The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 hasn’t been in the news for a while now, but it’s back thanks to some bad press. It would appear that the device is experiencing some flickering screen issues, which can be solved by putting the device on ice. Let’s see how.
This is by no means a new defect, since hundreds of users have complained on the Microsoft support thread over the past year regarding the flickering display on the 2 in 1 machine. The Surface Book also had similar issues after its debut in 2015. Microsoft did fix the problem in that case, but this time it’ll be tougher to do so. It appears to be a hardware problem and not a software one for the Surface Pro 4.
It’s a classic case of overheating and some users have resorted to placing the tablet in boxes with bags of ice. Affected users have come up with their own website, which showcases the problem. It’s already being called “flickergate” and a potential fix is placing the slate in the freezer. It’s only a temporary fix, as the flicker comes back afterwards.
The problem is that it’s been a while since the device launched and most such models are out of warranty. Some users even ended up paying as much as $800 to Microsoft for an out of warranty exchange program to fix this. A bigger problem is that the Surface models are famously hard to repair, so things are not looking good. We’ve written about Surface problems before, but we thought those were gone in the modern day. Apparently not, so Consumer Reports was on to something.
