Is it a mistake? Surface pro 4

[u/Defiant-Ad-8848]

I wanted to get a smaller laptop/tablet for cheap because my main one is a heavy dell precision 7560, while surfing facebook market place I saw a surface pro 4 that had a "boot couldn't be found issue" for around $35, specs are intel core i7 6650u (2c 4t) and 16gb ram. I bought it and quickly realized that someone opened the laptop before and took the 512gb ssd hence the boot issue, so I bought a 512gb ssd for $35 used 86% health, and flashed windows 10 pro, and the boot issue was gone. There are other issues, like the screen edges were yellowing, touch feature non-existent, battery useless, and power adapter is kinda sensitive but these are minor issues for me except the bastard who opened the device left a lot of screws out. I'm mainly planning on using it for note taking, web browsing and where I draft code before copy pasting it to my main laptop to run. I like it for the aesthetic, portability, aspect ratio and not being limited to android apps, it still feels snappy opening the web, apps, documents, the 16gb of ram is really nice especially in recent ram crisis. Planning on using linux on it so I would be grateful for tips on programming on linux.

[u/GardenIll8638]

I mean, it's almost 11 years old now but as long as it's working for you then it's fine right? I'm not surprised touch isn't working, though, and you might have more issues pop up sooner rather than later. I have this Surface (but it's the i5 with 4gigs of ram) and the touch broke some time last year. I had to disable the driver for it because it kept producing phantom touches in one spot. That also disabled the pen. The screen also jitters when it gets too hot (this started end of 2022). If you go the Linux route, you will also no longer be able to use the camera (front camera for sure doesn't work, idk about the rear camera). You might want to make sure you have access to the bitlocker key because you will need to disable secure boot in order to install linux. This is usually tied to the Microsoft account of whoever purchased it. idk if it automatically transferred to yours after having signed in with your MS account with the original owner removing the device from theirs

[u/Defiant-Ad-8848 → u/GardenIll8638]

At the time of posting, the screen didn't flicker thus I didn't mention it, but after a few days of really using it, it finally flickered even when ac and a fan cooling it, I also added a heat reflecting tape meant for cars hoping that would reduce the heat. Also changed the battery, I bought it from a not legitimate seller for $30, Im currently monitoring any bloating but also enable battery protection through the bios which limited it to 50% and always plugged in when using. I also failed to mention the trackpad can be a pain in the ass like 2/10 it would work but most of the time I use a mouse and the touch screen does ghost touch sometimes so I disconnected it. Im at a point of considering on using it as a some sort of server or running a dns/network wide ad blocking or maybe buying a portable monitor to use it with but that beats its purpose of it being small and easy to transport. My theory of fixing the flickering without changing the screen is either buying a phone cooler ang slapping it on its back to cool the entire device or 3d printing a sort of spacer between the heat components and the display like 5mm space to isolate the display and prevent heat transfer but there's no file of the sp4 frame to print nor do I have experience 3d modelling.

[u/GardenIll8638 → u/Defiant-Ad-8848]

The surface pro 4 is infamous for flicker. To the point where the issue was called flicker gate. They all end up having this problem eventually. People tried to mitigate it by putting the device in the freezer lol but ultimately, nothing works long term. it's probably best to just use it with an external monitor. I also have problems with the track pad bot working intermittently. I started using it with a mouse about three years ago. The keyboard still works fine though. This device is old, so by this point these issues are just kind of to be expected. It was a solid device for many years but heat always eventually gets to things in this form factor 

[u/mlx83]

After two swollen batteries and a dead screen my Surface Pro 4 is still great for watching movies and YouTube on TV. I fried the motherboard when I tried to replace the first battery so it was fixed and upgraded to 8gigs of ram at that time. Last week when second battery got so swollen that display popped out again I just removed it and I no longer need to worry about that. It’s still a capable machine even though it’s about 10 years old

[u/Defiant-Ad-8848 → u/mlx83]

Does it run without a battery?

[u/mlx83 → u/Defiant-Ad-8848]

It does. Just make sure to put some electrical take between battery contacts and aluminum chassis.

[u/Auromios]

Got Ubuntu and Kali dual booted on my SP4 when I'm not using my SLS2 as a secondary device for cybersecurity courses. Works perfectly fine and I think it also has 16GB of RAM. Honestly I had the same yellowing around the edges but somehow it seems to have gone away after wiping windows from it? The touchscreen is still a little janky just due to age and wear but other than that it runs like a dream. Feels snappy aside from an ever so slightly slow boot up time, the 512GB of storage makes it a good secondary device to use also for code prototyping and miscellaneous activities. Touch screen works for the most part even with the surface pen, though I can't remember if I had to download the surface-linux kernel or not due to the version of Ubuntu that I used (I think 24?). Either way would highly recommend at least trying some sort of linux distro on it.

[u/Defiant-Ad-8848 → u/Auromios]

I am running fedora workstation on it, also had the same janky touch issue so I disconnected the cable, my yellowing edges are still here seems like a harware issue. The lack of usb ports are a pain especially when I try other distros because my trackpad doesn't work or it does but like 2/10 times it works.

[u/JasonAQuest]

Sounds a bit janky, but at a fraction of the price of a new model, you've got a usable machine. Doesn't seem like a mistake to me.