Surface Book Taskbar Previews close too quickly (when battery status updates)

Anonymous
2016-02-02T02:09:06+00:00

Sometimes when I hover over a Taskbar Preview of an open window, it stays visible until I click it or move the cursor somewhere else. Sometimes it just disappears almost instantly, while I'm still trying to see what it shows. I've discovered what triggers the sudden closing:

As you can see in one of the lower reports, my charger is active. But every few seconds, the top line changes to "Not charging", one of the batteries changes to "in use", and then the top line says "Calculating", and then finally they all agree both batteries are charging. Every cycle of this closes any open Taskbar Previews!

It happens most frequently when the batteries are almost fully charged. Sometimes, probably depending on the CPU load, it keeps happening for hours when the batteries should be fully charged. Unplug the charger and it never happens (that I've noticed).

There are several threads, going back to Win7, describing similar issues with power management and Taskbar Preview. Like:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_7-desktop/taskbar-thumbnail-preview-disappear-too-quickly-to/b0aeb6e1-ba60-4caa-a09a-19ce4d3b3dc8

But those are with third-party power managers for other brands of notebook, with control settings I don't have. I have Microsoft's own flagship Surface Book - how can it be that this relatively ancient problem plagues the interaction between Microsoft hardware and software?

Has anyone found a solution other than running on battery?

Surface | Surface Book | Power and battery

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-22T20:28:06+00:00

    EnterpriseZ,

    Do you have the "Feb 17" updates yet? I can't get them until next week when I can use an unmetered connection. I'm hoping maybe they will improve this issue, but not enough to pay the overage charges to get them now.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-22T18:26:38+00:00

    I've had almost the exact same problem - new Surface Pro 4 with Windows 10 (no dock or second battery). The taskbar thumbnail preview icons disappear extremely quickly despite continuing to hover my moues over them. The issue is semi intermittent in that I cant make it happen ALL the time. That said - it seems to happen a LOT if I'm plugged in and my battery is at 100%. If I'm on battery alone (not plugged in) or even if I'm plugged in and its charging (vs being at 100%) it seems to behave just fine for the most part. But once it hits 100% it starts acting up which in turns causes a huge impact to jumping between e-mails, IE windows, etc...

    From everything I've read it seems like it might be related to some underlying update/change in status grabbing focus away from the taskbar (e.g. behind the scenes going from charging to 100% and back or something...?).

    I've tried updating all drivers (including battery), tried my work IT support, spent time with Microsoft customer support, looked all around the web (its NOT registry entries / hover time). I wish there was some way to figure out what is making it happen, but I'm stumped.

    Anyone have any ideas!?! Please help!? :-) Thanks!

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-16T19:51:02+00:00

    I have the power supply that came with the surface.  The SP4 that i have is the maxed out version with the i7, 16gb ram, and 1TB HD.  Shouldn't that have come with the newer 15v power supply?  I did check and I have the Microsoft 1625 charger (12v) power supply.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-15T19:16:09+00:00

    Grassr00t,

    Does the Surface Pro 4 use the new 15 Volt charger like the Surface Book? Or the older 12 Volt design? I find the problem is worse when using a 12 Volt "car" charger. It tends to stay in the "not quite sure it is charged" state longer than the official 15 Volt supply. With 15 Volts I eventually get through that and the status stops cycling.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-14T22:56:53+00:00

    I have this exact same issue but on a Surface Pro 4.  It is driving me crazy as I cannot really use the Surface unless I am unplugged.  If I unplug the taskbar preview works just fine but as soon as I plug in boom it starts again.  I do not even have time to try and pick a preview as it disappears too fast.

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