[eyelidlessness]

I’ve had this experience and seen many others mention it too. I always make a point when I have time to mention how I’ve solved it.

If you haven’t already, try plugging the power in on the right side, and the display/any other peripherals on the left. It sounds crazy, but this has been the solution for tons of people. Apparently the heat generated by power input (even at a steady full charge) is enough to spike the sensors near the components on the left side.

I haven’t experienced any downsides to this change other than having to spend a few minutes rearranging stuff on my desk.

[dtech]

That seems crazy but plausible. Explains why so many people complain about it while my office and home never had issues, it's all laid out so you plug in the power on the right.

[eyelidlessness]

It apparently affects all of the USB-C models with ports on both sides, it’s kind of surprising to me that the workaround isn’t more well-known, and even more surprising that it’s gone so many generations without a fix (although honestly I have no idea how involved the fix would be, and it’s probably moot with Mx around the corner).

[joegahona]

Just confirming: By "right side," you mean _my_ right when looking at the computer? "Left side" is the side closer to the Esc key?

[eyelidlessness]

Yes, I should have clarified that.

[mh-]

What side should one use if they're using a thunderbolt 3 display? (power and video in the same usb-c cable then)

[eyelidlessness]

I’d try:

1. Plug it all in right side and see how it goes. The important part is that power needs to be on the right, the point of plugging other stuff on the left is just to distribute heat/load.

2. If that doesn’t help/causes other issues, are you willing to separate power delivery and plug in two cables? I know it’s annoying when the spec supports single-cable everything, but in the scheme of things it’s not a terrible trade off to have a more usable machine.