Surface Pro 9 heat/fan issues

You gotta love MSFT's advice: hard restart your device, update firmware, reinstall windows. Things have not changed since the 90s.

Just writing here that I have the same issue, moving from a SP 6 to a 9. @MichaelDoleman, the SP6 thermal throttles the CPU before it gets too hot thus providing somewhat sluggish performance, while the much zippier SP9 w i5/i7 heats up a lot more quickly on normal stuff, so the design was clearly to sacrifice efficiency for performance by relying on the fan. The performance jump is impressive, but obviously thermal performance for Windows 11 and all it's bells and whistles on an Intel device is a hack and really not designed for low thermal performance despite their efficiency label. It makes me long to go back to M1/M2 devices, or even consider the ARM version of the surface though I enjoy the snappiness of the intel version better. I think this is just a compromise you have to make when using this device but there are things you CAN do to help by turning off all background processes (i.e. bloatware that are unnecessary and contributing to PC cycles (i.e. heat), here is my procedure:

1. Go to Settings App->Power & Battery-> turn on all Energy Recommendations (even if plugged in), set Power Mode to Recommended, turn battery saver on automatically to Always.
2. MSFT did make one good suggestion: open task manager disable the idle apps that take high CPU/GPU usage and power. Uninstall or shut the process down if you don't need or want it. If you're out and about or don't need to sync your dropbox/onedrive/google drive, disable these and sync later manually when you get home and you plug in your device. These syncing services take a tremendous amount of CPU cycles and will kick your fan on.
3. Reduce refresh rate to 60 Hz (Display Settings -> advanced display -> 60 Hz or 60/120 Hz Dynamic) bummer to have the 120 Hz refresh rate on all the time, but this does reduce GPU usage and thus reduces heat.
4. Turn off useless Startup Apps (search Startup Apps): because you don't need any of them running in the background if you rarely use their services (e.g. cortana, logitech download assistant, teams, pandora, spotify, dropbox, xbox, peripheral helpers, printers, EA, etc...) - it's all bloatware. I only left Windows Security notification icon running.
5. Use a single browser only. I use Opera GX browser with it's browser specific battery saver mode ON (this saves quite a bit of power by blocking inactive tab ads and videos thereby reducing heat and extending battery life, and reducing heat). Use GX Control to limit CPU, RAM, and Network usage (thereby reducing heat). Watching a YouTube video may turn on the fan slightly.
6. Use a slower charger (fewer watts), e.g. your old SP6 charger, will charge more slowly but also heat up the SP9 less quickly.
7. Scour the Services app: set services you don't need to manual start. Sort the list by clicking on name and running. Sometimes your software installations will install a background process you aren't aware of that don't appear in Startup Apps. I shut down xbox, onedrive background services as I don't use them.
8. Reduce transparency and animation effects in Win 11. Look in Settings -> Accessibilities: turn off transparency and animation effects.
9. Consider disconnecting peripherals: any usb key/device will generate heat internally especially if there is heavy usage. This includes thunderbolt-HDMI adapters, mine generates a lot of heat. Consider reducing the external monitor resolution (1080 to 1440p is enough on a mid size monitor), refreshrate (down to 30Hz) if using an adapter, or use a direct thunderbolt-USB cable to your external monitor. Anything to reduce GPU cycles.
10. Consider disabling all notifications in W11, enable focus mode, reduce brightness of the screen.
11. Lobby MSFT and Intel to cooperate and allow software (not BIOS firmware) to throttle CPU when needed for efficiency.
12. Consider a move back to SP6, the ARM version of SP9, wait for newer more thermally efficient surface or M1/M2 device ;)

Good luck!

P.S. The above recommendations come as a gamer/scientist where every CPU cycle is squeezed for FPS, but in the SP9's case designed for effieciency/reducing heat. There are more settings (network, etc) but don't want to get into additional apps, registry or compromise security protocols for W111.

I am the CEO of a Managed Service Provider and a Surface Reseller.

I am hearing about and also personally experiencing these very same issues with Surface Pro 9.

We've already wiped the device a number of times via AutoPilot and the issue persists.

The device ramps up and overheats with normal browser workloads and becomes highly unreliable and unresponsive.

As of this writing I've taken it out of production as my primary work device and have reverted back to my Laptop 3.

Microsoft needs to look up and look around - this is an issue that is beyond one persons experience and is indicative of a broader set of issues.

I also have the same issue. I have a clean install one and when using OneNote with the pen, it is hard to use since it gets hot really fast. And the fan is annoying as well.

Microsoft, you have to look at this issue. Don't tell us all to reinstall and all that ****.

Thank you for the detailed reply. I do understand about the fact that the device is definitely going to warm-up under certain conditions and that -- simply put -- you can't defy the laws of thermodynamics. I'm not expecting that, and -- yes, sure -- the fan must kick-on in certain scenarios.

I'm just noticing a highly pronounced variance between my older Surface Pro 6 and the new Pro 9. The fan on the 6 almost never kicked-on. For the Pro 9, it'll kick on for something as mundane as viewing a YouTube video for a minute or two, with nothing else at all running. It also kicks-on if I'm doing anything like installing a program or transferring files. The only time the fan doesn't run is if I'm doing something very basic, such as general browsing or email. Anything else: fan runs continuously.

So to answer the questions specifically, it doesn't seem random but, rather, specific to any task that *slightly* bumps-up the tasking load. It started occurring right out of the box, and continues to occur. Issue does not go away with a reboot, however it will of course subside if the task load rolls back and the device is left to sit for a while.

For my use cases with the device, I don't mind the fan running if I'm doing some sort of dedicated tasks that require high performance and, thus, for the fan to run a bit. But it's annoying if it's something that I have to put up with for many of what I would certainly consider to be extremely casual, basic cases. That just simply won't work for me.

I am also putting my voice in this thread. I was issued a SP9 for work and the fan noise is very distracting. Basic tasks that I perform where the fan kicks in like we're taking off a jet:

• Teams meeting with video turned on
• Plugging in a single second monitor with basic tasks being run on it, i.e. ANY video playing (YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, etc)

Since collaboration is a primary feature of using a SP9, I would expect to be able to run a teams meeting and collab on documents without feeling like I am competing with fan noise. This is not a software problem, it is a design problem. At the very least it would be great if Microsoft had a cooling dock that they could sell us :D /s.

I am going to see if the fan design of the Surface Studio Laptop has this fixed. I'd rather take a larger computer with less fan noise than this.