Surface Pro keeps going to sleep every 1-2 minutes of being idle

Anonymous
2013-04-14T03:29:09+00:00

Love the idea behind the Surface Pro, but been having software and hardware issues lately. One of the software issues I've been experiencing is that when my Surface Pro first goes to sleep after a restart and I wake it up, it then begins going into sleep mode every like 1-2 minutes of being idle. I noticed this when reading some news on the internet.

I double checked my power options I have my current power plan (based off Balanced) set to put my Surface Pro to sleep (while plugged in) after 30 minutes of being idle!

Anyone know what's causing this problem? Is this another OS bug in Windows Ei8ht? I've avoided contacting the Surface support team cause every time I've contacted them about technical problems like this, their only solution is to perform a system refresh.

Surface | Surface Pro | Install and update

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Anonymous
2014-09-12T04:37:53+00:00

go to desktop mode, go to screen saver, if it says blank, 1 minute, change it to none. it fixed mine SP3, Same issue.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-11T21:32:08+00:00

    Interesting…that is usually one of the first 3rd party programs I install on fresh Windows systems I configure…don't see why Windows 8 should be conflicting with it…

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-11T21:49:17+00:00

    Interesting…that is usually one of the first 3rd party programs I install on fresh Windows systems I configure…don't see why Windows 8 should be conflicting with it…

    It wasn't WINRAR...it was another small program I installed...removed it and bam, sleep problem gone.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-13T05:46:32+00:00

    What small program did you uninstall? You sure the problem is gone? Perform the following steps just to confirm:

    1- Perform a system restart

    2- Login

    3- Put the surface pro through 2 sleep-wakeup cycles

    4- See if it goes to sleep again after a short period of time

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-30T01:40:59+00:00

    Interesting status update, seems like one of the above registry tweaks was the fix. Not sure which one fixed it, but it appears the sleep bug is gone, and that's all that matters to me :D Here's the tweaks and steps for the fix:

    1.) Create a .reg file with the following in it and merge it into your registry. The first part adds a "System unattended sleep timeout"  setting under the "Sleep" section (in advanced power settings) and the second part adds a "Console lock display off timeout" setting under the "Display" section.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0]

    @="1800"

    “Attributes”=dword:00000002

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7]

    “Attributes”=dword:00000002

    2.) Restart your computer

    3.) Open Power Options > Click "Change plan settings" (for the power plan you use) > Click "Change advanced power settings"

    4.) Under the "Sleep" section, change the "System unattended sleep timeout" setting to match the "Sleep after" setting. In my case, it was 15 minutes on battery and 30 minutes on power. (Notice its default value is 2 minutes, so I'm speculating this is the main 'cause of the sleep of death 'cause my system kept going to sleep after ~2 minutes)

    5.) Under the "Display" section, change the "Console lock display off timeout" setting to match the "Sleep after" setting under the "Sleep" section. Again, in my case, it was 15 minutes on battery and 30 minutes on power.

    6.) Apply the changes and perform the following check routine to see if the sleep of death issue is gone. It seems to be gone in my case; I've put my Surface Pro through 5 sleep routines and it doesn't go to sleep by itself after over 2 minutes (I waited for the screen to dim after 5 minutes in each routine).

    Sleep of death issue check

    1.) Restart System

    2.) Login

    3.) Put the surface pro through 2 sleep-wakeup cycles

    4.) See if it goes to sleep again after a short period of time

    Hope that fixes this fundamental issue for you :)

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