Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Teardown

Geschrieben von: Sam Goldheart
Veröffentlicht: 27/10/15
  • Kommentare: 121

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Teardown

Veröffentlicht: 27/10/15

Teardown

Einleitung

Is anyone else getting sick of apples? Time to take a bite out of a juicy Microsoft offering, the Surface Pro 4, to see just what it's made of. Personally, we're hoping Microsoft spent this last year thinking about what they've done and opting for a more fixable laplet (laptop+tablet, eh? ehh?). There's only one way to see inside...okay two ways, we have X-ray vision. It's teardown time!

For the rest of our fall lineup, check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to be #first.

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    • With the top-of-the-line model coming in at over $2600, the Surface Pro 4 had better be a cut above the rest—the spec sheet looks promising so far:

    • 12.3" PixelSense 2736 × 1824 (267 ppi) IPS LCD display

    • Intel Skylake Core m3 (4M Cache, 2.20 GHz) up to Core i7 (8M Cache, 3.80 GHz) CPU

    • 4 GB/8 GB/16 GB DDR3L 1600 MHz RAM

    • 128 GB/256 GB/512 GB/1 TB of PCIe solid state storage

    • 8 MP rear-facing 1080p camera, and 5 MP front-facing camera

    • USB 3.0 port, micro-SD slot, mini DisplayPort, and SurfaceConnect charging port

    • 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Dual Band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0

    it should be 1866 MHz

    haoyang liu -

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    • At first glance, the Surface Pro 4 appears to outshine its predecessors with its forward sensor array.

    • We spy at least four nodes of interest. One's a camera, one's probably a microphone, but the rest?

    • On the rear of the new Surface, we find a familiar arrangement of circles—the 8 MP rear-facing camera accompanied by a status LED and microphone.

    • Anxious to see the camera array but too impatient to open the device? X-ray it.

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    • That's something we don't see too often—grease! The Pro 4's exposed kickstand hinges are lubricated to meet your transforming computational needs.

    • Just try not to get any lint, or pet hair, or sand in there...

    • To get such a wide spread of kickstand angles, with the resistance required to support the tablet's weight, Microsoft's engineers probably spent a lot of time on these hinges. So we X-rayed them.

    知道这个转轴支架上的螺丝是什么型号的吗？我的掉了，悲剧

    amen -

    So say hypothetically that someone has a surface pro 4. And hypothetically this someone’s cat decided to use the sp4 as a landing pad while the sp4 was propped open. And hypothetically both hinges broke and the actual casing of the sp4 was bowed out.

    Is that something that can be fixed? Or should I just suck it up and deal with it?

    Becca Eileen -

    where can we get the screws shown in the hinges?

    Yosef Kuper -

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    • Sticky nightmares still haunt our teardown engineers after the harrowing Surface Pro 3 teardown, and this year we've prepared for the worst.

    • Things start to heat up in the teardown room as the iOpener battles to weaken the display's adhesive.

    • Our iSclack joins the fight to provide us the leverage we need to make our entrance, and dare we say it, things seem easier than before.

    • Not even a Pro can keep us out. As soon as we get an opening pick underneath the edge of the display it's off to the races!

    • We strain our ears to listen for the telltale cracking of glass, but it seems like we're getting away with this opening procedure shard-free!

    Is the iOpener now the preferred tool for opening up Surface devices? Because over at the Surface Pro 3 guides, iFixit mentions that a heat gun would be better. Also, how many iOpener passes does it take for the adhesive to melt and the screen to lift easily like that?

    allanwl -

    The new iOpener is able to get hotter, sty hotter, and make more contact with the surface (no pun intended) so we'd use it for guides instead of a heat gun. The amount of time it will take to soften the adhesive will vary depending on ambient temperature, the temperature of the table you're working on, etc. The best method is going slow and steady, stop any time you feel resistance. It certainly took us a long time to get into our teardown device. If you need more advice, check out our Answers forum to consult people who may have tried heat guns or other methods!

    Sam Goldheart -

    Watch out for the WiFi Antennas when prying off the screen at the top! They're just thin strips of copper sandwiched between two sheets of plastic. Pictures from Step 10 below shows them as greenish-yellow traces on both sides of the camera assembly near the text that says "Supplier name: FIT"

    They are very easily nicked if you're using a metal prying tool, and you might accidentally tear them when pulling up the adhesive tape.

    joeku -

    Wish this was actually in the description and not a comment. I wouldn’t have to replace it now if it was. Thanks though.

    Sarah Fairthorne -

    This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Microsoft Surface Pro 4, use our ++service manual++.

    Sam Goldheart -

    WATCH OUT for the digitizer/LCD cables on the bottom left vertical edge, there are two flex cables that connect the digitizer to the LCD screen - make sure you don’t push the prying tool in too far or else you will rip the cables.

    Gorilla -

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    • Well, these are new. The last time we tore down a Surface Pro, we encountered a display connector trapped beneath a springy metal bracket.

    • This time around, there are two cables holding the display to the body, preventing it from being opened like a book on any hinge. Our only recourse: tackle those connectors.

    • And of course, Microsoft has modified their connector design. The display connectors are relatively common press-on connectors—similar to an iPhone display—but they're trapped under snap-on metal shields.

    • Luckily, we only have to juggle the display for the first connector, this display is nearly free!

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    • It's not exactly a greeting card, but the underside of the display is adorned with heartfelt-looking barcodes.

    • Maybe it's a congratulatory message! More likely, it's proof of some intense quality controls.

    • As a matter of curiosity, and bragging rights, we measure the display glass at a mere .4 mm. That's only four human hairs thick. And we didn't break it.

    • Time for our favorite silicon-based snack—chips! Among them, a number of N-trig IC's, likely control hardware for the Surface Pen.

    • N-trig DS-D5000 touchscreen row driver (likely)

    • N-trig DS-A5048 touchscreen line driver (likely)

    • Macronix MX25U1635F 1.8V 16 Mb MXSMIO serial flash memory

    It's actually 20-40 human hairs

    parallelsdesktop2 -

    A better comparison would be 4 paper sheets

    parallelsdesktop2 -

    Anyone know where to find this digitizer logic board for the Surface pro 4.

    Brandon Bruce -

    Brandon--I got mine on eBay.

    Does anyone know how to take off the surface pro's 4's surface pen control hardware from the screen (pictured above)?

    alex -

    warm up with a heat gun and pry it off. it's just held on with double sided tape.

    joeku -

    How wide adhesive tape is used? Around 5mm?

    larserikkolden -

    Hi,

    What is the outside material for this surface pro ? Pure Al or an alloy of some kind.

    Thanks

    AK

    Ajit V -

    Does anyone know what type of adhesive would be the most suitable for the logic board/n-trig board? From what I can see from underneath it has some conductive elements that need to touch the back side of the screen?

    Chris Sutcliffe -

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    • Turning our attention to the rest of the Pro 4, we spy a suspicious blank space beside the motherboard (and heat sink tubing!).

    • Presumably, this is for the fan that drives the hybrid cooling system, absent from our 4.5-watt Core m3 model.

    • The motherboard is so close, yet so far. Unable to wait, we skip to dessert and pop off some shields to get a closer look.

    • The rest of the motherboard is nestled too snugly to investigate, but that SSD looks ripe for the picking...

    Suppose someone with access to a laser cutter wanted to cut an opening in back cover to upgrade the SSD. Would that component be as freely accessible as it appears in photo Pro4_28.jpg? Or is there some other material or insulation between the back cover material and that layer of components? Ideally, an access opening would be covered by the kickstand plate, but it appears as though the socket for the SSD might be just under the upper half of the back cover, requiring cutting into the upper half of the back cover as well. Or would there be just enough clearance to angle the SSD chip into its socket?

    Greg -

    I would imagine that the motherboard being in the way of the SSD is an issue. The other problem would be setting the laser cutter in such a way that you would not cut a massive hole through the entire unit.

    burnblaze -

    Just opened mine up... you could do that if you wanted to. The only other interference for the ssd is one of those silly crimp on metal cages.

    Ronnoc Nailli -

    SUSPECIOUS BLANK SPACE

    Was not expecting that to be blank…

    Well, clearly you guys didn’t buy one for yourself and take that apart (because I happened to have a fan occupying such place)

    So, strongly NOT advertised to play games on your Surface Pro (especially the low wattage ones)…unless you put some ice pack on top of the alumium case. Ice packs work just fine.

    Xavier Jiang -

    I am curious about how large this fan may be? I have a screen flicker in the spot this fan may be located and trying to figure out what may be causing it.

    Orlando Sanders -

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    • Oh Surface, look how you've grown!

    • The Surface 4's Samsung branded SSD is considerably larger than the little whipper snapper we saw in the previous generation.

    • Awww, they brought us more chips. The 128 GB Samsung PM951 SSD is packing the following:

    • Samsung S4LN058A01-8030 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe flash controller

    • Samsung K9CHGY8S5C-CCK0 64 GB NAND flash

    • Samsung K4E4E324EE-SGCF 4 Gb (512 MB) DRAM

    • Texas Instruments TPS22966 5.5V, 6A, 16mΩ, 2-channel load switch

    • Silergy power management (likely)

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    • The Surface Pro 4's heat sink shows off its impressive makeover, flaunting longer copper heat pipes and a large copper plate for added heat dissipation.

    • Most likely, these changes were made to address the heat-related throttling issues observed in the Surface Pro 3.

    • Designed with a hybrid cooling system, the Pro 4 takes advantage of both passive and active cooling.

    • Well, some of them do. Our unit uses a combination of passive cooling and...well, passive cooling. More powerful models include a fan that activates when temperatures get too high for passive cooling.

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    • Fittingly, the Surface has a pro line-up of cameras and sensors:

    • Infrared emitter

    • Infrared camera

    • Front-facing camera

    • "Privacy light" indicator LED (mounted on the rear-facing camera)

    • Microphone

    • Ambient light sensor

    • We're pretty sure the lil' guy marked in red is an IR emitter, like the one found in Project Tango. It should work with the IR camera to recognize your face and unlock your computer. Aw, he knows his mummy.

    What is the name of the plastic bezel technician have in his hand ?

    zazadec -

    I'm not sure what it's called, but the yellow stripes are antennae, and they're really easy to destroy if you are spudging off a screen that's shattered along the top edge. The replacement part is impossible to get if you do this. I wrote about my "creative" solution to this problem on my blog: https://blog.kamens.us/2017/05/10/lesson...

    Jonathan Kamens -

    They are available, p/n X939879 X939878 on that one auction site for around $18 shipped.

    David Medina -

    I have 5 things on the front of mine and I'm trying to work out where the ambient sensor is! Is it a hole (the last one) or is that the Mic? Is the ambient sensor visable from the outside?

    Samantha Anderson -

    What is the diameter of the lens on the IR emitter?

    Никита -

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    • Amidst this sea of tech, the tablet's three cameras all float to the surface.

    • From left to right:

    • Infrared face-detection camera supporting Windows Hello

    • Front-facing 5 MP camera

    • Rear-facing 8 MP main camera

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    • We tweeze out the two stereo speakers from the corners of the case and make an interesting discovery...

    • It looks like the volume and power buttons are integrated directly into one of the speakers.

    • The Good: These integrated buttons are much less fidgity to replace as one piece than each button individually.

    • The Bad: The entire speaker will have to be replaced to replace one of the buttons, increasing the cost of repair.

    The buttons seem to be only attached to the speaker with adhesive. I'm sure it won't be hard to just replace the buttons, just like in the iPhone 3GS etc.

    djlobb01 -

    absolutely right, I agree with you, it will not complicate speaker on iphone : http://hargasmartphone.id/harga-iphone-7...

    irwansyah10 -

    Hi,

    Wonderful detail on the teardown. Any ideas on how the Marvel Avastar is tied to external antennas and the purpose of the precarious wire which seems to reappear in the various incarnations of the Surface. Is that wire tied to anything under the black tape in Step 14?

    Darin -

    I am also interested in knowing where the WiFi antennas are located. I seem to have spotty Wi-Fi using my new Surface in tablet mode and would like to know if there's an optimal way of holding it.

    William C Bonner -

    Just get the screen off without damaging it and you could replace the external facing buttons, if you can find donor systems.

    burnblaze -

    I need help with one of the specific connectors on the motherboard that connects to the speaker shown above, could you explain more about the connector, what it’s called, where I could maybe find a replacement.

    dcamarda17 -

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    • With the peripherals deftly dissected, we can move on to the main event—the motherboard!

    • Intel SR2EN Core m3-6Y30 (4M Cache, up to 2.20 GHz)

    • Samsung K4E8E304EE-EGCF 8 Gb LPDDR3 (4 chips × 1 GB for a total of 4 GB)

    • Marvell Avastar 88W8897 802.11ac, NFC and Bluetooth SoC

    • Freescale Kinetis KL17 MKL17Z256VFM4 48 MHz ARM Cortex-M0+

    • ITE Tech, Inc. IT8528VG Embedded Controller

    • Realtek ALC3269 Audio Codec

    • Realtek RTS5304 micro-SD Card Reader Controller

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    • Chip ID continued...

    • Winbond W25Q128FV Serial NOR Flash

    • Texas Instruments TPS51367 Integrated FET Converter

    • Infineon Technologies SLB96659TT20 Trusted Platform Module

    • Monolithic Power Systems MP3388S 50V, 8-String, Step-Up, White LED Driver

    • And on the reverse...

    • Intersil ISL95857 1+2+1 Voltage Regulator for Intel IMVP8 CPUs

    • This huge array of spring contacts connects the motherboard to the battery and the keyboard dock cable.

    They are the FPC wrap arounds on the plastic strip around the cameras and top edge, shown being removed on step 10.

    Whats the ARM coretex processor being used for?

    nick -

    Where is the keyboad controller? Where are the array of spring contacts leading to?

    Paulo Oliveira -

    So the Winbond is the BIOS chip? And the ITE chip near it is the Startup chip (SuperIO)?

    james@hottroc.co.uk -

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    • IC Identification—even more!

    • Bosch Sensortec BMI160 3-Axis Accelerometer/Gyroscope

    • Monolithic Power Systems MP2370DGT White LED Driver

    • Texas Instruments BQ24770 Battery Charge Controller w/ System Power Monitor

    • ON Semiconductor and Winbond Serial Memory

    • Texas Instruments TPS51285A Dual-Synchronous Buck Controller

    • Texas Instruments TPS62140, TPS62175, TPS62134A, TPS62134C, and TPS62134D Step-Down Converter

    • ON Semiconductor NCP380HMUAJAATBG Adj. Current‐Limiting Power‐Distribution Switch

    Hi, My surface pro 4 device has problems with the camera and usb for the cover type.

    Using utility software, I found 3 camera errors even though all drivers were installed. and it says 'error code 10". and I tried to fix it using utility software and only two worked, while the main camera still shows the error message.

    while I was repairing, there was a small "tick tick tick" sound on the logic board. Not sure where it's coming from, but heard in the area of the block leading to the camera socket. Can you tell me where is the problem?

    Ozenk Flasher -

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    • The iOpener comes out for an encore performance, loosening the tough adhesive that holds the battery in place.

    • The battery finally comes loose after a great deal of sweat, tears, and prying.

    • Not much has changed here—the adhesive is still extremely challenging to overcome, even with the proper tools.

    • :'(

    Sam Lionheart, thank you so much for replying to my concerns abou the iOpener and the screen. However I only asked about how many passes it took because I have to do the inverse. I need the adhesive soft enough so it adheres back to the screen again, so I won't find resistance to know when it's worm enough/already cool. All I'm going to do is put some weight over it. Would say that 1 pass would be enough to heat the adhesive enough on only one edge of the screen?

    allanwl -

    Ah I see! That makes it a little different then ;) I would say a couple passes on each edge (of two minutes or so maybe) would be good. You want the device to be fairly hot to the touch before you weight it down. After the device has fully cooled, you should poke at it a bit to see if the seal is complete. If it's a little loose, you may need to open it, remove the adhesive, and apply new adhesive. Good luck!

    Sam Goldheart -

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    • This 38.2 Wh, 7.5 V battery is rated at 5087 mAh—a 9 percent decrease from the 5547 mAh battery in the Surface Pro 3.

    • Despite the smaller battery capacity, the 4 generally outperforms the 3 in terms of battery life.

    • We attribute the majority of this to improved efficiency in the design and size of the processor.

    • Just to compare Apples to oranges, the iPad Air 2 weighs in with a 27.62 Wh battery, however the upcoming iPad Pro is probably a more apt comparison, function-wise. We'll have to wait and see!

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    • Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Repairability Score: 2 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

    • The SSD is replaceable.

    • The battery is not soldered to the motherboard, but very strong adhesive makes removal and replacement a hazardous chore.

    • Non-standard connectors make for tricky display removal.

    • The display removal procedure, while difficult, and required for any repair, is not as hard as in previous generations, due to less stubborn adhesive.

    • The display assembly consists of a fused glass panel and LCD, and is difficult to remove and replace.

    • Adhesive holds many components in place, including the display and battery.

Tinte & Feder

Sam Goldheart

Mitglied seit: 19/10/12

457715 Reputation

81 Kommentare

Looks great, much better than last year's. Pity about the glue for the screen. Would love to see screws. Know it's hard, because these are miracles of engineering, but there are lots of very smart men and women working on this, I'm sure they could find a way, especially since these are billed as enterprise devices, and having worked in an IT department, devices get broken a lot. No pen teardown? I'd imagine it's super similar to last year.

I want one of these even more now. Can't wait to see the Surface Book, if they managed to get one.

Thanks everyone at iFixit, keep up the good work. You're an inspiration to us all.

Is the set of huge connectors on the back of the motherboard in step 14 where the battery connects? They look too large for anything else.

Ian Rasmussen -

Glad you liked it! They're tough to get ahold of, but we're definitely gunning for a Surface Book as soon as we can! Those are spring contacts on the reverse of the motherboard, that press against the battery cable and also the keyboard dock connector cable. I updated step 14 to mark them up and explain that, thanks for the reminder!

Andrew Optimus Goldheart -

Nice Tear Down!

Step 1 indicates that the Samsung SSD is 128 GB PCIe NVMe solid state storage.

Step 8 indicates that Samsung SSD chip is S4LN058A01 CIe 3.0 x4 AHCI flash controller.

Should the flash controller protocol be NVMe instead of AHCI?!

Alex -

Hi,

I am curious about the copper plate over the battery. Is there some insulation against heat radiation to the battery? Does the plate radiate against the lcd (the battery also tells that the temperatures should not be higher then 140°F. Thinking about how they manage this)?

Thank you for the nice teardown (and fast!).

ddink -

Hi ddink! The flat plate does diffuse heat into the battery and LCD plate. It actually works as one of two condensers that make up the hybrid cooling system. This article shows a bit more about how that works: http://www.techspot.com/news/62361-surfa...

Andrew Optimus Goldheart -

Thank you for your response. The diffusion to the battery is what I am scared of. Doesn't it reduce the lifetime of the battery (that's why I asked for the thermal insulation)? I'm just curious how they manage, that the battery never reaches the 140*F they have written on it. Maybe we'll see when someone makes a heatmap of the device ;).

ddink -

It looks to me like the heat is mostly going to the battery... I wonder why they couldn't have added at least a heatsink to the second heatpipe so it at least does something?

Larry Chen -

As for the heat-plate, what about the back of the LCD display? The back of the LCD is a large sheet of aluminum. I bet that most of the heat form the heat-plate is transferred to the display, thus spread throughout the entire machine.

Philip Hanner -

The heat appears to dump into the battery pack. I recently had the left battery cell expand enough to force the screen off of the surface along the left side. A good 1/4 inch separation

timothygill -

This is also my concern (I have i7-8GB).

Instead of using the back magnesium they are bringing the heat to the temp sensitive regions of this device!!!

Mohammadreza Najafi -

So it appears that the Micro-SD port is UHS-I only, not UHS-II, correct? UHS-II chips have 16 pins, but the x-ray appears to only show 8 pins, which is standard for UHS-I. I couldn't find anything about the Micro-SD RealTek controller.

rogersfitzhugh -

Could you tell more about the display? Which company's branding can be seen there? Is it Microsoft themselves? Or is it LG like most IPS displays? Or Samsung, Sharp pr something else entirely?

Doc in a hurry -

True,. Indeed most companies print the Ip primarily microsft san samsung ...

http://nixe.me/iphone

farizharkart -

A chip N-trig DS-D5000 A1, 3 chips N-trig DS-A5048 B2, and a chip Macronix MX25U1635F 1.8V 16 Mb MXSMIO Serial Flash Memory creates 5 combination of chipset. Is it the G5 Chipset that panos said on Surface event?

Sorry for my bad english, i hope you understand. Thank you.

yosiacs -

oh no, what will the anti apple people complain about now??

djrobsd -

That Samsung controller supports both AHCI and NVMe. For example, see http://www.anandtech.com/show/9396/samsu...

drpizza -

Thanks for the tip! We've updated the teardown to reflect that.

Andrew Optimus Goldheart -

Not 0,so there still something Macrohard need to works on.

Meimoku Azusa -

Thinking of replacing the SSD with a larger capacity model (since Microsoft charges an arm and a leg for extra space). But if I open the device by softening the glue with an iOpener and using an iSclack, how do I re-assemble/re-glue the device after putting in a new SSD?

John Doe -

This is the question no one seems to answer. My Pro 4 froze and on reboot the SSD has disappeared. I was able to boot into a live Linux install and it doesn't see the OS drive, nor does the Windows reinstallation tool.

I've seen reference to this tape: https://www.amazon.com/3M-Scotch-4905-VH...

as well as this: https://www.amazon.com/NIUTOP-Double-Adh...

but not entirely sure how wide to get it?

Anthony Raynor -

It would seem like this design would cause the battery to heat up considerably, which I can't imagine being too good for it. Considering how how these things get, it would appear that this would only cause the battery to have a shorter lifetime and make a difficult replacement come sooner.

Larry Chen -

Hi,

Anyone can tell if Samsung's NVMe SDD can be replaced with a SATA M.2 SSD?

ldrygiel -

I think it's almost time the "iFixit" team invests in an Electron Microscope with X-ray capabilities... or at least some kind of shrink ray to help you with your Fantastic Voyages. ; )

Great job on the MSP4 teardown!

Stef808 -

Will the iOpener damage the lcd/ pixels or even the camera/sensor if placed on the edge above those?

I need to soften up the adhesive only, not replacing the screen at all.

allanwl -

The iOpener is specifically formulated to melt adhesive without damaging parts. Follow the directions to avoid overheating, but the internal components will not be damaged.

Sam Goldheart -

iFixit folks, does the old adhesive still work for re-attaching the screen back or you have to put glue or replace the all the adhesive strips entirely?

allanwl -

in replacing the ssd do you have to reinstall windows 10?

smok3yboi619 -

If this is not a troll question, don't attempt this yourself. You have much to learn before attempting to replace SSDs on a screw-less device. I suggest building your own tower PC first. There is only one permanent storage drive on this device, so Windows will necessarily be installed on there.

To more clearly answer your question, you could either attempt an image level copy of the drive or yes, reinstall windows.

kaiser_m_c -

I have a surface pro 4, that appears that the left battery has a protective wrap on it the wrap swelled up causing the screen to seperate from the chassis. Any thoughts

gbealert -

What is the thickness of the heat plate?

leeyc -

My Surface Pro seems to be ejecting something between the edge of the bezel and the glass screen... very thin and only just sticking out ever so slightly. I looked through this tear down to try and figure out what it is and it looks like maybe the strip in the top right corner of Step 13 (motherboard coming out).. its the copper colored strip, maybe with some white writing on it (can't quite tell in the image). Any idea what it is and how alarmed I should be? That whole top edge bezel is just ever so slightly 'loose' feeling....

Thanks!

Lance Greenwood -

Sounds an awful lot lie the Wi-Fi antennas.

kaiser_m_c -

Does anyone know if the daughter board on the LCD assembly is removable or hard fixed? We got one in for repair with a small crack on the screen and we ordered the replacement screen in but it does not come with the daughter board. We are hesitant to take off the old screen if the daughter board is not removable. Anyone have experience with this?

workingshane -

Return and buy OEM, always oem even if you have to charge more. It install better confidence in your tech's on quotes and makes repairs a breeze and less likely for defects. Every OEM screen I have ordered came with the connectors and pcb's attached. Just because it's cheaper and margins are better doesn't mean a "good" repair. But you can lift it off carefully, make sure you photograph everything as not perfectly lined up and exact could and most likely will cause clearance issue and possible ribbon folding/tearing from that clearance. All because the adhesive you most likely have was not spec'ed or QA'd with the device, that's extra milimeters that wasn't intended for. All and all being creative and doing these steps wastes more time and could end badly rather than ordering the screen with it. If anything you have a spare cracked screen to practice perfection on removing it.

mike griffin -

Hi! the ntrig board is glued with double sided tape on the LCD and it is fairly simple to remove. The same tape is sticky enough to hold the pcb on the new screen. Just be careful with the ribbon cables, they are very frail. (the ones on the broken screen that I replaced broke in the middle of the bend as soon as I disconnected them).

Calin Spanu -

Step 6

Does anyone know if the daughter board on the bottom right (where the 2 ribbon cables attach) is removable and easily swappable to the new screen assembly? The new screens do not come with the daughter board. https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig... Bottom Right

workingshane -

Hi Guys,

does anyone know how thick the glue holding the screen assembly is? After the Screen assembly is removed, how easy / hard is it to remove the remaining glue from the glass or aluminium? Thanks a lot. Keep up the good work!

Dietmar -

With a little heat as you scrape carefully will get it off very nicely. Use a soft cloth with MGchemicals 99% isopropyl to clean off what a plastic spudger and slight heat couldnt, and the isopropyl will give a better clean surface to adhere new adhesive. If you have to use metallic objects to scrape clean try not to dig into the aluminum, while it won't show after repair, it will cause "pits" & "craters" (under the scope you can see em!) and will not let your adhesive have "bite" on the aluminum side and potentially leaves you open for a return or redo because of lifting.

mike griffin -

Can I replace the RAM? If, what is the compatible memory? Where can I buy it? What is the max Surface Pro 4 can support?

Subway Support -

While the ssd is "easily" replaceable(once you get to it), the RAM is NOT. It is soldered onto the motherboard. Unless you want to try your luck with soldering gun and small 2 to 4gb RAM chips...

kaiser_m_c -

Yes I agree with your scoring on these, I've repaired many surfaces and all are pain in the rear side, kind of. I wish I could find that foam-type adhesive used, that stuff is really strong. I always get the LCD panels off clean and touch still working, you would be suprised to know they have very LITTLE value, and suprisingly cheap for an oem replacement. You'll have your work cut out for you as not only is it rough to open your potentially gambling with $2k worth of MSRP hardware! Not even the 128gb iPad pro 12" intimidated me as much on the screen repair, and I did one of those like a week after release. Still on of the first on the YouTube to show that there is solder involved!

mike griffin -

Is the ram soldered ??? Can we upgrade the ram ??? Plzz reply asap guys .....plzz

FRIENDS CONFERENCE -

Hello, can some expert of Surface Pro tell me if one can replace the Surface Pro 4's RAM and HDD with Surface Pro 3? I have two Surface Pro: the 4 has 4GB with 128GB; where as the 3 has 8GB and 256GB. I would like to swap them so my surface pro is as beefy as I can get!

Is it possible?

riz hossain -

bad news is 4gb ram will be 4gb ram (surface owner can't upgrade it)

in many countries 8 GB ram surface pro 4 is very expensive (if users can upgrade the ram it will very awesome - and very cheap )

Daniel Blackbird -

Do you guys know how n\to snap the screen in after fixing it?

Qúy Khang Đầu -

Does anyone know where I can buy a spare Surface Pro 4 Wifi antenna?

Amazing FondueNYC -

Most parts can be purchased here -> http://www.powerbookmedic.com/xcart1/hom...

J.Squires -

Has anyone experienced issues with not being able to run off of battery after screen replacement? Everything worked fine including running off battery my screen was just shattered so I ordered a replacement and put it in using a heat gun lightly and pry tools. That said I did turn to a razor knife to scrap off some adhesive and may have sliced into the gold embedded wire for the Ambient light sensor board. Everything seems to work fine when I am plugged in. The battery shows it is charging are even charged completely but if I unplug it immediately turns off completely.

J.Squires -

Torn completely down again tested battery and it has full charge, ran a led light for couple days and run battery to 40%. Put everything back together including using concudtive glue to fix the WiFi antenna that I previously sliced. Still no luck running off of battery with new screen. I am thinking it must have to do with some kind of grounding that is not making contact with the new screen when running on battery. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

J.Squires -

Hello thank you for the brilliant article

I have a question if anyone could answer, that would be great!

Can I put the motherboard of a cosmetically damaged Surface Pro i7 into my Microsoft i3 and it behave it's self?

Any in put would be gladly received. ,

All the best Steven

totalloser -

chassis for i3 and i7 models have different thickness. i7 has a fan that the i3 does not. it's highly unlikely you would get it to fit the way you described.

joeku -

Has anyone been successful in finding the schematics for this board? I have a water damaged Surface Pro 4 I'm working on and trying to find replacement ics and bga chips to replace.

Thank you

Dan

Dan -

It'll be easier to replace the entire board than try to replace individual ICs.

joeku -

Helllo everyone, I am ina bit of a mess with this device. I tried a screen replacement on my i7 pro. Whilst doing this I mistakenly tore the flex that connects the n-trig board to the motherboard. But I still tried to connect all together to at least check that the display I bought is working.

Unfortunately I didnt get any thiong on the screen, I have now ordered a new flex ribbon whic h should hopefully be here on Friday. Does anyone know if this could be responsible for my no display. I am sure the pro is on as I can feel the board is warm etc. I've also ordered an HDMi which I can hopefully use to see it on an external screen. Has anyone here attempted a screen replacement before?

Olly -

Does anyone know where I can buy a bottom case for surface pro 4?

Lyntis Moten -

Does anyone know where I can buy a motherboard for surface pro 4 128 i5?

Roberto -

Nice piece guys, please my Microsoft surface pro4 screen start to flicker after a while, like when the processor get hot. Thought it was a windows problem, which I actually reset the system but the problem persisted. Any solution please? Thanks

Abbas abubakar -

Can you changed a CMOS battery in SP4 to get out of UEFI stuck mode since I do not have the password?

Hien Pham -

Any idea how to remove the CMOS battery and replace, or does this not exist on the SP4? thanks

Ian -

Can you remove and replace the CMOS battery on a SP4? Or does this not exist? How did you get around the stuck UEFI mode? thanks

Ian -

If we want to reset the CMOS/BIOS we can just remove the battery connector, correct ?

Hien Pham -

Battery level indicator indicating that it is not charging even plugged in. Possible to repair?

Wei Chien -

Battery indicator indicating that plugged in but not charging.. Is my SP4 battery dead or other hardware issue? Can it be repaired?

Wei Chien -

We have chenges the screen. Once done the Surface works but only with the adaptor and does not work with his own battery. Any Ideas???

David Cohen -

Wei Chien. Did you get any answer/solution?

David Cohen -

To re assemble the LCD is there a specific glue or just double side tape? And what is the replacement SSD (512) type or model number?

Ken -

Hi. What’s the red surface just behind the CPU, non-conductive insulation? Also, what type of adhesive material is used at the back of the batteries? It there any chance that the batteries also serve the role of heat pipes, transferring heat they absorb from the copper plate to the back panel, via the adhesive? That would explain how the back of the Surface Pro feels warmer than the touch screen (that’s my impression).

Nikos Tsarmpopoulos -

Hi

i have surface pro 4 and it has 2 problems

flick(vibration)screen + BSOD (hardware failure)

is there a way to find why this problems occur ? (I am IT engineer and i can’t solve that -drivers , … )

thanks

ps: my country is ban from US and i can’t exchange it

Daniel Blackbird -

I didn’t see the antenna for the wifi thingy…actually, did we even see the wifi chip in this teardown???

Well, the antenna is clearly visible in the last pictures of this teardown, when they hang around loosely around the empty frame.

*frame.*

Overall it was a decent *laptop* that was repair-wise ACCEPTABLE, with screws, still, holding most things down.

That array of connectors for keyboard and stuff should add point to the score of 2.

Overall, it shouldn’t get a 2. Yes, you can’t get the battery out of there without destroying it (or practically burning it so it will be hot and soften the glue), but when you do need to get the battery out there it is pretty much dead, so you can just wrestle it out, and put LIGHT ADHESIVE (opposite of Samsung’s patches) for convenience.

Personally, I’d rate it 6. Because only the display was lagging off.

. n .

I hate those new, adhesive-bound new “thin“ models. I think a 0.5 inch thick “brick” would be better.

Although, one had hever made a great touchscreen held with screws…

Xavier Jiang -

Hi

I have s4p 128 gb. I have issue with surface stop responding when not being charged.i tried recovery but dosnt help. I thought thats battery but its screen is light

Mateusz Iński -

My surface pro 4 has stopped detecting USB devices, or the keyboard cover? Any suggestions? Hardware failure?

mshunt80 -

My Surface Pro 4 was bent in my backpack. Enough to pop the screen away from the base about 1/4”. Still works great.

There is something that keeps me from popping the bottom of the screen to the case. Do I have to pop the screen in hopes to find something that is out of place, thus keeping me from snapping it back in place?

Thanks.

Ray Franklin -

My surface pro 4 just stopped Woking. I opened the panel in the process damaged one part. I need to find the part number for the same could somebody please help.

Part is located in the center of the board where the screen connects to the motherboard

On the left of the display connector.

The part is in blue color

jigar -

1) https://ibb.co/YdKPQFk zoomed out

2) https://ibb.co/SXFdpbn please help

jigar -

Hi there,

My daughter’s SP4 got the Black Plague. MS said they’d replace it for $350, but she wants her data (teenage girl, lots of pics stored on it- irreplaceable- with her friends in fun places). Can the data be retrieved?

Jazz -

hi, you forgot to show removing the charging port assembly

Alex Edwards -

Good day,

i have 1 issue after upgrade the new SSD, and during fresh install the win10, I counld’t find any SSD in the system, any solution?

its brand new SSD (XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB). Please share some idea? thanks.

Don Lee -

Hi!

(For) What are these three flat cable stickers in step 10 (where the micro is mounted on).

Thanks

Marcus

Marcus Münch -

nice work guys, as i understand from all this that the RAM is ON the SSD it self? or did i miss something?

Daniel -

I need to find a replacement battery for my surface pro 4, but since I’m based in Thailand I can’t order from your website unfortunately. Do you have any suggestions on how I can identify if the battery replacements are genuine original?

Chris Sutcliffe -

What happens if you remove the battery without first disconnecting the connector cable? Will the device no longer work?

Chronicles Of life -