Surface Pro 4 - Screen won't wake from sleep

The problem with that is that I tried it and was told they would not swap for a new machine.  The Microsoft store in Saint Louis told me that Microsoft believes it's a software issue and it would eventually be taken care of through an update.  They did offer to swap with a refurbished one, but not a new one.

I honestly think the best way to get this issue solved is to trade in the device for a new machine. I walked into a MS store in NYC, told them about the problem, told them my machine had all updates installed, and that MS workers had tried remoting onto my device multiple times. I then said it appeared that there was a hardware issue as people with later models from this year didn't have the problem. The guy then offered to give me one of their "backup devices" which are brand new machines that are not packaged for retail but rather that the store has for swaps. He assured me it was brand new and would have most updates already installed. I've been using the machine now for 3 days and it's been great, no issues. I implore everyone to TRY taking it to a store as it seems like there's NO software fix and it may be a very long time until there is one. I feel like I finally have the device I meant to purchase back in November of last year.

Good luck everyone!

That's a refurb. Hopefully it keeps working for you. I had one of those in a plain cardboard box too. The store employees swore up and down it was brand new. I found out from a different MS employee that it was indeed a refurb. It failed within hours...

If it's software, why did I have 3 machines running the same software image off the same thumb drive behave so differently? The lot 15xx machine had serious sleep issues. The "Brand New" plain cardboard box refurb had serious sleep issues within hours. My lot 1613 machine wakes each and every time, and has for nearly two months now. All with the same image off the same thumb drive. The older two machines clearly had a hardware issue.

Of course MS has a history of software problems as well. The June update prevents my SP4 from hibernating after it enters sleep. If I set my SP4 to to sleep and then hibernate two hours later, it will never hibernate. It will sleep till the battery dies. The June update also changed the battery life while sleeping. Before my SP4 used about 1/2% per hour while asleep. After the June update it uses 3% to 4% per hour while asleep. When I restore to an image without the update, all is good. With past windows versions I could have then ignored this update. With craptastic windows 10, Microsoft forces you to accept ALL updates. Considering the June update and Microsoft's history of releasing bad updates, forced updates are about the dumbest thing Microsoft has ever done.

Panay talked about the issue six months ago and then Microsoft claimed, and continues to claim, the issue is fixed. That is arrogance, horrible customer support and pure BS. Microsoft has not fixed the problem and they have not owned the problem. They knew about the issue when they released the SP4. They refuse to replace flawed units claiming software issues. BS. IT IS HARDWARE. 

It is a given that there will be a class action lawsuit against Microsoft. Normally I decry class action lawsuits, but this is the type of case that cry's out for one.

@Mike,

Sounds like you expended a lot of effort and did your homework here.  Thanks for that.  Did you fill out the survey I offered a few pages back?  I want to make sure that we capture your successful experience with the 1613 machine in the numbers of users represented here, because the point of the survey is to hopefully uncover a trend.  It seems as if, with your attention to detail and scientific analysis, proof of newer tradeins working should emerge in the survey.

I think we have to be careful, because there have been multiple issues around sleep, hibernate, lack of sleep, and then there were the graphics issues with the detachable screen on the Surface Book.  Panos talked about a lot of things, and I don't know that he said the sleep problem (the one being described in this thread, for the most part) is fixed.

At any rate, let's all keep it civil and work through the problem towards a solution.  The minute we start ranting and lobbing insults, the whole group loses credibility

-e

OK, here's an interim update on how things are going (ONLY one week in) with my new replacement SP4 hardware (Lot 1618, so probably around early May, depending on the week calendar Microsoft uses: ISO week 18 was May 2-8 this year).

The good news is that for the past week, I have only suffered one conventional Sleep O' Death or Dark Wake failure, and that one was uncharacteristically immediately after UNdocking.  I have never gone this long without a SoD failure, with either of other two SP4s.  I'm beginning to lose a bit of my terror to put the machine to sleep or wake it.  I will say that while this one wakes, it's sometimes not instant, and can take 5 seconds or so, plus another 10-20 seconds before Windows Hello wakes up, recognizes you, and puts you back into your session.  This is noticeably slower than my previous SP4, discounting the reboots - weird.

I also suffered an unexplained mystery crash in the middle of the night last night, while the machine was (or should have been) asleep.  Here's what the Reliability Monitor has to say about it - of course there are no solutions for the hardware errors, which are for PCIE and USB3 hub hardware...


It's a bit too early to say for sure that the newer hardware truly avoids SoD problems, but it's starting to look that way.

I'm reserving final judgment until after the August 2nd Redstone update, since we've seen a couple of previous updates make power management and sleep/wake/dock problems much worse.

So far, so good though - it looks like there really may be enough of a difference in hardware to actually make a difference.  Another week like this, and I'll likely have more successful wakes on this SP4 than seven and a half months of using the other two SP4's combined. 

I'll keep y'all posted when there's more to say...