OneNote freezes on Surface Pro 8 When Taking Handwritten Notes After Taskbar Icons Flicker

Surface PRO X LAGS on One NOTE> VERY LAGGY. Or NOT WORKING. Refund me.

I am having the same exact problem. I upgraded from a Surface Pro 4 to a Surface Pro 8. My Pro 4 was fantastic with OneNote. My Pro 8 has had this issue from the get go in One Note. I have tried the One Note for Windows 10 app and the regular One Note app (currently Version 2210 Build 15726.20202)

This is super frustrating while taking notes during class. I'll be writing and the either One note stops inputting the handwriting from the surface pen 2, or it just flat out deletes the last couple letters or words that I wrote.

Yeah, I have the Surface Go, which works very well. My Surface Pro 8 works fine, but the motherboard died on me. Had to have it repaired twice for $600.

Now I have the Surface ProX and it's a mess.

Writing into OneNote, it doesn't capture, or captures twice when I write over it. The magnifying glass is constantly twirling in the background. If I turn WiFi off, it's a little bit better, but not much. Restarting with WiFi off helps, but not always.

I loaded the latest Windows OS version which helped a bit.

But, despite all of that, it still has quite a bit of lag.

Miserable product.

I wish I bought an Ipad or Android. I have several of them and never had this problem, probably because those operating systems are light, so response times are more reasonable.

With Windows, they seem to try to please desktop, tablets and gamers with a same/similar operating system.

Add on top of that Windows Pro X running on ARM, which needs to emulate the x86 code, translate this into ARM code, then run. Well, you can imagine that this is a step in the wrong direction. LAG. LAG. LAG.

Microsoft, you permanently lost a long time customer after the Surface Pro X disaster.

I want my money back. This product SUCKSSSSS.

Mike R

Hi Marrion

I am facing a similar issue on my Surface Pro 7. I was looking for a solution and found this thread.

The issue is that Onenote (the one that comes with MS Office) freezes when you try to use the Surface Pen to write something. Then it has to be stopped via Task Manager and restarted.

I am sorry I have not replied. I am following your suggestions, but I ran into an issue and then had a ton of work come up that prevented me from resolving that issue quickly. In particular, when I downloaded and then installed all the latest drivers, for some reason, it uninstalled my microphone. I was extremely busy at work and getting that fixed took about a week to complete. I am now working with OneNote online as you asked to see if it freezes in that mode. I will update my post with the results of the investigation based on your suggestions.

What are the side effects, by the way, of disabling hardware graphics acceleration in the context of OneNote?

Thanks for following up.

Hi Tom Stubbs,

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our first response yet. We would like to know if you still need some assistance on the concern raised. If yes, please reply back for us to further assist you.

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Hi Tom Stubbs,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about the freezing issues that you are having in OneNote on your Surface Pro 8.

Please try first accessing OneNote through a web browser then test if the issue also occurs when using the OneNote through the web. Go to Microsoft OneNote | The digital note-taking app for your devices then sign in with your account. Please let me know how it goes.

Proceed then in running these steps below and see if this helps:

1: Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit

See: Fix common Surface problems using the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit (microsoft.com)

2: Check for Windows Update

Go to Windows Settings > Update & Security and select Check for updates

Make sure all updates need are installed including Optional updates

3: Update drivers and firmware

Check what is the current OS Build of your Windows version by going to Settings > System > About. 

Go to Download driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Pro

Then click the link next to Surface Pro 8 then click Download on the next page.

Choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next.

After downloading, run and install the .msi then Restart. 

4: Run System File Checker Tool

See: Using System File Checker in Windows (microsoft.com)

If in case the issue persist after the steps above, please try disabling hardware graphics acceleration in OneNote by following these steps:

Open OneNote

Click on File

Select Options

Click Advanced then look for the Display section

Check the box next to Disable hardware graphics acceleration

Click OK then relaunch OneNote

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Marrion