Surface Pro 4 - Screen won't wake from sleep

Well, I can confirm that the updates released on the 9th did not fix the no wake issue, so back to the USB hub fix for me.

You know, when I first got my SB I knew there were bugs, but I imagined that somewhere inside of Microsoft Headquarters there was a room full of frenetic action. Premier programmers working around the clock on the issues, furiously typing away and passing printouts of line graphs back and forth while a serious looking man with his sleeves rolled up draws circles around things on a white board and draws arrows to other things.

"Surely this team can solve any issues the SB/SP4 is having!" I thought. Months later, I now picture it to be a dimly lit wood paneled room with a single 1990's tower and CRT manned by Napoleon Dynamite who just looks up pictures of Ligers all day.

Delightful.

And as a further report of my continued - or should I say discontinued - woes with this apology of a tablet from a company that does not seem capable of getting it right, I am pleased to say that I no longer have those problems.

Solution: I got an MBA.  And I'm not talking about a business degree.  That's right: I've defected.

Quite frankly, there isn't even a comparison to talk about.  For about two-thirds the price of an SP4 (around $1,500 vs $1,000), I sacrificed a touch screen, pen input, and half the storage space; but I've gained (1) a supremely portable, beautiful computing device that simply works, every single time, all the time, flawlessly; (2) a screen that wakes, every single time; (3) a display that is stunning, despite having fewer pixels in total, and never suffers from any such things as light leaks, bad pixels, or low-light flickering; (4) a battery that lasts for an entire 9-to-10-hour nearly-uninterrupted work day of moderate-to-heavy "business-ey" stuff, without futzing with Sleep, Hibernate, or any damned settings; (5) a browser that does not seem to have a single problem with any site I've thrown at it; and (6) a touchpad so smooth and multi-functional that I haven't missed touch.

I feel a bit guilty; but not really, since loyalty to a brand can only go so far.

Now to find a ready sucker (sorry, I mean worthy customer) for a near-brand new Surface Pro 4 (third replacement) on eBay.  And next, the big desktop sitting at home....

It's been fun, y'all.

Thanks for the trolling post.

MBA and surface pro are entirely different types of devices. Person who wants a surface pro does not want an MBA I can assure you.

Between sleep issue or OS X, I think I'd choose sleep issue with hibernate workaround.

In fact, I think I'd choose Linux over all of them, but it's not such a nice touch capable OS for a device like SP4.

• Peter

I talk a lot of smack about MS, and have since Windows 3.1 (DOS is better!), but that being said I'm highly unlikely to ever switch. The SB and its unique functions have so well integrated into what I do that it's become indispensable and despite its bugs I'd feel handicapped were I to switch back to a regular style laptop of any brand. The USB hub fix is working great for me, I think I'm just going to leave it at that. Also, Macs like all electronics have their own set of bugs.

I too want what the Surface Pro 4 can do (and what Microsoft falsely claims it will do in their advertising), which is part of why I've stuck with this.

If some other manufacturer offered a thin tablet with a real OS, long battery life, the ability to actually turn on, a high-quality screen and pen, and support for a real (not just lame USB) dock, I'd demand my money back and jump ship in a heartbeat.  Sadly, no other OEM has stepped up to that bar - they could easily poach a bunch of SP4/SB customers by doing so, though.  I'm starting to think Microsoft made a big mistake by not making a complete and total move from Intel to ARM processors after the RT - I'd be willing to pay an x86/x64 emulation penalty for older apps to get reliable basic functionality.  It couldn't possibly be more frustrating than what we have now...

Anyway, the recent updates have again made things worse rather than better- My SP4 has exhibited new, different, and more frequent weirdness since the bolus of updates the other day (5/9 or 5/10):

1. Waking is definitely less reliable again.  I was up to nearly Russian Roulette odds (83%) before this - with failure to wake happening only about one time in four or five tries.  Now, except for VERY short sleeps, I'm back to virtually no chance of waking from sleep.  Again, waking should work 100% of the time, not 50%, 75%, 80%, or even 99%.  (OK, I'd settle for two 9's reliability, but that's still wrong.  MS/Intel have never even gotten close to ONE on any SP4 I've ever seen...)
2. For a week or so before the 5/9 updates, my SP4 was working/waking properly when docked or plugged in, even without setting it to "never sleep when plugged in".  (A few months back, that had been required to keep it from wedging several times a day.)  The only reason I noticed this is that Windows itself got flaky again, so I did a complete Windows Reset a couple of weeks ago, which also resets all settings to default.  The wake problem (Surface Narcolepsy? Wake-Wedge?  We need a name for this...) got worse after the latest updates.
3. The performance and function of waking and battery life on the SP4 is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE - my sleepstudy report for the last three days shows FIVE failures to wake, and I've not even been particularly mobile, with only a couple of meetings out of the office.  Once again, we've had an update cycle that made things WORSE!
4. One or more 5/9 updates broke my pen.  More precisely, it caused the pointy end of my SP4 pen to become completely unresponsive (the button still worked and it was properly paired, but the screen did not recognize the pen as being in proximity, for either ink or mouse/clicks).  I took it to the Microsoft Store, where the problem inexplicably vanished in one of the reboot cycles we went through trying to fix it.  I asked about exchanging for a newer SP4, and the tech told me that that although they'd be happy to do that, it's definitely not a sure fix - you can go through all of the trouble of swapping machines, restoring your files, and reloading apps and still have the same problem.  As far as they know, there is NO version of the SP4 (and presumably SB) hardware that is guaranteed to wake correctly. They are well aware of the problem, and have to report back to the MS dev teams nightly to report what customers are experiencing, so be sure to drop in frequently and let them feel your pain (be polite - the MS Store folks are by far the best part of Microsoft (The whole company should learn from them!)  They really are trying to help (and I've found their techs to be quite competent), but are in the impossible position of trying to make a fatally flawed product deliver on false promises.
5. The "Intel Droppings" problem with semi-random stretches of pixels in either white or black, (especially in Firefox), got worse with some update (possibly before 5/9).  Trying to play a YouTube video fullscreen on my 4K external monitor through the SP3 dock literally makes Max Headroom look calm - the video is insanely jerky and jumps back and forth in the stream. (It's fine when not fullscreen!)  Moving a Firefox Window from maximized on the the external monitor to the Surface's own screen (using the Shift-Win-Right-Arrow shortcut) is guaranteed to produce horrible errors on the SP4 screen.  I've included a few screen clips below to let those who haven't yet encountered the Intel Droppings problem to see what it's like living with them  - the clips below are all parts of a single screencap of both screens taken at a single time.  (Rolling the mouse over the affected areas causes them to redraw correctly, but this is completely impractical as a workaround on a high-pixel-count screens like the SP4's - the easiest way is to cycle through a restore/maximize dance.)

The top of the window (height varies) is almost always corrupted:


Here's what the main window looks like (from the external 4K monitor) - this was taken while trying to take a OneNote clip of this page:


And the main Surface Screen, showing a permissions page opened by an update to the OneNote clipper applet is even worse:

MICROSOFT

• FIX THESE PROBLEMS!!!  YOU OWED US THIS ***BEFORE*** YOU TOOK OUR MONEY!!!