Surface Pro 7 Core i7 Throttling CPU to 0.59GHz, Device Red Hot, Cannot Even Browse Internet and Check Emails

Here is a photo of task manager at the point when throttling suddenly kicked in where I had 5 Edge tabs open, Outlook, Teams and I was trying to edit an Excel spreadsheet. The CPU cores were all registering about 55oC.

At the point of trying to open a second spreadsheet the CPU usage seemed to become limited to 13% and was throttled to 0.19GHz (so just 200MHz!) the fan cranked up a gear and everything stalled and even managing to save this screenshot using Paint was a struggle:

After a little while the CPU went back up to just over 1GHz but then dropped back down again.

If it is this bad in the winter I worry it really will be unusable next summer. It is getting progressively worse also.

Formatting and reinstalling makes no difference.

Robin

I have tried using ThrottleStop to monitor the system and find out why it is throttling so severely and the issue being logged constantly is BD PROCHOT which shows red against core, GPU and RING which just indicates the entire device is too hot:

The device is just sitting upright on a glass table with nothing near it and I was just trying to do a Teams call with only Outlook open and it was throttling on and off about half the time. Whilst throttling video was choppy and I was unable to use Outlook.

it is idling at about 15% CPU at present but CPU temps are 58oC to 60oC.

The device really is red hot like I was performing some hardcore gaming session or high end video editing but I am just trying to do the most basic tasks and using an RDP connection for everything else.

I have just received very poor support with this device as well where I was told on Monday that I could either have a standard exchange, full refund or an expediated refund where you pay for the second device and are then refunded for the first device once you post it back.

However I spent 3.5 hours on the phone on Tuesday during which time I was transferred to the Surface Support team twice, the sales team twice, the billing team once, a dept that told me it was closed and left on hold and cut off and also used the chat a few times. I was even told by one person that I was not eligible for a refund or an exchange but when I said this was against UK consumer law he just wanted to transfer me to another agent.

Someone was supposed to email me back but hasn't and there seems to be no support forthcoming here, meanwhile my device continues to operate at 200MHz like a Pentium 1 PC from 1996 with added heater at the start of the second lockdown in the UK where we must all work from home.

It is worth noting that all my previous Surface devices have also had some pretty serious defects:

• Surface 1 (did not fail) - Often would go to sleep and wouldn't turn back on again
• Surface RT 2 (did not fail) - Same issue as 1
• Surface Pro 3 (failed after under 2 years) - Power brick failed and was replaced. Very poor performance, getting very hot and shutting down randomly with thermometer icon appearing on screen requiring time to cool before it could be used again
• Surface Pro 4 (failed after just over 1 year) - Very poor performance, battery expanding and bursting out of device, brown staining on screen, screen popping off, device very hot, was told device was a danger to life and to dispose of it
• Second Surface Pro 4 (was starting to fail after 8 months) - Performance getting increasingly bad so replaced with a Surface Pro 7
• Surface Pro 7 (failed in just over 2 months) - Much worse performance than any previous Surface device making device almost impossible to use, device dangerously hot, Surface Dock randomly disconnects every day and/or blurs screens whilst working and has done since day 1.

I need a device that works!

Big respect for all the troubles you went through trying to get the support! I am in this forum for almost a year trying to get any support regarding poor performance of my SP7, unfortunately with no success at all... Apparently this place is only about "easy software fixes" like sfc /scannow and that's it... 

What I discovered is that the SP7 throttles a lot more than usual when anything is connected via USB-C (is especially bad when external display is connected). Still, anyone could expect, that such expensive device in 2020 WOULD HANDLE such stress like external display... But even without it it's bad.

In the end - Surface devices are just broken. I don't know, maybe it's somehow related with Plundervolt fix that blocked undervolting, maybe it's not, but the result is that the Surface devices are just broken... 

If I were you having the option to return the device I would do that... The alternative is to wait for the firmware updates that will address that issue, but I am waiting for that for almost a year, and honestly now I don't expect to get any fix ever...

Thanks!

I have two 24" screens connected via USB-c on the dock so maybe that is partly why.

After chasing Microsoft some more they have told me they will not refund my device and will only exchange it. However the worst thing is they said the replacement device would come with just a 3 month warranty (they said it like it was a good thing!) so that means that due to no fault of my own, my standard year warranty is being reduced to a total of just 5 months which doesn't even meet UK consumer law.

When I questioned it the Microsoft representative agreed it was pretty bad and apologised that there was nothing he could do.

I know Microsoft is an American company (and not sure what rules are there) but surely they must comply with UK law if selling directly to UK customers?

My Surface Pro 3 was refunded by John Lewis after just under 2 years.

I will never buy any more hardware from the Microsoft Store.