.

 

[michail71]

Yes, sleep mode is like locking the phone. It will sound notifications when in sleep.

I keep LTE disconnected unless I intend to use it. If I turn LTE on the WiFi power settings get ignored and are always on. Confirmed this through "powercfg sleepstudy" logs. The LTE Modem and WiFi adapter always show identical usage.

Power drain of having LTE on is rather minimal from what I have seen (0.5% to 0.7% per hour). Without being in sleep mode WiFi will use about 1.0 to 1.2% battery per hour. It jumps over 10% per hour as soon as sleep kicks in.

Even still, if I were in sleep mode for for 4 hours I would drop around 42-45% of my battery.

 

[rider2040]

You're pen gets recognized by the Surface app? I've done 3 Surface 3 setups and never saw the pen working with the app. The old app would work with pressure sensitivity but the new one won't even do that. I've deleted and paired the pen even. The click feature opens OneNote but not the desktop version.

Yep. The pen is now working with the new app (the update that was pushed out this week). This updated app does not have an option to change the default for the button, so it will only open the Universal version of OneNote. But, it is showing as paired and I can adjust the sensitivity.

I had the same issue as you until I got this new Surface and upgraded it. I'm not sure what fixed it - the fact that it was an upgrade to 10 or if it is simply the updated app happened to come out right after I did the upgrade.