If you are one of those tasked with supporting a multitude of end-users who use a Microsoft Surface device (Book or Pro) as their daily driver, you’ll want to keep this tool in your arsenal.
The Microsoft Surface Diagnostic Toolkit is a diagnostic tool that performs tests against the Surface hardware and software pieces significant to hardware operation to report on any specific problems that it finds. The tool is less than 3MB in size, which means you can store it on a USB stick or run it from the network. It works for Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, Surface 3 LTE, Surface 3, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro.
You can allow the tool to run automated and it will check against a long list of hardware components, however it can’t run unattended – meaning it prompts for input during the testing. You can also run the tool with a command-line argument to check against a specific component or even exclude a specific component.
A valid command-line for running against a specific a component would be:
Surface_Diagnostic_Toolkit_1.0.60.0.exe “include=DualGraphicsTest,FanTest,MuscleWireTest”
A valid command-line for excluding a component would be:
Surface_Diagnostic_Toolkit_1.0.60.0.exe “exclude=BatteryTest,CameraTest”
Incidentally, because of the utility's command-line capabilities, it can be used in scripts to automate testing remotely.
These command-line arguments are detailed in the download which can be downloaded from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46703
Here’s the list of Surface hardware (and software) that it checks against:
- Windows Update
- Device information
- Type Cover test
- Integrated keyboard test
- Canvas mode battery test
- Clipboard mode battery test
- Laptop mode battery test
- Battery test
- Discrete graphics (dGPU) fan test
- Muscle wire test
- Dead pixel and display artifacts tests
- Digitizer edges
- Digitizer pinch
- Digitizer touch
- Digitizer pen test
- Digitizer multi touch
- Home button test
- Volume rocker test
- Micro SD or SD slot test
- Microphone test
- Video out test
- Bluetooth test
- Camera test
- Speaker test
- Network test
- Power test
- Mobile broadband test
- Accelerometer test
- Gyrometer test
- Compass test
- Ambient light test
- Device orientation test
- Brightness test
- System assessment
- Performance Monitor test
- Crash dump collection
