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How fucked is my Surface Pro 4?
Arch
Neat-o, mosquito!Registered User regular
Neat-o, mosquito!Registered User regular
Hey guys- I've had my surface pro 4 since 2016. I'm in love with this little guy, and it got me through my postdoc and my first year as a professor.
However, I've been running into some serious issues, and I want to know if A. these things can be fixed B. How to fix them and C. how much they would cost to fix.
First things first, and kind of the big one:
The screen on the left side of the surface is pulling apart from the rest of the computer.
Imgur Link
The second thing is more annoying than worrysome.
I tried to do a factory reset of my device, since the Hard Drive is mostly full (of a lot of junk!) and all my data is backed up already.
I followed this guide, but every time I tried it (three times!) it encounters an unknown error and fails.
Aside from the screen pulling apart and being unable to reset the device, the computer still runs fine. It doesn't hang or throw any errors, I just wanted to clean it out and start over.
Help? Advice?
However, I've been running into some serious issues, and I want to know if A. these things can be fixed B. How to fix them and C. how much they would cost to fix.
First things first, and kind of the big one:
The screen on the left side of the surface is pulling apart from the rest of the computer.
Imgur Link
The second thing is more annoying than worrysome.
I tried to do a factory reset of my device, since the Hard Drive is mostly full (of a lot of junk!) and all my data is backed up already.
I followed this guide, but every time I tried it (three times!) it encounters an unknown error and fails.
Aside from the screen pulling apart and being unable to reset the device, the computer still runs fine. It doesn't hang or throw any errors, I just wanted to clean it out and start over.
Help? Advice?
| Zinnar on most things | Avatar by Blameless ClericPsycho Internet Hawk wrote: »
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I've never had good luck setting them back to factory defaults, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I think I had to do a fresh install from windows 10 on USB to get it to work on my friends but don't attempt that if you're not comfortable.
.....shit
Here's a guide on how to fix it, but ehhhhhhhhhhhh, even being IT myself I don't know if I'd attempt that on my own machine.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+4+Battery+Replacement/60358
Oddly enough, it's possible that you don't have enough space on your drive to factory reset your entire drive. They may create a temporary recovery partition, to do so. But I think it's supposed to tell you that, and not just give you an error? IDK.
As for your space issue, the Surface Pro 4 should supports microsd cards, and 128gbs are fairly cheap these days.
Some of those cell phone shops will do it too for like $200ish too, so you might luck out there.
Yeah but if it's the difference between a laptop and no laptop, might as well give it a-
Oh my God what is this $80 tools list about?
Then 14 screws, a square foot of thermal paste, two "gently pry this bit out BUT NOT TOO HARD" steps...
Ok, nevermind. That all sounds like a fair to decent chance of making it worse if you're not super confident in all it entails. (Particularly the prying and pasting)
Making it worse than a likely-to-happen thermal event? I mean... maybe, but you're really not going to be using the computer at all if the battery is expanding like that.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
More* along the lines of: if you break something else you're back where you started, less $130, with a more thoroughly voided warranty. Though if the battery is a genuine fire hazard, I'd be surprised if MS wouldn't offer to replace it to avoid the PR hit.
I note that Googling "surface pro 4 battery bulge/expanding/swelling)" has so far yielded zero "then it exploded" stories, and a few recent anecdotes about MS offering to replace bulging, out of warranty SP4s.
*But also, that last step sounds a bit nerve wracking on a bulging battery: Emphasis not mine.
Anything of the sort, the screen is a potential sudden unexpected expense - dealing with any tablet or smart phone I don't even touch it until I've ordered a replacement digitizer (this is about a $200 part). There's a chance it'll survive if you're experienced and careful (and lucky), but the problem is the heat to melt the glue. Any heat enough to soften the glue will also be enough to damage the screen (and if you go even a few seconds too long on a spot, the boards behind it), heat makes the glass more brittle, and you've got to put a little bit of torque on it while you work your way around. If "gently bend the glass" sounds like a crazy sentence that's because it's a crazy sentence.. And if you don't use enough heat (like thinking your $80 high end hair dryer will work rather than go buy a $9.99 heat gun from Harbor Freight), not only will the screen break, you and your children and their children will spend the rest of eternity with tweezers picking glass shards out of the glue line.
Any kind of battery issues like this, contact the manufacturer before you do anything else. After what happened to Samsung (over and over) a fair few are skittish about lithium batteries exploding.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Source: Supported a ton of these things at my last job. Also, I have tried to destroy one of these things in order to rip the hdd out of it to get at some data, and I had to work my ass off getting inside it after I literally bashed the screen enough to start tearing pieces of it out. Getting in those fuckers is hard even if you are actively trying to destroy it in the process, nevermind trying to keep it intact...
Cool, thanks y'all
Went with something a bit more reliable. And with better hardware specs. For cheaper.