So how's everyone feel about their Surface Book now?

[orlbuckeye]

I got a friend to buy a surface book a couple days ago. Got a call yesterday, says his book is completely dead, no response.

Apparently it was super hot feeling on the back and he shut it down. Fan stayed on for like 3/4 mins.

But then it didn't book back up.

I got him to hold the power button for 30sec and everything started up again, however, he's asking why did he have to do that?

Feel bad he had to experience that.

Well it does this different form most laptops. So basically holding the sut down button for 30 makes sure the machine is completely turned off and not sleeping. Sometimes that doesn't work and you have to use the 2 button Shutdown Steps below

1. Hold Power button down 30 seconds
To turn on after the previous step is completed
2. Press and hold power button and the volume up button down at same time for 15 seconds
3. After releasing the 2 bottons wait 10 seconds then press and release power button and it should turn on.

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...s-responding%3Fos%3Dwindows-10&token=zHhCWFyc

 

[ainterne]

I really want to keep the Surface Book, but it's so buggy right now. I see the potential in it and think in time they will sort out all the problems.
It only good for reading news groups right now, I would not trust real work to it. I pick up my IPAD Pro all the time, that's bomb proof in comparison. I though the Surface Book would out perform the IPAD but it doesn't. The IPAD is much faster. Its a shame as I did waste a lot of money in real terms. I just hope things get better.

If I see a new version come out before they fix this one, then I will really loose all faith in the product line.

 

[zerospace-net]

I really want to keep the Surface Book, but it's so buggy right now. I see the potential in it and think in time they will sort out all the problems.
It only good for reading news groups right now, I would not trust real work to it. I pick up my IPAD Pro all the time, that's bomb proof in comparison. I though the Surface Book would out perform the IPAD but it doesn't. The IPAD is much faster. Its a shame as I did waste a lot of money in real terms. I just hope things get better.

If I see a new version come out before they fix this one, then I will really loose all faith in the product line.

No offense, but I question comparing an iPad (ARM processor) to a Surface Book (x86 processor) in a "speed" test (regardless of what your issues are with the Surface Book, and there are plenty, yes). iPad runs mobile applications on a mobile OS. Surface Book runs full desktop applications on a desktop OS and is a laptop/tablet hybrid. Apples to oranges (no pun intended). That you reach for an iPad for "real" work tells me that the Surface Book is probably a billion times more computing power than you actually need. If a 2-in-1 is what you desire, a Surface Pro 3 (far more stable than SP4 or SB), Dell XPS, or any other of the myriad of fantastic Windows Surface clones would likely serve you better if you can do your work with an iPad.

Believe me, I have less love for my Surface Book than many in this thread, but iPad vs Surface Book... just don't do it. Please. Yes, it's sad that you find yourself using the iPad rather than the Surface Book, but the reason isn't speed -- it's the bugs. The two aren't even in the same league. That would be like directly comparing my desktop PC running Windows 10 to my android 6.0.1 phone. Totally different hardware, totally different capabilities, totally different OSes. They just don't compare. Yes, I can say that my phone runs MS Office, but that's just not telling the whole story, now is it?

As far as a new Surface Book being released before the current one is fixed? I believe it is very possible. Many other hardware manufacturers are equally guilty of sweeping problematic products under the rug, too. It happens. Surface Book has been something of a nightmare for MS, so I wouldn't be shocked to see them try to sidestep away from it and start over.

 

[cvflowe]

The last few updates have improved my system immensely. No more BSOD.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[ainterne]

I understand what you are saying, however there are two perspectives. The technical perspective and the user perspective.

I am talking about a user perspective. I can open a browser with a number of pages open, open a mindmap app, open a few office word documents, open a few spreadsheets etc, the Surface will still be struggling to open up file manager and open a word doc. Its' chalk and cheese. In terms of usability the IPAD wins hands down.

My PC on my desk an 8 core AMD with 64 GB of memory. On the PC I run a few vSphere clients, VM Workstation with a couple of guest running that I need to connect to different client networks each running different programs, a Network Sniffer, a couple of Visio drawings, my mail client, a number of network utilities etc... and they all run and play together perfectly. Swapping between programs is instantaneous.

I wanted the Surface to at least run a few vSphere instances, Wireshark, a few Visio drawings, mail and word docs..... No chance... It will run them, but it will certainly crash within 30 mins, it will certainly pause and stall every 10 mins, The battery gauge is still just like my cars gas gauge and I am sure I can watch it move.... I certainly can't sit down in another room, laptop on lap and sink my mind into my work without having the nagging feeling the battery is not going to last a few hours without dying or the thing is going to bounce and reboot.

The idea was I could walk away from my PC and then pick up the Surface and carry on doing some of the work sitting in another room for a change.
I can do that with my IPAD, opening work docs, using network utilities, manage some guests on ESX, run Outlook mail, run Excel sheets and copy and paste data, etc etc..... I can do real work and not have to worry about the IPAD keeping up or dying. Have you tried an IPAD Pro? I used to use my MacBook Pro, but don't need to anymore.

I believed the Surface Book would do what I used the IPAD for better. Yes it's easier to have programs that save to the same format output and the IPAD and PC don't play sometimes. So I though the Surface would give me a slight benefit in that area. I use network drives etc, so I though I could just save my work and pick it up elsewhere, in the garden perhaps or in another room, just to get a change of environment. I work long hours at my desk.

The reality is, regardless of CPU power, the IPAD lets me do that, the Surface does not. The Surface crashes, is slow in loading software, does not like
to switch apps.. Yes I have the top model and it should as you say do very well, it just doesn't.

I would not attempt to do some compiling on the IPAD or the Surface and the PC or some of my Linux boxes are set aside to do that. No I don't run any heavy CAD software on the IPAD or the Surface. Even the Surface could not do that even if it was running properly.

Don't think I am a serious IPAD lover or anything, I am not. I am a user that uses the devices for what they are intended for and just want the easiest solution for myself. Right now for walking away from the PC and continuing to do some productive work the IPAD is still more usable in real terms.
Damn I wish it wasn't....I wish my few thousand price tag for the Surface was money well spent.

PS, I have just bought a Dell 4K screen to use with the Surface and I have decided that the best thing to do is leave it connected to the power supply and not have to worry about that issue anymore. I am going to try putting ESX on it and run a guest Windows 7 image and get some stability back.
At least it will work reliably.

 

[TLRtheory]

So I (purposely) got the Surface Book at a critical time. It was the end of the semester, but also a time in which a lot of matters where concluding in my work and personal life... so I needed this Surface Book to hit the ground running or else I'd be one angry guy. One of my finals required me to make a very elaborate 3D landscape involving at least 10 buildings/houses, and I figured it'd be a good time to have something with a GPU.

Soon as I got it out of the box and powered it on - I logged into my account, immediately did the OneDrive placeholders trick (I can't use Windows 10 without it), and got started doing everything I needed. A boatload of Windows updates also came flooding my way.

Maybe I was doing too much, but I met my first BSOD within the first 15 minutes.

Whatever... had to keep moving. At least I got the Samsung NVM driver on here so I was back in action very quickly. I resumed setting things up while being more cautious of how much I was attempting at once. I was relieved to find that what I'd heard about the inputs was true. Keyboard was just awesome. I was never enough into the Apple kool-aid to think no Windows machines had good trackpads though I do like the one on my MacBook Pro. I actually was using a cheap little ASUS X551 which had a very large and responsive trackpad, and I see quite a lot of machines from 1-2 years ago that have given a really good trackpad experience... so when I say the Surface Book's trackpad is great, I don't necessarily say it as a bash on the entire history of trackpads on Windows laptops. There's a lot of terrible ones out there, but the Surface Book isn't a "FINALLY, a good trackpad on a Windows laptop." scenario, though The Verge desperately wants you to believe it is.

Did I say my first BSOD? I should've said only - because I haven't seen a single one since - or any notable hiccups in my operation. I went silent in this thread for some weeks mostly to give this some heavy grind time, assessing just how it'd handle things if my needs were more than just IDEs, work, social media and basic games... and it's been just outstanding. My Steam library didn't have much aside from CS:GO and Tomb Raider to push that GPU, but I have a TON of Windows Store games (notably Blitz Brigade) that I absolutely love seeing running at native res with such a good framerate.

Since I came into the game so late, I guess I never got to get my opinion of the Surface Book muddied by the launch bugs... it may be annoying to hear from those that were here back in the era where detach failures and GFX driver crashes were commonplace, but it's been... flawless.

So far, this thing is just outstanding. I love it.

Unfortunately, Windows Central still seems to be *** on Microsoft Edge. I'm more mystified than upset that one of the top Windows fan sites works so horribly when every other site I use works so well.