I HATE my Surface 3

[michail71]

Ok, I think I'm officially going to hate my Surface 3 now. I've spent more time trying to make this damn thing work than I've gotten any use out of. It's been worked on at the store for hours upon hours by multiple people, exchanged several times, etc.

For the past couple weeks downloads have been stalled and wouldn't go. So I cleared all the cache, ran the PowerShell scripts, etc. Not the store disappears when I click on the live tile. I'm going through probably the 10th reset now in hopes it will clear up the problems.

On top of that, poor battery life, bad AC WiFi performance, constant problems with the LTE connection, touch screen getting flaky or failing to respond, pen problems, etc. etc.

This has honestly been the worst consumer electronics experience I've had.

It's making me rethink the corporate pre-order I have for the Surface Pro 4.

 

[Indistinguishable]

Sounds like a bad apple. Any chance you could return it for a new one?

 

[michail71]

It's my 4th Surface 3. Sometimes at the stores they give up and just give me a new one.

My problems are probably that I load Windows 10 and it's the LTE version.

It's not like I even get to use it. I'm always trying to get it to work, lol. Nothing installed outside of the store even. Otherwise, I wish I knew what I was doing wrong to be messing them up other than turning them on.

I feel better after my vent anyway. Just finished a clean restore and am about to see how it went.

 

[michail71]

After the reset it appears updates and the store are working as well as LTE is functioning. But resetting doesn't seem like an acceptable option every time things go bad.

 

[cygnus11]

So, your Surface 3's have all come with 8.1 installed and you are upgrading to Windows 10? If that is the case, maybe you should consider just sticking with 8.1 for about 6 months or so until all the kinks are worked out with the Windows 10 drivers for the Surface 3 LTE version.

I definitely don't agree that you should have to hold back the upgrade considering that MS is pushing the upgrade to your device. But if you do like the hardware of the Surface, it may be best to just save your sanity and stick with 8.1 for a bit longer. I know that if I was having that much trouble, I would definitely just roll back to 8.1 and be done with it for now.

The reality is that most new devices and new OS versions tend to have a fair number of issues that just take time to fix. It was definitely true with my Surface 2. And it was absolutely true with my various Android devices when lollipop was released.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[michail71]

Thanks, I admit I need to be on the bleeding edge. But I have to wonder since MS is shipping these devices with 10 on them. This load of Windows 10 was done by the a Microsoft Store.

What had me upset was it was working flawlessly for a week or so. Then through no obvious actions of mine things started failing.

 

[michail71]

After getting everything setup and working again I started using my Surface 3.

I noticed my LTE data usage was high. Upon investigating it turns out my wifi adapter had shutdown. I needed to go in and reinstall the drivers for it. It had been working an hour prior. So I have no idea why the drivers just went bad.

Then after getting that fixed the digitizer suddenly stopped working and I had to reboot. I've experienced the digitizer stopping on multiple devices.

For the brief moments the Surface works it's a great device.

I'm wondering how a normal, non tech person could deal with so many of these issues?

 

[lordcpaq]

I really suggest you try rolling back to 8.1 on the lte model you will be less frustrated. It seams that windows 10 is not Reddy for prime time on surface 3.

 

[TechFreak1]

First of all it looks like the drivers maybe auto updating, it happened to me a few times so I would suggest checking your windows update history. If there are failed downloads for drivers.
What you need to do is:
1. go to control panel
2. at the top right corner search device installation
3. change device installation settings
4. Choose - "No, let me choose what to do"
4a. Choose "never install drivers software from windows update"
4b. Untick "Automertically get device application and information provided by your device manufacturer".

5. Use the tool to hide the updates and hide the failed driver updates.

If your using windows 10 pro, use the group policy editor to set the windows updates to download and notify.
1a. Windows key + r, type in gpedit.msc and if prompted by UAC - click okay
1b. On the folder tree, select administrative templates -> Windows components -> Windows Update -> Configure Automatic Updates
1c. In the "Configure Automatic Updates" window -> select enable -> notify for download and notify for install -> click okay.
2. Sign out and sign back in
3. Disconnect your WiFi and click on advanced options
4a. Under "Choose how updates are installed" it should read "notify to download" however if it does not run windows update and as your disconnected from WiFi it will not find any. Click on advanced options and it should read "notify to download" now.

For best results after a clean install do the following before connecting to the internet
1) Set Windows update to download & notify
2) Change the device installation behaviour

Now connect to the internet (would recommend installing your firewall / a.v first) and run the update hide tool to hide the faulty drivers.

It's a pain in the backside to do every install but it saves you a lot of aggro later on. The reason I do this is because of the buggy AMD & Intel drivers which cause a prolonged black screen every single boot be it cold or warm. This was exacerbated by an cumulative update which added an additional 30 seconds. So combined with the buggy drivers I'd be looking at a boot time of 90+ seconds per boot, on a SSD!
which is totally unacceptable.

Download update hide tool: http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/2/2/F22D5FDB-59CD-4275-8C95-1BE17BF70B21/wushowhide.diagcab
KB Article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

 

[Krystianpants]

Make sure you also got all the firmware updates. But honestly I have less problems with the latest Insiders build of Windows 10 than I did with the RTM version. Now I'm not suggesting you go to the insider build as I don't want to be responsible if you get more issues. But I think it works much better for me. I had many weird issues on the RTM one.

Also im not on the Surface 3 just desktop.

 

[michail71]

Already went fast path today. So far so good. I'll stick with this. It's a great device. MS just needs to be on top of their own hardware a bit better. Every other Win 10 system I have has been solid. Just not the one made by Microsoft, lol.

I just get the feeling if I were working at high level on the Surface team I'd be all Steve Jobs on people and raising hell about these issues.

 

[jaimeastin]

8.1 is just better... I have 10 on my desktop, venue pro 8, and sp3... Yeah it works... But I always have to restart them...the upgrade is by far the worst of all in my experience... Some apps just don't even work anymore... Drivers stop working... It's always something...

Yeah it works... Yeah I should have waited even longer... But... Know this.. Like 8-8.1... It will get better.

 

[gwinegarden]

If you have had several and have had problems with all of them, as they say in the support world, "the cause is organic".

 

[920Walker]

Hopefully these issues are anomalies. I feel for the non-technical who click the shiny W10 update button that's been popping up daily for two months, after scanning their system and stating it is 100% compatible with the new and improved OS. Fresh installs and resets on last and current gen OS hardware gets really old, fast.

 

[michail71]

If you have had several and have had problems with all of them, as they say in the support world, "the cause is organic".

Even if that were the case, which it is not, it still would be the fault of the product. I design software for a living and view any failure of the product through user interaction my failure as a developer.

Please tell me how I'm making drivers suddenly fail, the store fail to load, my LTE connection to drop carrier settings, making the digitizer lockup, making live tiles disappear, causing updates to get stuck downloading, how am I making the WiFi performance much worse than on my other devices? Please tell me, I would love to know my failings.

I turned it on and opened an app. Shame on me.

 

[anon(5327127)]

if it's of any use we have around 6/7 surface pro 3 devices and, other than 1 being replaced due to the wi-fi simply vanishing, we've experienced no other issues. Yeah, okay, the usual soft reset to get them to turn on but nothing else. Mine's on Windows 10 with no issues.

 

[realwarder]

Wi-Fi being flaky seems to be a theme with the Surface range. This can ruin the experience and cause some of your issues. Perhaps they need to switch from Marvel to Intel in the new models.

 

[wpceej989]

Yeah my boss got a sp3 for free, must be nice, and wanted us to get it set up. For the life of me i couldn't get it to keep a stable connection to our wireless network. After some digging I found that there were issues with it and cisco waps, very very strange...

 

[michail71]

if it's of any use we have around 6/7 surface pro 3 devices and, other than 1 being replaced due to the wi-fi simply vanishing, we've experienced no other issues. Yeah, okay, the usual soft reset to get them to turn on but nothing else. Mine's on Windows 10 with no issues.

From the reports I've seen the Surface Pro 3s seem to have fewer problems. The Microsoft Store said it seemed the LTE versions were also experiencing more issues.

I'll still have my company get a Surface Pro 4 when it's out but will have a Lenovo x1 carbon for backup. It's running 10 nicely. Somehow I haven't screwed that up even though I do much more with it, lol.

 

[rory753]

I'm wondering how a normal, non tech person could deal with so many of these issues?

a normal non-tech person probably would just stick with 8.1.