Using a touchscreen that's 30-70 degrees (heat issues)

[Berryal202869]

Before I start, this is not a "My surface pro gets hot when doing such and such...", the Surface Pros will get hot doing damn near to anything more than displaying the desktop, this is more of a "what issues it causes me when it's hot" thread.

Well, this is actually a 'problem' i have with my Surface Pro 2, though im sure it is universal among all surface pro and RT devices also. It's a simple complaint, caused by the fact that the whole computer is crammed into one part, located right behind the screen (basically the fundamental principle of a tablet, yeah) but usually tablets dont get particularity hot, don't require a fan, etc.

But when the surface pros get hot, it can be very irritating as the heat sinks straight through to the screen. Now, having a hot computer is one thing, but using a hot touchscreen is a whole other issue. It's just plain uncomfortable. Something I'm sure is near enough impossible to prevent, but it still does ruin my experience with the touchscreen (and mainly the pen) as when taking notes i obviously have to rest my palm on the screen. But resting my palm on a hot surface is going to be uncomfortable, especially over long periods of time, causing my hands to sweat, which is also irritating considering its a screen which is affected by moisture oppose to paper where it is less so an issue.

Anyway, anyone find this also an irritating thing? The heat of the surface pro 2 is actually my biggest gripe with it... it just makes it uncomfortable to use, mainly as a tablet anyway. I've heard the Surface Pro 3 has heat issues as well, I can't imagine how using the touchscreen with an i7 surface pro 3 with heat issues would be.....

 

[photobriangray]

Damn near anything? Not the case in my experience. I have only noticed the fan kicking on when I batch processed photos and installed Office. There was one instance of a background process related to my NAS that was causing a constant 30% utilization that pushed heat levels well past acceptable levels. Perhaps you have such a process causing heat to build up...

Normal web-browsing and email tasks, my previous Surface 2 and current Pro 3 stay very cool.

 

[LazyEvul]

I've never had the heat come through to the touchscreen in any noticeable capacity, only the back has ever gotten warm (but never so warm that I can't hold my hand there). That might be partly because the Pro 3 throttles the CPU at lower temperatures than the Pro 2 did, but I never owned a Pro 2 so I can't draw any real-world comparisons.

I have, however, had the fan kick in at very strange times - came on during a voice-only Skype call once, with nothing else running in the background. But even then, any heat produced didn't do any harm to my experience using the device.

 

[opportunistic]

I find this very irritating and I"m having smiilar problems with it heating up when doing nothing too intensive. Today I was taking a lot of notes using the pen and I could definitely feel the heat through the screen.

 

[tweedie]

Is it possible that you might have got some app (anti virus, bitcoining, malware, etc) running in the background consuming the processor without you knowing and thus generate too much heat?

 

[mozman68]

Is it possible that you might have got some app (anti virus, bitcoining, malware, etc) running in the background consuming the processor without you knowing and thus generate too much heat?

Windows actually brought up a screen for me as part of the typical "message" in the task bar about stuff running at start up and/or in the background.

Turns out my Epson wireless printer added a bunch of crap that I do not need running or checking constantly (like FAX operations). Disabled 5 "features" from the start-up/background. Not sure what effect it will have on runtime. Haven't had any weird heat issues since I installed all of the updates.