Surface Pro 4 - Screen won't wake from sleep

FWIW, I have an SP4 that spends a fair fraction of it's operating time in an SP3 dock.  This doesn't work right yet, since the Skylake Surfaces just flat don't wake properly, but here are a couple of things I've found that can help a little bit:

1. Go to Settings/System/Power & Sleep/Sleep and select "Never" for "When plugged in, PC goes to sleep after".  This helps quite a bit, and is mandatory if you don't want at least a daily forced reboot after the latest updates.  (I think this still works, I just reset this as described above after finding my SP4 once again wedged this morning.  It's been "dead in Dock" almost every morning since the 5/9 updates.  I think this should fix your issue - before my last Win 10 Reset, it was reasonably stable in the dock with this setting, since it simply prevents any of the fatally flawed sleep code from ever running when docked (since you're always on power when docked, if you've got a good connection - see below...)
2. All SP4 owners using SP3 docks should make sure they have the Surface Pro Design Screwup Shim(Microsoft calls it the Surface Pro "Docking Station AdapterCmmr SC Hdwr", P/N TP3-00001-56921.  It's free for SP3 dock owners.  The Austin MS Store had only one, so I have to remember to take it with me between my two docks...)  This part will make an extremely poor attempt to compensate for the fact that some Microsoft Engineer or Product Manager with no understanding of real-world consequences thought it would be OK to shorten the "Z-height" distance of the Surface Docking connector from the back of the unit from the SP3 to the SP4.  (BTW, if this distance had been maintained, a shim might not even be necessary...)  The shim is NOT a fix, but it helps make an horribly unreliable connection only very unreliable.  One of the weird things about this Docking-Cluster-Foxtrot is that it is way too easy for an SP4 in an SP3 dock to only partially connect.  Power and the video to the external monitor seems more likely to remain connected than USB devices, with Ethernet somewhere in between.  I frequently lose my USB keyboard and external drive (attached to the dock), but will still have video, and the dock LED stays lit even though it's really only partially connected. 

Even with the shim, I cannot use the touchscreen on my SP4 when dockedwithout screwing up the docking connection - it's that unstable (about 20% of the time, you'll break the docking connection partly or entirely).  This is a real pain, because you now have to be mindful of whether you're docked or not before touching the screen- a major PITA that prevents the PC from just being used as a transparent tool and instead forcing you to adapt again to Microsoft's failures. Make sure you have a good connection, and then don't touch it until it's time to undock again.

"You will be assimilated" (by adapting to Microsoft's brokenness) is looking more and more true - It sure would be nice if Microsoft cared any at all about delivering on its promises to its customers, but that is obviously NOT the case.  In fact, the opposite

• Microsoft seems to hold its customers in contempt for deigning to point out that the emperor is butt-naked - the SP4/SB are the most unstable, unreliable, and unusable PCs on the market, and the company has done nothing except roll out a series of utterly failed "updates" for nearly a year now...

Microsoft: Either FIX THE SP4 & SB NOW or RECALL THEM ALL!!

I have had two brand new surface pro 4's. First one had power waking issues, specifically when waking from sleep WHILE connected to power+external monitor.  MS replaced my SP3 Docking station but still got the same issue.  Waking from sleep in battery mode does not seem to affect it and for the most part works.

So after returning my SP4 for a refund, I bought another one in the hope it would be better.

Wrong!

Exactly the same issue.... while connected to power + external monitor it wont wake from sleep.  Spoke to support.... their advice?  Wait for an update. Meanwhile, set it to hibernate instead of sleep.

This temporary fix worked until about a week or two ago, and it is now not even waking from hibernation!  In face - I even shut the PC down at night and in the morning I feel the tablet and it is warm, I try to turn it on and does nothing... so I have to hold down the power button for 20 secs and hard reboot. So even from being switched off it starts itself.

I do have insider preview installed which I only put on about 2-3 weeks ago..... so cant confirm that this issue is def related to buggy OS.

The fact that you cant go into sleep and then wake from it though right from last year, shows that the product is not fit for purpose. IS this not a case for returning an item within warranty for a refund (their replacements will do the same thing)?  Microsoft need to sort this out quick, or I am going to check out the competitions offerings and get a refund on this.

Pursuing new processor/OS/HW - always been done. Always will be done - everybody has to keep up with the bleeding edge. Sometimes it's a smooth transition, sometimes it's not.

Microsoft isn't responding - if the total cost of payoff when someone dies because of a defect in an automobile is lower than the cost of recalling, formal recall won't take place.

• Peter

Making the jump to new processor/os has always happened, but some manufacturers--especially with their business oriented lines--will hold off on upgrading until they work out the kinks with the cheaper stuff. Just look at Apple, no Skylake laptop until a few weeks ago, and even then it's only in their very niche Macbook. MS needs to decide if the SP/SB are designed to be serious high-end productivity machines or unreliable toys for yuppies. Also, in the past, the average user could really feel the difference with a processor bump. These days, for most users we hit "good enough" two+ generations ago, so the need to jump to skylake right away when they were clearly not ready was minimal.

You're dead-on with the second point: Microsoft isn't really feeling the pain and doesn't want the embarrassment. The flip-side is MS only offers 3 models, Surface, SP, and SB. If my dell Inspiron is unreliable, my take away is I need to pay up for XPS or Latitude. If both SP and SB are unreliable, my takeaway is that MS has no idea what it's doing and I leave, never to return. Also, the premium laptop market is currently dominated by Apple, how can MS stay in this space long term if they alienate what little of the market they have left? How can they hope to steal share from Apple by offering unacceptable quality and subpar service? Going back to the car analogy, data indicates that US automakers are now largely quality competitive with their Japanese rivals, but how many US consumers believe that? It can take a long time to recover from a reputation of unreliability and incompetence, especially in the premium/luxury space.

Sorry no secret, I wish I could tell you. I just called told them the troubleshooting I did and they sent a new one. I was unaware that people were getting non working units as replacements, at this point If I were you I would either tell them I wanted a new unit or go to the nearest store if that was possible.

Yes, I thought of that.  Here's my recent chat with the support person who then sent me my second defective replacement:

Me: The nearest MS Store is a 12 hour round trip, so I haven't done that. If you have control over what gets sent out as a replacement, can you ensure that I get sent a brand new one from a recent manufacturing lot?

Microsoft: Yes, I'll note down that this is the second time you are having the same issue and we'll definitely make sure it does not happen again.

Me: So yes I'll get a recent brand new one as a replacement?

Microsoft: Yes it is possible, however I don't have the list of stock inventory, I can request for a brand new unit if available, I will make sure to let them know you are requesting a brand new unit, since this is the 2nd time you are having the same issue on the device.

This is what they're telling me now about how they'd deal with replacement attempt number 3:

Microsoft: Since the issue still persist after the reset via recovery image, I suggest that you process a device replacement for the device. We will add a special note then on the order that this is a multiple device replacement that was already processed with this same issue.

That's right, exactly the same promise. What are the chances that the outcome will be any different this time?  And wouldn't you think that if they had a special pile of SP4s that really work they'd just send them out the first time?

I think it's all totally random.   Microsoft doesn't repair any Surfaces.  If they don't know which units are defective and it can take hours of testing for the no-wake to show up, I suspect that they are just resetting returned units and sending them out again as "refurbished" replacements.  Some people get lucky, but most don't.   As many posters on this thread have already reported.

If I lived in a country that doesn't offer advanced exchange I wouldn't be sending my defective machine off and waiting two weeks without a computer for Microsoft to receive it and send another back when most likely it will have the same no wake issue and may well be in worse condition.