After reinstalling and downloading all available Windows updates, the device is still extremely slow, and the Graphics card in the base isn't even detected. So then I reassembled the surface, and did a full reset/reinstall of the device. The keyboard base still has its 2nd battery in it - it too wont charge, but its not swollen so I keep it in there for now. So I took the thing apart and removed the battery in the 'tablet-part-unit' - this took a lot of time (because the device is very much glued together - iFixit gives it only 1 out of 10 on the repairability scale, but I eventually succeeded in removing the battery, and I have stored it in my charcoal grill outside, just in case it should burst out in flames suddenly, until I get time to deliver it for recycling.

So I searched online, including on this site, and from all indications I should be able to run the Surface effectively as a stationary PC, with somewhat full functionality and performance. Now this week I got scared of the fire-hazard of the battery, and at the same time got curious if I still could get some decent computing out of the Surface while having it plugged in, if I just removed the swollen battery without installing a new one. Unfortunately it got the swollen battery issue which is common for these devices, so when the screen started to come unglued from the frame because of a bulging battery, I shut it down permanently, and purchased a Dell XPS 17 instead for my main laptop workstation, and since then I have left the Surface alone for a few months. So I have a Microsoft Surface Book 2 which still today has reasonable specs (8th gen i7 CPU, Nvidea GTX 1050 graphics card, and 16 GB memory), although it is above 3 years old.

Surface book 2