Surface Laptop 3 Restarting Randomly

Anonymous
2019-11-25T00:32:58+00:00

I have the power settings set to NOT restart when the power is plugged in and NOT to go into sleep mode. 

Even with these settings the laptop restarts randomly. I'll be writing code and it restarts. Its random.

Surface Laptop 3 15"

AMD Ryzen 7 Microsoft Surface Edition 2.30 GHz

16.0 GB RAM

Surface | Surface Laptop | Power and battery

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Anonymous
2020-08-23T13:54:18+00:00

Thank you for reporting the issue.

We published new improvements and fixes for Surface Laptop 3 that improve device stability. You can get updates now by checking Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. We recommend that you install these updates to keep your Surface performing its best.

For more information, please view the Surface Laptop 3 update history page.

Updated: 9/1/2020

Thanks,

Greg

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-30T18:35:23+00:00

    The problem is in OneDrive. Once I shut down the app, it is never randomly restarting anymore.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-05-10T02:40:29+00:00

    OneDrive being the root cause is an interesting theory.  I also use OneDrive.  I'll disable it and retest.  Also, the blue-screen and unexpected reboots only started happening after the latest Windows 10 Build 1909 update came out. I've been having this problem only since early April when my original Surface Laptop 3 upgraded to that build.

    I have the Surface Laptop 3, 15" with AMD Ryzen 7 processor.  I've been able to repro the crash/blue-screen/reboot consistently.

    The computer will go to sleep after X minutes.  Once it goes to sleep (not just the monitor turning off, but the laptop going to sleep which you can check in Power & sleep settings and you can also assign your power button to force the laptop to sleep which makes reproducing this issue easier.  So for these experiments, I used the power button, but letting it sleep on it's own also reproduced the issue.

    Pressing the power button and letting it it go sleep for 2 minutes or less, the laptop would wake up quickly, see who I am and log me in without issue.  All my windows and apps I had open are still open.

    Pressing the power button and letting it go to sleep for 3 minutes or more, I've seen these behaviors:

    1. After it wakes up, the screen is black and the windows logo screen is shown and boots up from what sleeps like an unexpected shutdown.  It logs me in and all my apps/browsers are closed.  Opening Chrome, it says "Restore pages? Chrome didn't shut down correctly." with a restore button.  For Edge Chromium, it says "Restore pages? Microsoft Edge closed unexpectedly." with a restore button.
    2. After it wakes up, I see my apps but the background of my desktop wallpaper is blank (blue) and the computer isn't responding. Shortly after (about 10 seconds), a blue-screen with a frowny face appears stating ":( Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error info, and then we'll restart for you." It flashes a scan code briefly but nowhere near long enough to take a picture of it or try and use it (what's the point of showing a scan code you could never use?)  It restarts the laptop and after logging back in, my apps are all closed.  Again Chrome and Edge ask me if I want to restore tabs.
    3. After it wakes up, I see the Cortana eye trying to find me and she seems stuck and unresponsive.  Then the computer blue-screens like in #2 and reboots.
    4. Only one time did I notice that the laptop rebooted in the middle of sleeping at about the 3 minutes marks without me trying to wake it up... After showing the windows logo like when you restart the laptop, it then goes back to sleep.  When I do touch the mousepad to wake up, it logs me in and no apps are open.  Opening Chrome or Edge ask me to restore pages.

    I was on a support call with Microsoft Surface Tech Support team on April 20th and they had me download a troubleshooting app and scanned the harddrive for errors and when those didn't help they had me re-image the laptop.  The problem above still occured (though I believe I still had OneDrive enabled). They replaced the laptop which I received a new one a few days ago.

    The new laptop is doing exactly the same thing.  It actually worked the first day just fine and maybe the 2nd day.  Upon the 2nd or 3rd day I noticed my apps gone and Chrome/Edge asking to restore pages... oh boy, here we go again.  And this is when I started the experiments and discovered how easy it was to repro this after the laptop goes to sleep for 3 minutes.

    Now I'm going to try the experiments again with OneDrive disabled... I'll report shortly.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-05-10T03:28:06+00:00

    I temporary disabled OneDrive.  That didn't help.  Still crashed/restarted after >3min sleep.

    I unlinked OneDrive from the laptop.  That didn't help.  Still crashed/restarted after >3min sleep.  However, I noticed OneDrive was still running, just not  signed-in... and then it would sign-in all on it's own if I clicked on the cloud one drive app in the app drawer... not cool.  unlinking doesn't appear to stick.  So I then turned off OneDrive from Startup apps and verified the OneDrive app wasn't in the App Drawer.

    After removing OneDrive as a StartUp application (toggling it to Off), unfortunately, after the 3min mark, I saw the laptop reboot on it's own (one of the symtoms I mentioned previously.  It crashed.  I double-checked and OneDrive was not in the tray (app drawer) or in the background processes (task manager -> more details).

    So, not OneDrive after all.  :(

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-05-10T05:22:20+00:00

    I found a work-around.  Enable Hybernate for everything and disable Sleep.

    1. Open Power & sleep settings by typing "power & sleep" in the Cortana search bar next to the Windows menu button (bottom left of your screen).
    2. In theSettings Power & sleep window, ensure that under Sleep section "On battery power, PC goes to sleep after" is set to Never and "When plugged in, PC goes to sleep after" is also set to Never.
    3. Click on the Additional power settings link on the right pane of that same Power & sleep window.  This takes you to the Power Optionswindow.
    4. Click on Change what the power button does in the left pane of the Power Options window. This takes you to System Settingsin the Definte power buttons and turn on password protection section.
      1. Click on "Change settings that are currently unavailable" link which will allow you to check/uncheck the boxes at the bottom of the window under Shutdown settings.
        1. Under Shutdown settings, check the box next to Hibernate.
        2. Under Shutdown settings, uncheck the box next to Sleep.
      2. Under the Power button and lid settings section, change all options for "When I press the power button" and "When I close the lid" for both "On battery" and "Plugged in" to Hibernate.
      3. Click the Save changes button. This will take you back to the Power Options window.
    5. Click on Change when the computer sleeps in the left pane of the Power Options window. This takes you to Edit Plan Settings.
    6. Ensure in the "Put the computer to sleep:" drop downs, both On battery and Plugged in are set to Never.
    7. Click on Change advanced power settings link in that same Edit Plan Settings window.

    Expand the Sleep option by clicking on the "+" symbol, then click on the "+" next to Sleep after. Change both On battery: and Plugged in: to Never. 1. Expand the Hibernate after option by clicking on the "+" symbol, and then set On battery: and Plugged in: to whatever timing you'd like. I set mine to 10 minutes for On Battery and 60 mintues for Plugged in. 2. Click the Apply button and then the OK button.

    Looks like Microsoft made getting laptops to Hibernate difficult... ridiculously difficult.  Good luck.  I'm going to probably return the Surface Laptop 3 if they can't fix the Sleep bug and get a different laptop

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