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

I had the exact same problem and just found the fix for it. Follow the instructions here and set the values to 0. Happy days!

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/246364-power-options-add-system-unattended-sleep-timeout.html

I have been experiencing the same issue ever since I got the windows 8.1 update.  I did everything suggested here and I have Microsoft Account and it's still powers off in 1-2 minutes ignoring my settings of 15 min.  Its really annoying, especially when I am in a meeting reading something and then it just goes blank on me.

Hope that fixes this fundamental issue for you :)

It sure did, nice one!

Although my Surface Pro (now running Windows 8.1) is joined to my home domain, the account has no Exchange mailbox, and I have another 6 machines running a combination of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 with my domain account linked to my Microsoft account and only the Surface Pro experienced this horrid bug; so going down the "mail policy" path didn't help me at all. A real annoyance when you're using it in the kitchen. Every time you turn around to read something, damn thing would be asleep.

Who would have thought that two hidden settings in power management would have their values changed to such a small number. Now that I know which registry keys allow modification of these settings from a GUI, a simple group policy preference can be used to open up those two settings on all my Windows 8/Windows 8.1 machines... just in case ;)

Brilliant information, MrElectrifyer, thank you very much!

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 :)