Surface Hub 2S Overheating

[Jon Gertken]

Has anyone else out there come across the Hub 2S overheating? Basically the device will shut down mid use, then come up with a black screen with a thermometer icon. Eventually it will come back up normally but it's been disruptive to meetings.

These are all the 55" 2S model using the "Microsoft Approved" Steelcase Roam wall mount. To me this seems like a design flaw with the mount itself. I know the Hubs have an airflow intake/output on the top and bottom of the back CPU component, but this mount essentially puts the device flush against the wall and any heat that radiates off the back essentially just redirects back to itself.

Mainly curious if anyone else has come across this and what they might've done to remedy it.

[#2]

We have 10 Surface Hub 2S 50" devices, and we have the overheat issue on 4 of them, 1 (other) has a bad display, and the other 5 haven't failed (yet). The overheating issue just started in the past four weeks.

We use the SteelCase mobile cart and, usually, the APC UPS battery. 2 of the 10 of those have failed too.

We're starting the process of Microsoft calls.

[#3]

@Jon Gertken 

Wow that is not good.
I have never experienced anything like this. I have a Surface Hub that I use for a lot of demonstrations, so it is being handled quite tough - In and out of my small car more than 100 times. Started from freezing cold lots of times. But I have never had any experience of overheating. Not either heard it from any customer (working with distribution in the Nordics).

[#4]

Same - 2 wall mounted devices in different cities out of a total of 30 devices - only started on the 1st - never had before.

Running 10.0.19042.1466
Azure AD joined

[#5]

@Hello @Jon Gertken @SurfaceHub2S @dcl191,

Microsoft has been investigating reports of this issue, however, due to the low impact we haven't been able to understand this issue well enough. It has been determined the event results in no harmful impact on the devices and in a vast majority of the cases, the issue never appears again.  In virtually all reported instances to date a device reboot restores the device to a proper working state and the issue should not repeat again.

However, it looks like this is still an ongoing issue and it would be best if you could open a case with support to investigate this further

Thank you,

Cezar

[#6]

Got a case open with Microsoft, will report back with any findings.

[#7]

@Jon Gertken We've opened a case as well for our overheating issues.  Thanks for posting this! 

[#8]

I have had similar over heating issue as well with a Hub2s and just out of warranty, half of the display went black so had to get the unit replaced. I suspected the over heating was because of the APC UPS battery so once I got the Hub2s repaired I have disconnected the UPs battery and connecting power directly to the Hub2s.

@dcl191 do you remember the Hub2s you had the bad display was using the APC UPS battery?

[#9]

I have about around 70 Surface Hubs on campus. I've had that heat issue with two of them so far. Create a ticket with MS and get it replaced. There is nothing you can do, they will send out a tech to take it apart and replace the fans and heatsink.

[#10]

All our SH2Ss use the APC UPS battery.

[#11]

How do you like the battery packs? We use ours in classrooms so we went no battery. Just really long extension cords.

[#12]

Some people like using the battery packs because it means more freedom in moving around with the surface hub, but over the course of time we've noticed that most of them spend their entire lives attached to mains power...

[#13]

@Jon Gertken We have a Surface Hub 2S 55" that just started exhibiting this today, about 40 minutes into a 5 hour call with one of our executives. Luckily everyone has their work laptops also, but it definitely was not expected. Have had long calls, played back high-def content, screen shares, etc. And never had this issue before this month.

Mounted on the proprietary rolling mount with APC battery.

[#14]

We are experiencing similar issues with several of our Hubs. Also using the Steelcase. All have been plugged in and then just blacked out after about 45 minutes.

[#15]

Same here, yesterday i heard of this for the first time and we're using the Surface Hubs 2S for more than 1,5 years (wall mounted). Right now we're trying to get the big pictures, how many devices are affected. I'm just a bit sceptic why this is getting on the table the last few month and before it wasn't a thing - a buggy driver / firmware update maybe?

[#16]

Microsoft has had our ticket, with 4 overheating Surface Hubs, open for going on 2 months now. No information or response from them on what's wrong yet.

[#17]

1.5 months later. We've had the MS ticket open since February. No actions, no ideas. They state that it shouldn't reoccur on the SHs, but we've one that it's happened 3x on, and they've no resolution.

We also have problems with them simply shutting down - in the middle of a Teams call, during Windows Updates, or who knows when. No warning, no thermometer gauge icon (so it's another, different issue) - just a complete shutdown. So disappointing.

We don't plan to buy any more. The perception around here is they're not reliable.

[#18]

Create the logs for your Hubs that are overheating. Unzip the log file and look for the system events log. I was able to show my support rep that my Hub was overheating by showing him the thermal events being logged in event viewer. A lot of the support reps haven't really ever done any actual tech support before so...... I thought I would give my guy some help.

[#19]

The issue is that Microsoft freely admits they have an overheating icon - they just won't do anything about it.

"It" is the thermometer icon appearing, sometimes mid-meeting, on the SH devices.

To be clear: this has happened once on 3 of 4. For those, Microsoft says it likely won't recur, so we shouldn't worry about it. Techs won't put it in front of senior leadership due to it being unreliable. 1 of the 4 had this happen 3x; MS is still 'investigating", but it's been going on 5 months of a complete waste of time; they have no solution.

The most recent black screen shutdown (which is different from a thermal error on the screen) happened on just one SH, and we've raised the issue with Teams Rooms support, as it is enrolled in our Teams Rooms Premium service, and thus most troubleshooting goes to Microsoft. Can't wait to see what they find. :)

[#20]

Hello everyone,

I would like to apologize for the issue and experience you are having with the Surface Hub overheating issue. This is an issue we have given a lot of attention from engineering and although we can't share much information as it's not really relevant.

The conclusion from the investigation was indeed that the device is getting a false-positive temperature alert and restarting the device should bring it back to a working state. 

Microsoft is aware of an issue with a small set of Surface Hub 2S devices that restart unexpectedly and display the thermal icon on boot. Surface engineering has determined the event results in no harmful impact to the Surface Hub 2S and in a vast majority of the cases, the Hub just needs a reboot before returning to normal operation. The engineering team is working on a firmware update to increase the thermal event triggers to known safe limits, as well improving the telemetry around such events to identify the root cause behind them. Should the issue persist or reoccur please let us know and we will investigate and take additional action if necessary.

As the above message states, this is still an ongoing investigation to understand why this issue happens and we are working on improving the logging on the Surface Hub to make this happen. Firmware updates are scheduled in the near future to help us resolve this issue.

Thank you,

Cezar