Surface Go 3 is so slow I can’t use it

I purchased a Go 3 tablet in January 2023. It has always been incredibly slow and unreliable but it has gotten to the point of being completely unusable.

I have tried to run the following troubleshooting steps & the device has been unable to complete them because it is not functioning well enough.

-checking for system updates

-running the diagnostic toolkit

-running winver

-running system scan in windows

I also tried taking it to Geek Squad but they weren’t able to improve the situation. (I purchased at Best Buy & a MSFT chat agent told me I needed to go through them to seek a solution).

At this point the only acceptable solution would be a full refund.

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Hi Josephine!

Thanks for reaching Microsoft Community. We're here to help and let's work on this together.

I understand you're having issues with your Surface device. Happy to help and provide more options here.

Regarding your query, I can see here that you mostly have done some troubleshooting to no avail still. Your best next step would be to perform a recovery image reset. This option reimages the entire device, including the partition on the hard drive. It is the most complete form of reset. Before you begin, you must have at least an empty 16GB/32GB of USB Flash drive and it must be formatted to FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. 

 

To proceed, please follow the detailed instructions in Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface - Microsoft Support.

With your query on refund, it would be best to contact the retailer from which you purchased your Surface device from.

Please let us know with how it goes. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Regards,

RodelioP.

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Respectfully, you do not understand the extent of the problem. I can’t even check Instagram without the thing crashing. I can’t open a JPEG and use Paint at the same time. Following the steps you outlined is not physically possible.

I expect your next suggestion will be to pay an expert to try these things themself, but it’s unacceptable to me that I should have to spend more money on it.

Maybe I just got a lemon (but from the amount of people having the same issue on these forums it seems to be a bigger issue).

I don’t understand why Microsoft isn’t willing to take responsibility for the issue and make it right.

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P.S. please note I said I *tried* to complete the following tasks and the machine was not able to complete any of them:

-checking for system updates (after an initial download the entire screen froze and became unresponsive, this happened three times)

-running the diagnostic toolkit (couldn’t get past the System Updates step, see above)

-running winver (froze/became unresponsive after searching in the Start menu)

-running system scan in windows (froze/became unresponsive after searching in the Start menu)

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Hi Josephine!

Thanks for reaching back to us!

I understand your query, and based on the information you have provided on your post most troubleshooting has been performed already to no avail still. The reason why I provided steps on how to perform recovery image reset. Please see through link provided above for detailed instructions.

Please let us know with how it goes. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Regards,

RodelioP.

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If I try those steps and it doesn’t work

(or it isn’t possible to get through them without the screen becoming unresponsive)

can you assure me that you will help make this right some other way?

Such as refunding me or replacing the device.

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Hi Josephine M1!

Thanks for getting back to us!

We would really appreciate your cooperation on this matter and would like to check if the reset would help. With your concerns on refund and replacement, I would highly suggest you contact our live Microsoft support. Since here in community forums, we don't have the right tools and resources for such processes. Below are the steps on how to contact them:

  1. Go to Contact Us- Contact Us - Microsoft Support.

  2. Choose how you would like to get support for your Surface device.

  3. Type in the problem you need help with.

  4. Look at any available solutions offered and select Contact Support.

 

Thanks again for choosing Microsoft. Hope this helps!

 

Regards,

RodelioP.

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I'm having the same issues - I have to say this is the worst device I've ever owned.

I purchased mine just over a year ago and I've used it probably a dozen times, as it can take over 40 minutes just to stabilise to the point where I can open the browser...even after 3 factory resets and having removed every possible app.

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Same issue for me. This device is completely unusable. It takes almost 10minutes to open a basic word document and it always crashes when I try to enter settings. I expected a lot more for the price i paid.

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Hi guys, I hope that you all are well

With the help of Microsoft support, we found a solution (at least for my case).

We simply removed the S mode and everything started to run flawlessly.

I hope that helps.

Have a nice week

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I am starting to think that you guys lied about this tablet having Intel i3.

I bought two surface go 3 at the same time from Microsoft and the moment I opened the tablet and turned it on its been slow to a point that is not usable.

The touchscreen lags, even the lock screen lags when I click on it to put my password, it lags horribly with edge, the internet pages take forever to load.

I am trying to convince myself not to think that you guys just stole from a lot from us, and you guys want to pass the blame over to the stores instead of taking responsibility of selling something that is not usable.

This tablet is slower than a $150 samsung tablet, my old iphone X is 5 times faster than this tablet, I am about to send both tablets to you guys free, so you guys can use it as toilet paper or coffee tables.

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Last updated January 13, 2025 Views 2,347 Applies to: