Surface Pro 3 quirks
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So one of my docs walked into my office and said insert joke here... OK no, I only wish it was a joke.
Instead he walked in all pissed off telling me that he couldn't get his SP3 to get on the hotel WIFI at the the American Urologic Association (AUA). As he was walking out of course he had to knife me with a comment that if it was a Mac that they'd all just work. Should have shot back, OK why don't we just convert everything to Macs?
Moving on.
I tried powering up the SP3 by pressing the power button and nothing. Pressed it again thinking I didn't press it hard enough.. still nothing. hhmmm.. Now I'm thinking that the battery might be dead I see that he is just outside my door and ask him for the power cord. He then tells me, yeah I had a hard time powering it up, it acted like it was dead, in the meantime I was holding the power button down for a few moments and now noticed that the screen was powering up.
Anyone else have this type of problem with the power button? (real reason for this post)
Once in Windows I noticed that it was a bit behind in updates, so I applied them, then noticed there was firmware update for the SP3, applied that, and now it's all up to date.
Of course being able to update it meant I was online - the SP3 has never had an issue connecting to my network in the office.
I don't know about you, but I've definitely had situations with large conferences where the hotel WiFi didn't work, so I'm mostly chalking his issue to that (can't exactly ask for a plane ticket to New Orleans just to test this again.
So, anyone else having any issues with their Surface Pro 3?
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I've had the power issue with a number of Surfaces, it seems to be the platform. Windows 8.1 has issues coming out of the hibernation thing, they call it quick boot or something. Turning off hibernation generally solves the issue.
The long press (7-15 seconds) forces the entire machine to shutdown and another press will start it up again.
I've had a few people with issues on wireless... always with hotels, and always at conferences where there are a ton of people.
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As @coliver says Hibernation is most likely the issue. I have had trouble with this on mine as well. Also the Wifi isn't that powerful on them, so it could be that the Hotel Wifi isn't great and the range on the SP3 stinks as well.
Yes I have tested the range. I have a jetpack the jet pack has to be within about a foot or so of the SP3 for it to work. In the same vein my Ipad, Mac and an HP laptop need to be within about 6 or so feet of the jetpack for it to work.
Remind your Doc's that these things need to actually be shut down all the way once in awhile. Letting them just go into standby mode all the time isn't great. It's not an Ipad
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Jetpack?
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Verizon Mifi portable 4G wifi.
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Aww.. OK thanks...
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Wow what crappy Chip have the been using for Wifi.
Have you checked for a BIOS/UEFI Update? sounds like the it's the sleep state in the BIOS.It really seems like the devices are really meant to be Demos for other manufacturers to compete against and design off of rather than actually to just sell these units. I've heard of a lot of issues with the Surface Pro series. I haven't use the 3 yet. But the Surface Pro 2 had enough issues.
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The 3 is MUCH better than the 2 was. I really have only had a couple issues, Hibernation and the wifi range. Well that and I will fall over if trying to use it on my lap
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@thecreativeone91 said:
It really seems like the devices are really meant to be Demos for other manufacturers to compete against and design off of rather than actually to just sell these units
Microsoft has stated as much. MS wanted vendors to see what could be done, and also hope to show that consumers and businesses wanted things like this.
While this exact form factor hasn't been replicated, the clip on full hinged keyboards have grown some legs.
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@Dashrender said:
While this exact form factor hasn't been replicated, the clip on full hinged keyboards have grown some legs.
Didn't that come from Apple? I've never had a surface but I've had devices with those keyboards. Boy do I hate those keyboards.
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I'm talking about something like this.
The keyboard has a full fledged hinge so when you are using this device you get all the advantages of a normal laptop... then you can pull the monitor portion off and use it a like a tablet.
This type of device would seem to be the best of all worlds. It would be even better if you could fold it all the way back like a Yoga and use the keyboard a stand when you wanted.
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@Dashrender said:
I'm talking about something like this.
The keyboard has a full fledged hinge so when you are using this device you get all the advantages of a normal laptop... then you can pull the monitor portion off and use it a like a tablet.
This type of device would seem to be the best of all worlds. It would be even better if you could fold it all the way back like a Yoga and use the keyboard a stand when you wanted.
Yeah, magnets and keyboard connected by them. Maybe MS did it first but it seemed established when I first saw it from them. Just not popular because it worked so poorly since it is floppy.
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Apple probably did bring to market the magnetic mount option... thinking the iPad cover... but I don't recall a keyboard using this method in the past, or since.
But the lack of a real hinge is what really kills the usefulness of the Surface Pro devices. No lapability, you have to fumble a bit when moving place to place unlike a normal laptop.
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@Dashrender said:
But the lack of a real hinge is what really kills the usefulness of the Surface Pro devices. No lapability, you have to fumble a bit when moving place to place unlike a normal laptop.
I've had magentically attached keyboard on the iPad for a while. But they mostly suck. No more than the Surface does, but about the same. Might not have been first, but I thought that it was around for a long time just no one but MS though it was sane to make it a standard approach.
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They are different products for almost completely different uses.
The iPad was designed for consumption only, and found it's way into creation uses.
The Surface Pro series I think was hoped to be by it's creators to be an out of the gate truly hybrid device - both consumption and creation, hence the need for a keyboard from day one.
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@Dashrender said:
The Surface Pro series I think was hoped to be by it's creators to be an out of the gate truly hybrid device - both consumption and creation, hence the need for a keyboard from day one.
I find that hard to accept based on the physical format of the device. It is really suitable only for content consumption. It's lack of usable form factor and keyboard put it squarely in line with the iPad.
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I've only had minor quirks but yes, sometimes it doesn't want to wake up...
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
The Surface Pro series I think was hoped to be by it's creators to be an out of the gate truly hybrid device - both consumption and creation, hence the need for a keyboard from day one.
I find that hard to accept based on the physical format of the device. It is really suitable only for content consumption. It's lack of usable form factor and keyboard put it squarely in line with the iPad.
So is the laptop the only conceivable form factor that is portable and made for creation?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
But the lack of a real hinge is what really kills the usefulness of the Surface Pro devices. No lapability, you have to fumble a bit when moving place to place unlike a normal laptop.
I've had magentically attached keyboard on the iPad for a while. But they mostly suck. No more than the Surface does, but about the same. Might not have been first, but I thought that it was around for a long time just no one but MS though it was sane to make it a standard approach.
That's why I like this HP Pro X2 612. Works great as a tablet or a laptop. Asus made one before HP. Actually a few. I had the Core i7 16GB ram 13.3" screen model. The problem with the Asus one was it was too big to be a tablet. Too big to not tip over in your lap because it was heavy. And had no dock options aside from the USB3.0 Docks, which sucks. The HP Pro x2 612 has a full dock with does many monitors natively and works just like a normal laptop dock. It will even charge the dual batteries (the tablet has a 7hr battery, and the keyboard has a battery that will make it last 14hrs when attached. It uses the keyboard battery first when attached.)
