Einleitung

It's a laptop! It's a tablet! It's a lablet! It's…it's…Microsoft's Surface Windows 8 Pro, and it's about to go down on the teardown table.

Want more super gadget gutting? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

Maybe one day we could combine those, as well, to get Facer or Twitbook! But for now, we will settle for Microsoft's newest lablet.

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    • Here lies the second version of Surface devices, the Microsoft Surface Pro.

    • Noteworthy specs:

    • Windows 8, the real deal

    • 10.6" ClearType HD Display (resolution of 1920x1080 pixels) with 10 point multitouch

    • 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000 (the same graphics found in current-generation MacBook Air laptops)

    • 4 GB of DDR3-1600 RAM

    • 64 GB or 128 GB flash storage

    • Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.0

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    • Despite its name's implication, the Microsoft Surface Pro actually has multiple surfaces! This design may have been to confuse consumers, but more likely was necessary to suit our perception of three dimensions. Checking out the surfaces fitted with the ports we find:

    • Headset jack

    • Volume rocker

    • Full-size USB 3.0 port

    • On the flipside:

    • Mini DisplayPort

    • Magnetic charging port

    • MicroSDXC card slot

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    • Just like last time, we lift the kickstand and let the Surface reveal its secrets.

    • What wisdom does this Pro have for us?

    • "Surface | 64 GB | Model 1514 | Made in China." Also, great news: this device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Good to know.

    • 64 GB of storage? Where we're going, we don't need storage.

    • …which is good, since the operating system takes up over half of those 64 gigs! (More on that later.)

    • We begin our trip back into the land of torn down devices; we first use our trusty T5 Torx screwdriver to pull out two screws securing the kickstand to its hinges.

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    • We are starting to miss the old Surface, as we find a metric duckload of adhesive holding the screen in place.

    • A metric duckload is not to be confused with an imperial duckload.

    • We tried every method we could think of to free the screen, including cutting the adhesive, to no avail. This Pro requires a pro method. Thankfully, we have one: we call it the Heat-It-Up-and-Poke-It-Til-It-Does-What-We-Want method. Luckily, we have the required heat gun and guitar picks ready.

    Estimated time to remove the display would be approx 20-30 mins for a professional and maybe 45-50 mins for an novice fixer.

    David Fear -

    Watch out for these ribbon cables as you take off the glass.

    Buddy Rennie -

    My massively swollen battery actually forced the case open for me! I knew the battery was swelling, but I was procrastinating about doing anything about it. Then one day I heard a strange alarm. I looked over, and the case had split open! The computer was still running, so nothing was damaged. I immediately shut it down, but now I’m thinking I should turn it back on to drain the battery before I attempt to remove the battery.

    Sheryl -

    I know this is late, but for future readers: do not “turn it back in to drain the battery.” If it's swollen enough to pop the screen off, then it needs to be shut down. Take the battery out and fill a 5 gallon bucket with 4 gallons of water and dissolve ½ to 1 cup of salt into it. Then toss the battery in the salt water to discharge. (Read on Google how to discharge it using this method.)

    Andrew Delashaw -

    How many spuders to crack this thing open? Or are the guitar picks better?

    Jimmy Milla -

    I accidentally caused the battery to ignite. It was not swollen. I probably caused rapid discharge by shorting something. I don’t need to worry about fixing this computer anymore.

    John Dixon -

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    • After a long process of heating and prying, we get our first glance inside.

    • No, that sticky black stuff is not tar, although it is unbelievably close in function, appearance, and smell.

    • There was no warranty voiding sticker this round, but you don't really need one to tell if this lablet has been opened—the adhesive is a dead giveaway.

    If that isn't tar, What's that? It looks alike, and it says that it's close in function, appearance, and smell

    jimenezser -

    Are there cables that can be cut when prying the screen/digitizer up? Where do we need to be careful? The iPad 2 guide was very clear about where cables could be problematic, and I still managed skip a step and cut the digitizer cable. I want to be more careful this time. :)

    brian -

    The cables are located along the bottom of the screen. The best place to start would be the upper left corner. First go along the top, be careful around the camera, then continue down the right hand side. when you get to the bottom right corner just go around the corner about 5-10mm. Now return to the top left corner and continue down the left hand side following the same procedure as the right. guitar picks / sim cards or similar are useful to keep the screen separated as you go along.

    When all 3 sides are separated, gently lift up the display. The display is still attached at this point. detach all but the centre ribbon cable.

    Now gently heat the bottom off the display, and when the glue is soft, gently separate the display from the tablet.

    David Fear -

    if you were to put this back together can you make it look like it wasnt opened? obviously you could tell if you opened it again but i mean can you cleanly close it back together and make it look like it wasnt opened? and do you need to buy the adhesive to put it back together succefuly

    derick -

    First remove the sticky black adhesive. Once removed, use 10mm double sided tape (preferably made by 3M) to stick the new display down.

    David Fear -

    Use WD-40 to clean up all the adhesive once you get the plastic bezel out. Use rubbing alcohol to clean up the WD-40.

    Apply fresh double-faced tape to the plastic bezel after its re-installed, but leave the backer on it. Fire up your Surface and check everything BEFORE you pull off the tape backer.

    Spanky -

    So just in case there are any other idiots like me, word of caution. Pry up on the glass, not the plastic that the glass is glued to. If you heat it up enough and you pry the plastic with some force, you can pop the screws right through the plastic. Now I need to figure out how to reattach the plastic with no screw holes. Gonna try double sided tape on the plastic and the new screen.

    If you pry up on the glass its actually not too hard. And I've connected my new screen and it works. Just have to get it back together so it looks pretty :)

    Trevor Tirrell -

    At the bottom of the screen there are some ribbon cables that are hard up against the glass. My adhesive stuck to the bezel and not the screen so I ran my guitar pick through them with little effort. You should really put some photos up of the backside of the display so people don’t make the same mistake.

    Buddy Rennie -

    How did you resolve the cable on the tar in your picture. Mine was also glued into the tar, and detached from the screen, it doesn't plug into anything, just sits on the screen. Not sure what it does.

    Joey B -

    I got the screen off fairly quickly and easily. It was 3/4 off to start because my swollen battery forced it open. I used a baby (low-temp) heat gun in quick bursts on the 4th side, inching a plastic card along in the slit until it came free. You need some heat, but it’s important not to get it too hot or you’ll crack the glass screen.

    The harder part was cleaning the tape and glue residue off the edges. Yikes! That glue is so sticky, it stuck to my fingers and got all over my clothes, and little bits of it fell on the system board. I had to look very carefully over the whole thing to pick it all off. First I loosened the tape with short bursts from the baby heat gun, and used a plastic scraper to pull off as much tape and glue as I could. After the tape was off, I used 99% alcohol and a series of paper towels to get the rest of the glue residue off. Then I looked everything over carefully to make sure no stray pieces of glue were on the system board.

    Sheryl -

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    • Strapped to the back of the LCD is a small PCB housing a Wacom W9002 chip, that we assume is responsible for driving the Wacom Electro Magnetic Resonance (EMR) digitizer system.

    • In this system, developed by Wacom, a grid of wires embedded in the screen generate magnetic fields that induce current in a coil in the tip of the tablet pen, both powering it and indicating its position over the grid. The pen then wirelessly returns that location data, along with pressure and click information.

    • We also found the LCD display driver, a Samsung WiseView N52A2NE, similar to the driver found in the iPad 2.

    • Here's the ginormous version of the LCD display board so you can view it in all its glory.

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    • Let's face it, there's really not much to see here. Eye can't think of anything clever, so if anyone nose something to say about the Surface Pro with its display removed, please mouth your opinion. I mustache you to keep thinking while eyebrows the interwebs.

    • Puns aside, we whip out our handy screwdriver and remove the 23 screws holding this plastic bezel in place.

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    • With the gluey plastic bezel clear of the device, we gain access to the front-facing camera.

    • While this 720p HD "LifeCam with TrueColor" is nothing to write home about, it's on par with both the MacBook Air and iPad's front-facing cams.

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    • Open the pod bay doors please, HAL.

    • Oh…That turned out to be a lot easier than we expected. Apparently our screwdriver is much better at listening to us than a rogue computer.

    • Although it's easier to remove screws than adhesive, there is no shortage of work. These two metal plates are held in with a total of 29 screws.

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    • We use our ESD-safe tweezers to safely remove the volume buttons and headphone jack, which are tied together in a neat package by a ribbon cable.

    • So much for listening to the Pro's Grammy commercial.

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    • We've cracked the surface (figuratively speaking, of course—we would never damage a device…), but we continue digging deeper with our spudger and screwdriver until we can remove the motherboard assembly and the SSD.

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    • The Micron RealSSD C400 packs 64 GB of storage capacity. It can read 500MB/s and write 95 MB/s — all in a tiny 1.8" form factor.

    • Digging a little deeper, we find that a Marvell 88SS9174 SSD processor is keeping all those Micron flash ICs running smoothly.

    • PSA: The Windows 8 operating system chows down a fair chunk of the 64 GB total storage. After negating 30+ GB for the operating system, the full MS Office suite that you may not have even activated, as well as the factory restore image, the Surface Pro provides users with around 29 GB of usable space.

    • 128 GB-outfitted owners make do with 89 GB of free space. Ed Bott performed some tests comparing it to the 128 GB MacBook Air, which has 99.5 GB free space.

    Sorry, the numbers quoted here are inaccurate. When measured in gigabytes (billions of bytes) to match the 64GB advertised capacity, available initial storage is approximately 32 GB, and you can relocate the recovery partition to increase available storage to 40 GB. The Windows 8 operating system and included apps take up 22 GB of space, not 40 GB. See this article: http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-officiall...

    Ed Bott -

    Thanks for letting us know, Ed. Fixed!

    Kyle Wiens -

    Can it be replaced for a bigger msata card? If so, how big (in storage of course)

    Pedro Saenz -

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    • Checking out the top surface of the motherboard:

    • 8x Micron 2LEI2 D9PXV 4 Gb RAM for a total of 4 GB RAM

    • Integrated Technology Express IT8519G

    • Atmel UC256l3U 256KB Flash, 32-bit AVR Microcontroller

    • ON NCP6132A 3 Phase Controller

    • Atmel MXT1386E Touchscreen Controller

    • 3x Atmel MXT154E Touchscreen Controllers (the same controllers we found in the Surface RT)

    • Realtek ALC3230 Audio Codec

    Is there any indication as to whether the MicroSDXC reader (on either Surface) would support the new, higher speed UHS-I or UHS-II cards?

    The reader would have an extra row of pins to get higher data rates. The Surface team on Twitter has been delightfully evasive - saying they support all cards on the market.

    I want to know if they support the cards with the faster transfer rates (above 100MB/sec)!

    Which requires extra pins...

    For reference: http://sdxc2.com/UHS-II.htm

    Gregg -

    Well, here's how things look like inside the Surface Pro's MicroSDXC card reader. So will that accommodate the extra row of pins? You be the judge.

    Since the Pro is toast (and we haven't a UHS card), we can't really test it for you. Hopefully the picture helps!

    Miroslav Djuric -

    Awesome pic!

    I think that puts it all in perspective... so big storage yes, big fast storage, not so much.

    (i.e. no UHS-II level fast transfer, which would have been near SATA speeds I guess)

    Next time Gadget... Next tiiiime!!

    Gregg -

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    • And tucked underneath, on the bottom:

    • Intel Mobile HM77 Express Chipset

    • Intel Core i5-3317U Processor

    • Marvell Avastar 88W8797 Wireless/Bluetooth/FM Radio Controller

    • Novatek NT96132QG46

    • 2x Winbond 25X05CL Serial Flash

    • Winbond 25Q64FV Serial Flash

    Is the processor removable?

    joshuarlowry -

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    • A few more flicks of the spudger and out come the stereo speakers.

    • Next up is the keyboard dock connector. The same type of port is used in both the Pro and non-Pro versions of the Surface, allowing the Type Cover keyboard to be cross-compatible.

    Anyone knows the pins for the dock? And there are these BIG pins on the side that don't appear on the Surface RT, the Surface team said on Reddit that they are for charging the Surface (would make sense), so anyone knows what's + and - there?!

    Felix Becker -

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    • More parts fly out of the Pro including the power connector and rear-facing camera.

    • The rear camera resolution is the same 720P as the front, so the Surface Pro may not be the best replacement for your Nikon D600 SLR.

    • The power connector clearly labels each pin with G, 12V, and DET.

    • Also making an appearance is the top-mounted microphone and its soft rubber enclosure, good for FaceTime Skype video calls.

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    • The plastic top-rear bezel also doubles as a vent for the Pro's laptop-worthy hardware.

    • Two ports through the bezel act as venting ducts for the fans, directing hot air out the top. It appears that the Pro's fans draw ambient air in through the many vent holes spaced around the perimeter, then force that air over the heat sink's two radiators and out of the device, cooling the CPU and GPU.

    does using a case like this impede the airflow and cooling? All the ports are uncovered but your description of where the cooling occurs isn't precise. Thanks. http://www.amazon.com/Manvex-Microsoft-C...

    Andrew -

    the case doesn't impede any airflow, the vet is across the very top edge of the device

    Andrew Breazna -

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    • Microsoft spared no expense when it came to keeping the Surface Pro going. They sourced the Cadillac of batteries from LG: an Escalade 42 Wh unit. The battery is rated for 7.4 V and 5676 mAh.

    • Impressive specs? Note that the iPad 4 has a 43 Wh battery, albeit at 3.7 V.

    • And even with all this battery juice, the reported battery life of the Surface Pro is less than 5 hours.

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    • Lesson learned about adhesive in this teardown—we go straight to the iOpener in order to get the battery out of its sticky cage.

    • As always, we are ignoring some kind of warning. This time, it tells us not to remove the battery from the back cover. Apparently, to safely replace your battery you will need a whole back cover assembly.

    • We don't understand the point of heavily-glued batteries. This kind of planned obsolescence is completely unnecessary.

    • We assume the sweet camo pattern on the rear case interior is an insulating coating applied to the otherwise conductive panel.

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    • Microsoft Surface Pro Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)

    • The battery is not soldered to the motherboard, so at least no soldering is required to replace it.

    • The SSD is removable — but you risk killing your tablet by trying to open it.

    • There are over 90 screws inside this device. We're proponents of mechanical fasteners, but this number is a tad crazy.

    • The display assembly (comprising of a fused glass and LCD) is extremely difficult to remove/replace.

    • Tons of adhesive hold everything in place, including the display and battery.

    • Unless you perform the opening procedure 100% correctly, chances are you'll shear one of the four cables surrounding the display perimeter.

    It's actually not that bad to tear down, I'll take it over an iPad anyday. Just a handy heat gun and watch all the cables at the bottom.

    I would be hesitant on a new surface pro or pro 2 however, I purchased a 64gb pro on ebay with the screen already broken. Following the guide here I got the screen replaced and upgraded the SSD to a 480GB

    Mark -

    480Gb?? What model and how does it affect the battery life?

    moldor -

    Mark, do you think a 1TB Samsung 840 EVO would work in a 1st gen Surface Pro?

    I'm thinking of doing an SSD upgrade of my 64GB model.

    halofreak1990 -

    Yeah, this works. Unfortunately, I DID shear the two ribbon cables at the bottom, killing both the touch detection and I somehow damaged the LCD somewhat; it now can't display black, and I have some artifacts on-screen. I'll use the broken LCD until I get a replacement, but really, unless you're really careful, especially with the bottom edge of the screen, I'd strongly advise against trying to open it.

    Bottom line: While the 1TB SSD is nice to have, it might not be worth the price. (€ 400-somewhat for the SSD, and another €400-somewhat for a new display assembly).

    halofreak1990 -

    Hi Mark

    I had my surface pro screen badly damaged ( surface hit the floor vertically at the upper left corner and portion of the screen off ) I am not able to pass post the surface logo screen when I boot so no way to get to boot sequence to boot on another drive. Is this the only way to get to my data as I have important stuff not backed up. When I remove the SSD any idea how to read the data on it?

    Seba Zreiby -

    can you tell me what brand and model sad you used, and how did you load windows 8 back on to it?

    Almando -

    Oh and what did you use to "glue" the screen back on?

    Almando -

    I don't know if they did. By the looks of the screenshot, they tore off the ribbon cable at the botton of the screen, which would kill the touch detection. And if they did glue it back together, they'd have probably gotten a replacement screen, and used some double-sided tape to put it back together.

    halofreak1990 -

    10mm 3M double-sided adhesive tape would be be the best choice.

    David Fear -

    Would you happen to know what USB chip was used in the Surface Pro? It would be really helpful to know...

    sdge5y34t4g3 -

    First extract your Windows product key using magic jelly bean. Then you need a copy of Windows 8 or 8.1 Pro. Your product key will work. Here's the tricky part. You need to make a Windows 8 Thumbdrive with GUID Partitions formatted as Fat32. (Do not use MBR partitions with NTFS). There's instructions on YouTube for that.

    I used my thumbdrive to clear the recovery partition and do a clean install. Don't worry about drivers. Everything will work even before updates.

    Corie Allen -

    In this step the question was asked about re-attaching the screen. It was said to use 3M double stick tape, 10mm wide. I've searched for the tape and found two types, one is foam tape and the other is the clear double stick tape. Which one is correct?

    stalek -

Andrew Optimus Goldheart

Mitglied seit: 17/10/09

493949 Reputation

30 Kommentare

I wonder if you can upgrade the CPU to Haswell when it comes out...

Vincent Liu -

Ah, nvm, looks like it will be LGA 1150 socket =(((((

Vincent Liu -

Looks like this is going to be difficult to upgrade the 64GB SSD to a larger SSD. I can see that it is a standard size mSATA SSD card. But the hard part is the heating of the screen edges and prying the screen off in order to get access to the internals. Once it is taken apart, what kind of glue do you use to put the screen back on? The glue needs to be strong enough to be secure but also able to be removed again if needed.

HoHo -

You can test if the SSD works correctly without gluing it.Once it's okay,glue it.

lenovotcldellhp -

I use B-7000 for phone and tablet repairs as it is a strong glue that gets soft when heated. If you are interested, here is the link for the glue: https://www.amazon.com/MMOBIEL-Multipurp...

Gavin Weaver -

Could it be that you linked the wrong SSD? You linked a 1,8" MTFDDAA064MAM-1J2 but in your picture you clearly can see a mSATA MTFDDAT064MAM-1J2.

Bjoern -

Linked to correct SSD. No idea what happened there, but I take full responsibility.

Miroslav Djuric -

Step 1 -> Noteworthy components - "3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000 (the same graphics found in current-generation MacBook Pro laptops)"

-> Surface Pro runs an i5-3317U with an integrated graphics controller HD 4000 running at 350 MHz by default. While it's true that MacBook Pros integrate HD 4000, they are not the same - as the HD 4000 on the lowest MacBook Pro (i5-3210M, 2.5Ghz) runs at 650 MHz by default - 185% faster than the HD 4000 on the Surface Pro.

-> Corrected to "3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor with Intel HD Graphics 4000 (the same graphics found in current-generation MacBook Air laptops)"

Hasufel -

Did you teardown the keyboard too? Whats used for backlight there?

Force -

hey!! I have a pro, and it broke twice , they gave me a new one each time (sound card failure, folowed by blowen fan bearing) I want to just give up on sending it back next time it gives in and fix it myself... so while I had it open I thought I might as well mod it out. so I was wondering, is the processor removable/upgradeable? what about the ram? I want to put in dual 4 gig cards for an 8 gig total ram and the i5 for an i7-3520M since they share sockets... how legal is that in terms of doing it without the need of a dremel and hot glue?

Andrew Breazna -

It might technically be possible to desolder and upgrade the CPU, GPU, and RAM chips with a SMD reflow station, but I am not 100% sure if it works. Note: I don’t take responsibility if you try this and you ruin the Surface Pro

Gavin Weaver -

I love you

This is the most sensible, witty and wise tech site ever. I don't care what creed, color or even sex you are ... I love you. I wouldn't mind a summary or an epilogue after the last step however ... it just feels incomplete ... I didn't know if you were finished or my device froze. At any rate ... Thank you. Franc

Franc Caggiano -

My Microsoft surface laptop can't open, the outside part of laptop is just like a iron that is exposed to a rain water. I asked to repair it here in our place but they doesn't have any materials to open it, what should I do? is there any other chance to open my laptop? please help me to solve this.

And also my keyboard doesn't work at all. :(((

Angelica -

Hi to all.I wonder could the battery be replaced with a better one so it would last more?any suggestions?

environmentall -

Hi to all.I wonder could the battery be replaced with a better one so it would last more?any suggestions?Also any suggestions on SSD model

environmentall -

I just bought a Surface Pro, second hand. Tragically, the day after I connected a broken/cheap 3.0 HUB and managed to 'fry' the only USB port. The port isn't able to provide 5V anymore, but the data connection still works.

Too bad the Surface Pro is too hard to open, let alone fix! Now I will have to provide a proper powered USB hub just to connect simple devices.

I wonder if I could draw the 5V power from any other connector around the surface, or even if I open the Surface, if I could make a connection between the USB's VCC pin and any other place in the device (an internal USB connector which drives the SD card reader?). But it seems too risky to open the device, and the external connectors remain a mystery.

I feel very bad, the toy didn't last a day. Any lights?

emilio -

Perhaps something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/HIGHROCK-Enhancer...

This is a USB2 extension cable.  It has two jacks (one for power and the other for power and data) which feed the one port, hence you are able to get more power than if you plug into just one USB port.

I’ve also seen USB3 extension cables with an extra USB2 plug attached - the USB2 plug is just to add some additional power to the line, not for data.

I’ve never tried one of these cables, but the principle makes sense to me.

Perhaps there is a cable like this which will combine USB with some other type of connection, but I’ve never heard of anything like that.

MrJimPhelps -

I wonder if I can increase the flash memory to 256 gb? I'd pay more.

jkds -

Is there anywhere to buy a new plastic bezel?

nick -

can i cut the back to instal a bigger ssd ?

raymond1212 -

Lol tempting isn’t it they knew exactly what they were doing Microsoft had envy forApples proprietary products. The whole purpose was to Keep You Out!!! The first RT had access to the back they ditched it. Take for example my issue scanning and repair loop error, it can’t be fixed without tanking out the SSD and formatting it secondaryto get ahead of the Automatic Repair Function. Yank, format then install OS and I’m done sounds easy until your peaking glue, trying to avoid thin cable, heating the housing and trying not to warp it, not losing a zillion screws. Thus if your issue isn’t necessary like mine, don’t do it. Buy a micro SD card or sell yours and buy a 128 version and a SD card.

Louis Reed -

can i upgrade the ssd by cutting the back (behind kick stand) ?

raymond1212 -

Can you REPLACE the 4 GB of RAM for something higher?

dmlcannon -

My best friend of mine and I we use exactly the same Surface Pro (1) models. However he has been using his connecting audio-jack cable from amplifier to audio-port, and probably damaged or burned out his audio-out on his computer. Do you have any idea how to trouble-shoot it and repair it? Once we tear it down to repair it, we will use the opportunity to replace battery pack too.

Jaro -

Just replaced a broken screen on a Surface Pro Gen 1 and although not my first rodeo, I'll admit-- it's difficult for sure. The adhesive is truly no joke so before you start, take your vitamins, eat your Wheaties, say a prayer and hold on tight! (or just have an insane amount of guitar picks and the heat gun handy)

Christopher Perosi -

I’m wondering why Surface Pro doesn’t have any thermal heat sink materials for cooling the CPU/GPU & SSD? Does it work well in this way??

johnzhang90 -

It gets quite warm after a couple of hours continuous use, but not too hot to use resting on your legs (I wouldn’t put any “laptop“ directly on my lap - that’s asking for trouble!)

yas -

Nice post, thanks for effort :-)

Just got a dead (prob battery flat) model 1514 with 128G ssd but, without charger. I can rig up a 12v DC source and patch into the charge pins and see what happens.

Mike

niche@ii.net

Mike Massen -

Hello

Thanks for sharing this

And I am wondering if that possible to separate the touch digitizer glass screen to replace it with a new one

For surface pro4?

And if there a guide for this please share with me

Tarek Shalaby -

The million dollar question! What are the post pattern errors. After replacing my ssd I get 3 lights, 3 lights, 3 lights, 4 lights. 1 long (repeat). Charger light is fine.

I got 2 more to replace ssd in, but want to finish 1 to working before the next. Microsoft is holding the POST codes as secret confidential information.

Joey B -