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New Surface Pro: It's prone to random sleep issues too, say some users

Microsoft's hardware efforts continue to be haunted by sleep-bug issues and random shutdowns.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer
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It's not clear how widespread the 2017 Surface Pro sleep issue is, given the newness of the device.

Image: Sarah Tew/CNET

Few Surface owners will forget the troubles Microsoft had getting power management just right in its last generation of desktop hardware. It seems similar sleep-related problems are haunting the new Surface Pro, which started shipping to customers last week.

There's a growing number of complaints about sleep issues on a Surface Reddit thread and on Microsoft's own community pages, detailing lost work due to Microsoft's mysterious hardware shutdowns.

"For some reason my new Surface is shutting off randomly. I check the setting and a few other things, but it still randomly turns off without warning. I'm losing some of my school work because of it," the person behind the first report on Microsoft's community page said.

There are currently 36 people on Microsoft's community who've claimed to be experiencing the same problems. It's not clear how widespread this issue is given the relative newness of the device. However, the number of complaints have grown in the past few hours. There are also reports on Windows Central's user forum detailing the same issue.

"I have the same exact issue with my surface pro 256/8/i5 with the keyboard cover. It is annoying me with how it is putting itself to sleep all the time. Even when I am in the middle of typing sometimes," a user reported on Reddit.

In the absence of any official comment from Microsoft, some users are attempting workarounds from other forums that helped deal with similar problems in Microsoft's earlier Surface models, but to no avail.

Microsoft was listening to community members during its Surface Pro 4 sleep crisis, which it gradually fixed over a number of firmware updates last year.

However, Microsoft does not to have its ear to the ground right now, according to one frustrated owner who plans to return the Surface Pro to Microsoft.

"I just got tired of it, and before I went to sleep last night, I decided to just wipe/system-restore the thing, and it is going back," wrote Ruan Anthowiak.

"Not going to pay over a grand for a device that will continue to just shut itself off while I'm using it... and while Microsoft support folks were always nice to me when I contacted them, they haven't gotten back to me since last weekend."

The initial report on Reddit concerned a Core i5 Surface Pro model, although one user who claims to have replaced an i5 with an i7 model reported experiencing the same issue.

"The i7 also just sleeps mid-use. I have got the option of 'save power when I'm away' turned off"," the Reddit user said.

Another i7 Surface Pro owner chimed in: "Same issue here. i7/8GB/256. Has happened multiple times in both tablet and laptop mode. Hibernates mid-use and power button resumes with no other issues -- very annoying. I have 'Save power when my device knows I'm away' disabled and still see the issue."

A Core M3 Surface Pro owner on Windows Central's forum claimed to have the same issue. "It seems the device is going to hibernate -- itself, and after I try to power it back on there is a delay like four seconds. After this it boots up and the MS logo appears on screen," mato4279 wrote.

ZDNet has asked Microsoft whether it is aware of the reports. We'll update the story if it responds.

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