Why does my Surface Pro 4 have such poor performance

Question

A bit of background, previously I had a SP3, I5 4Gb, 128Gb. It worked well. I had a few issues with some updates, but was able to resolve them. The performance of that tablet was pretty good. Unfortunately, it could not survive a drop onto a concrete floor, hitting on a corner.

While getting that repaired, I decided to upgrade to the SP4. It is also I5, 4gb, 128Gb. From the start I noticed two slight improvement, better screen resolution, and a better pen. I also noticed something else, it is a lot freaking slower!!! The software I am using is pretty much the same as I had on the SP3. The touch screen response in particular is so slow, most times I have to select something several times to get a response. Using a mouse I do not have the issue, only with the touch screen.

Also, starting programs, using programs, switching programs, are all so freaking slow. At this point my impression of this thing is that it is an overpriced, fancy dancy paper weight. For the price I could have purchased a decent laptop and a Android tablet, which would both perform better than this, and leave me with money left over for beer.

Also, the screen gets darker when running programs with a predominately dark background. I noticed there is a thread for this for both the SP3 and SP4 (though I did not have the problem with my SP3), and this has been an ongoing issue for several years.

Does Microsoft fix anything? I received a plethora of updates for this thing, each of which seems to slow this down even further.

Has anyone else been having performance issues? At this point, I would strongly recommend nobody buy one of these until Microsoft can fix the issues.

Answer 1

Hi,

To resolve this, we suggest that you perform the troubleshooting steps on this link.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards.

Answer 2

There is no link.

Answer 3

To troubleshoot, please click here.

Regards.

Answer 4

My apologies, the link color is so close to the standard color on my browser I did not notice it. I will have to change that.

Answer 5

I am really getting sick of this thing. I would go back to a SP3 before I would recommend one of these to anyone. This thing is a slow old dog. I tried a different anti-virus, one supposedly faster and it helps, but it is still too slow for the price and specifications purchased.

As noted, the only difference hardware wise between the SP4 and SP3 as far as I can tell, is the screen and the pen. Perhaps there are some internal changes as well. With this thing I am having to do a full restart once or twice a day, as it gets to the point where it is too slow to be of use. I have not had a computer this slow since Windows 3.1!!!

Part of it may be the bloatware in windows 10, but the SP3 had 10 as well, while still being faster. Recent updates (more garbage piled on the OS) may have slowed it down as well. At this point I am close to chucking it out the window (16th floor) and go to the Apple store. This is unacceptable performance in a tablet costing this much. It would be unacceptable in a $250 tablet as well!

Microsoft, fix this please!