Surface Pro 4 - Screen won't wake from sleep

Hi, Neil.

Thanks for the info on your experience.  It does not lead me to the same conclusion about hardware though since the replacement machine brought a new system image.

For compelling evidence that there is a relevant hardware difference one needs to install the same c:-drive image on two platforms and find clear evidence that one shows the problem and the other doesn't. To run this test and then return both systems to normal will usually take more than two hours.  My Microsoft Store in Tysons Virginia has been cooperative when I wanted to do that by allowing me to use a known-good platform.  This is a useful thing to try before wasting time on a replacement that may be the identical hardware you had the problem on.

I have not done that with this issue.  If someone has, I'd like to know.

Sometime even MS makes mistakes. Hopefully you will get back your SP4 or a replacement or your money back with a note indicating they needed to do something drastic...  And they were waiting for Bill Gates approval...

Well it seems that this issue is a hardware problem after all. My launch SP4 had these critical issues:

• Sleep of death, would not wake up 40% of the time after being put into sleep or hibernate. Things which would make it occur more often were, attaching/removing the touch cover or removing the power adapter.
• Touch screen would randomly stop working, requiring a restart or hibernation to resolve.
• Windows crashing while in sleep, effectively restarting the device.
• Keys on the touch cover working but not the touchpad/gestures

I tried to put up with these issues for months hoping each patch would fix the issues. The Feb update was brutal and introduced all the touch related problems while increasing the sleep failures. So many work-arounds I tried some of which were totally useless like the /sfc scannow one. The only one that worked was disabling csEnable in the registry, but that only addressed sleep issues. I didn't pay £1200 for a device which couldn't sleep and had this many issues.

Anyway 2 weeks ago I had enough and sent it back to store for replacement. They sent it off to MS which sent a new device back to me a week later(No MS retail stores in the UK). This new device has none of the issues above. I have been through countless sleep cycles since I got it. I finally have the device I paid for. For anyone else dealing with these problems get the hardware replaced. Its obviously a defect in the Intel chip(sleep and touch driver) and these firmware updates are only band aids for the real problem.

I learned a hard lesson here, don't buy at launch.

This is a prevailing problem which I also encountered with 1st month of purchase.

Tried the "Two-button restart" to no avail.

As a last resort, I had to send in the faulty tablet for repairs (the collection process was prompt with a couple of urgent calls) and I was informed of a replacement unit that will be shipped to me.

However after repeated calls and emails reminders for more than 2 weeks, I did not receive the replacement unit.

One recent call to Microsoft support was frustrating with a rude rep and still no resolution was in sight.

The product is disappointing - faulty within 1 month of purchase.

The post sales service is disappointing

• unresponsive and cumbersome.

The escalation service is disappointing

• non delivery, unresponsive and poor customer experience.

To-date, I have not received the replacement unit nor any affirmation of a resolution.

I will continue to engage Microsoft Support till my problem is resolved.