Surface Pro 4 - Screen won't wake from sleep

Anyone watching the Patriots-Broncos game?  This is rich.  Microsoft is running SP4 commercials during the game, and the teams are using tablets on the sidelines during the game.

The tablets used on the Patriots sideline are not working right, and they missed some crucial stuff during the game.  One of the reporterettes on the field just mentioned that Microsoft has switched them over from wireless to wired.  I can't tell for certain they are SP4s, but what else would they be?

Wow.  Last year the Patriots had Deflategate.  This year it's Surfacegate.

Here are two remedies that work for now till Microsoft fix without the hard reboot.

1. changing project settings
2. software reboot

for #1:

I suggest you do this when you can see the screen (not while having the problem) so you can see how it will work for you when the problem happens.  Remember, you will have to do this blindly, so practice it.

press ESC 3 time (to make sure focus is back on the main screen)

press the Win Key

type the word: project

and press enter

on the right side of the computer the project menu appears. 

touch the Duplicate option

Then touch the PC Screen Only

Tada!  your screen is working.

remember the duplicate option is about 1 inch between the USB and the DV output.  Look at it so you can practice it when you need it.

For #2, this is the standard software reboot.  again try it when the computer is on, so you can practice it

press esc 3 or 4 times

press the Win Key

press the up key 2 times  (that should put you on the power menu)

press enter - that will open the power menu

press the down 3 times.  - that will put the curser on re-start

press enter.

now your surface will restart, with a normal restart instead of a hardware restart.

if you practice option 1, you really do not need option 2.

Hint: for option 1, take a picture of the project on your computer if you need it

finally, I look forward for MSFT to solve this non-sense. 

The problem is clear: the driver 'thinks' that is sending the signal to the display, but its not. once a duplicate option is selected and then re-set to the PC Screen Only reselected, the driver sends the data to the display.  at least for now, for that MSFT to make sure we don't have to do this dance till you really fix the problem.

Hey guys, 

I also found this update like a week ago, and after installing it things seem to work a bit better (not so frequent cases of coming "not being able to come back from sleep" for example).

BUT... I am noticing that since I installed it, the fan seems to be pretty much always on, and the Surface is generating more heat than usual. Anybody else noticing this?

Nice find!

Yes, I discovered this download a couple of minutes ago too. Funny it has the older drivers, seeing as the date says 15-12-16, which is one day before the December 17 update.

Anyway, these issues are really annoying. These days, I get BSOD or a turn-on-to-restart (probably a BSOD with the screen turned off) at least once every two days, probably more often. My Event Log is full of device failures, driver errors and kernel power errors. In a closed system, mind you, not a custom-built PC. The screen often does not turn on. I used the newer Intel-supplied drivers as well as the MS-shipped drivers and there may have been differences, but both came with VERY annoying issues.

I used hibernate with disabled Connected Standby as well as Connected Standby enabled (HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\CsEnabled [1/0] -> restart). Both for at least 10 days. Both scenarios caused blue screens, choppy video playback in Edge or high processor usage when a YouTube page is open in Edge (playing or not) and other errors.

I am getting tired of this.

One glimmer of hope which should have been shared by MS and not by accidental discovery: Surface Pro 3 just received a driver update for a lot of hardware: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/install-update-activate/pro-3-update-history

If there are any hardware similarities between the two, I have my fingers crossed for a fix for SP4 soon. If not, I'll finally give up and get a Dell XPS 13 or something like that instead. This is just sad :(