Surface Pro 4 - Screen won't wake from sleep

Anonymous
2015-10-27T05:32:42+00:00

I received my Surface Pro 4 today and it worked fine. I put it on "sleep" for awhile, came back and turned it on. Once again it worked fine. I made an error and instead of putting it on "sleep" I  hit the power button to turn it off when I finished. Now it won't come on at all. The screen stays dark. If I push the power button I can see lights under the keyboard keys, then if I hit the power switch again they go off. But nothing happens to the screen no matter what I do. Has anyone else suffered from this?

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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Anonymous
2016-08-19T19:27:34+00:00

It works fine for me after the Anniversary Update to Windows 10 Pro (Version 1607). It no longer goes into a coma.

I just traveled all week. Put my Surface Pro 4 (SP4) to sleep 10 to 20 times each day, and currently my task manager shows the up time to be 7:21:35:21 - 7 days! It is actually working the way I expected it to when I bought it!

It was such a relief to not be scared to put it to sleep during meeting breaks to save battery when working with my Pen and OneNote. For the past 7 months I've had to have it on power when in meetings so that it wouldn't go into a coma. That was always so embarrassing.

You can update to the latest version of Windows 10 by opening Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, and selecting Check for updates.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-11-10T19:28:23+00:00

    Dear friends and my fellow Surface Pro 4 owners, 

    I have spent over a 100 hours of my personal time troubleshooting this frustrating issue with Surface Pro 4 not waking up correctly from sleep. 

    First, I isolated the problem to this error with the display driver:

    VIDEO_TDR_TIMEOUT_DETECTED (117)

    The display driver failed to respond in timely fashion.

    DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_TIMEOUT

    Full details on Page 3 of this thread:  http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro4-surfdrivers/new-surface-pro-4-wont-turn-on/aed66dc7-289a-4300-a167-ab8394b7df06?page=3

    Now after repeated trial and error, I have isolated this to be mostly an issue with Windows Hello Facial Recognition on my Surface Pro 4.

    Workaround Solution (will not resolve it 100% but will improve it significantly)

    Turn Off Windows Hello (facial recognition) using the following steps:

    1. Go to Settings -> Accounts
    2. Select "Sign-in options"
    3. Look for Windows Hello section
    4. Under "Face" section, click on "Remove" to remove any saved faces
    5. Restart your Surface Pro 4

    After this point, your Surface Pro 4 will wake up much more reliably (sometimes instantly, other times it will take up to 15 seconds) from sleep on pressing the Power button.

    Before turning off facial recognition, I was able to consistently reproduce the problem of Surface Pro 4 not waking up correctly within a few minutes of trying (by closing/opening the Type Cover and pressing power button). Now, it only occurs rarely and my Surface Pro 4 is finally usable enough. 

    NOTE: My Type Cover has Fingerprint ID ($159.99 version) and it still works great with Windows Hello! If you have the regular type cover, you might need to enter your password/PIN on waking up.

    UPDATE:

    I am still noticing the VIDEO_TDR_TIMEOUT_DETECTED (117) or occasional Display Driver crash on waking up but it doesn't require force rebooting from black screen like it did with Facial Recognition turned on.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-11T21:36:50+00:00

    Hi, My Pro 4 comes up with a blank screen after sleep.  I can tell it is running in the back ground, but you can't see anything.   The only option at this point it a hard, power off restart.   Is this being fixed in a patch?  I don't see any other posts for this.

    Thanks!

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-12T01:36:17+00:00

    Sadly this has been going on since - as far as I can tell - Surface 2.  I have an S2 as well, and this "blank/black screen after waking up" has been there all along.  Now it plagues even the SP4, a brand new device with a completely different OS. 

    Sorry to say this, but Microsoft really ought to be utterly ashamed of themselves that something as basic as screen/display drivers are still struggling, across years, OSs and devices.

    Shame.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-11-12T01:39:08+00:00

    WayneT2011,

    Please use this two-button shutdown process below and see if helpful.

    Here’s how:

    Step 1: Press the Windows logo key .        <br> <br><br>(If you're using a mouse, select Start .)
    Step 2: Press the Tab key to select Power, and press Enter.         <br><br>(With a mouse, select Power.)
    Step 3: Use the arrow keys to highlight Shut down, and press Enter.         <br> <br><br>(With a mouse, select Shut down.)
    Step 4: After your Surface turns off, press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time for at least 15 seconds and then release both.        <br> <br><br>The screen may flash the Surface logo, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds.
    Step 5: After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds.
    Step 6: Press and release the power button again to turn your Surface back on.

     Please keep us posted.

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