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

Hi Loren,

Let me try that again. I'm stevej at pmFAQtory dotc om.

Regarding seeing the PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE messages, we use Microsoft Spy++, which is part of Visual Studio: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa242713(v=vs.60).aspx.

Generally, there is no such thing as a perfectly flat direct current waveform. The power delivered isn't a steady x watts, but an average from a sinusoidal signal. Whenever you have a Surface power supply plugged into a power source, it's rectifying the signal. It takes a sinusoidal signal from a wall outlet and flattens it out. Think of taking the absolute value of a flattened sinusoidal wave. It still oscillates. You can also have a noisy signal due to weak shielding. Minor voltage spikes can occur. Whether such a real-world, as opposed to ideal, direct current could somehow trigger the Surface power circuits and OS to think that erroneous power state changes (however Microsoft defines those) are occurring is anyone's guess. What could give us some valuable data is for an electrical engineer who works with power supplies to put a (believed to be) defective power supply on a digital oscilloscope, monitor the waveform, and simultaneously monitor power-related events and messages in Spy++ to see what, if any, correlation there is.

This bug could be the result of an interaction among the power supply, the Surface battery (or batteries, in the case of the Surface Book), and the power management code, whether firmware or the OS (including drivers). As Erwin Ried pointed out, to us, the Surface is just a black box. We can see what happens when we make changes, such as swapping out a power supply, or disabling the ACPI-Compliant Battery Control Method driver, but our ability to delve deeper is limited by tool limitations and not knowing much about the Surface architecture, both hardware and software. We can only do so much. At some point, Microsoft has to figure the rest out.

Our goal is to make clear to Microsoft that there  is a real problem, to get them to take action, because this bug is a Windows usability show stopper. This bug has a very long (i.e. years of) history, and Microsoft has never formally acknowledged it. There have been a lot of suggestions as to what to do, from workarounds (such as disabling the ACPI driver, which could lead to overcharging and damaging batteries and disables power management functionality such as time remaining) to swapping out power supplies (which has worked for three people that I'm aware of so far).

The most promising advance we've made to help Microsoft, so far, has been identifying that PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE messages cause thumbnail previews to disappear. So, we've been tracking serial numbers of (believed to be) defective power supplies, as well as good ones, on the assumption that it really is defective power supplies that are causing this problem, but this is a tentative conclusion pending further evidence. One experiment that I'd love to try with your SB is to send you this 65W Microsoft power supply, which works perfectly for me on my SP4, to see if you still have #ThumbnailPreviewsDisappear while both your batteries are 100% charged and your SB is plugged in (or under any other circumstances). If you do, then that would give us invaluable information: we'd definitively know that it's not (just) the power supply.

Thanks,

Steve

Mine is defective as well. Surface Pro 4, 12V power supply, Serial# 0D130C0A7W261

All,

This bug is caused by your power supply. You need to get it replaced.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1293973/Bad%20Surface%20Power%20Supplies%20Cause%20Thumbnail%20Previews%20to%20Disappear.docx

If you have this bug, please post the serial number of your power supply to the thread below, so that we can include it in the above document for Microsoft.

the same issue, SN 0D130C00UWG5A.

Hello everyone!

Maybe a bit late, I thought I was crazy and I'm not alone!!

I've got the same problem on my Surface Pro 4 i7 16 GB SSD 256 GB. In fact, I had it replaced a couple of months ago (bought it in March 2016) because it started to freeze upon first 5 minutes of usage, all connected peripherals lost power supply and holding the power button was the only way to restart it, but it behaved the same way once after another.

I'm afraid the power supply could have been the cause. Because Support asked me to send only the Surface, not the pen nor the power supply, I still keep it; let alone that I'm experiencing the Taskbar thumbnail bug when it's connected.

My power supply model no. is 1625 and SN 0C130Z0CGHJ61 (not sure about 0 for O and 1 for I).

How may I proceed?

Thank you all in advance!

Hi Pepe,

I recommend that you:

1. Go to a Microsoft Store, or call Surface Support, and have them replace your power supply with a Microsoft 65 W power supply--NOTthe 36 W power supply. That should fix your power-related problems. Microsoft has made a terrible mistake in replacing Surface devices, but not power supplies. See:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1293973/Microsoft%20Surface%20BUG%20Report--Thumbnail%20Previews%20Disappear.docx

Note that Microsoft fixed this bug on November 16th, 2016, and subsequently incorporated it into an Insider build. It's targeted for release to the public in the Creators Update (unless they roll it out sooner in a cumulative update).

2. Install the current Windows Insider build (no. 14986) on the fast ring. (All Settings->Update & security->Windows Insider Program->Choose your Insider level: Fast. (You'll have to reboot, and wait for one or two days for the build to download, so that you can install it.) This should fix #ThumbnailPreviewsDisappear.

Let us know if you have any problems.

The main thread for this bug is located here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_10-desktop/windows-10-taskbar-thumbnails-preview-keep/c74dfbe8-db09-4d5f-b7a2-f7a2f0fc7da4?page=26

Good Luck,

Steve