My Pro was stuck in sleep

[CheyenneDonna]

I've read about a "sleep of death" and thought I read it was fixed. Has anything like this ever happened to anyone on this forum?

Thursday night I upgraded to 8.1, put the pro on the charger, turned it off and went to bed. Friday after work I turned it on to check the new features, changed my lockscreen pic and pressed the button to sleep so I could see if I liked the new pic. I pressed the button to wake, heard a vibration, saw a brief flash and the screen went black. Nothing would wake or turn it on. I removed my SD card, tried holding the power button endlessly, called Microsoft and followed the techs instruction to hold both power and volume down (to reset battery) etc. to no avail. A return /exchange was set up. I was getting ready to pack the pro and before pulling off my Ghost Armor I stubbornly tried turning it on again. It booted. So far it has not happened again and I really don't want to go through the hassle of an exchange. I'm a grad student, taking online courses and it would be a real hassle (both the wait and the reloading my programs). Plus a return at this point means I almost certainly get a refurb.
I called to cancel the RMA and the tech I talked said he thought I should return anyway, after backing up my files. He seemed to think I might have a loose battery connection. Any thoughts?

 

[oion]

Do you have any sort of backup device for school?

Now, I don't know how long it takes for Microsoft to send a replacement on the average (there's no guarantee it'll be a refurb either, not according to their terms of service). You might ask the tech to ensure it'll be an expedited shipment, and you could ask about the refurb thing.

Otherwise you just have to weigh the risk of it happening again versus how many months left in school (I'm assuming you're on the U.S. semester system, which may be wrong): Consider that it's not yet November when midterm papers and whatnot are typically due and the pace often picks up due to both holiday family obligations and term end. The absolute worst case scenario is for a full device failure in December, end of term, when you probably need it most.

 

[oion]

I only answered the returns issue, but maybe this:
Pro won't wake up from standby/sleep.... - Microsoft Community

 

[CheyenneDonna]

I do have other choices for class; not optimal - but I do have a Chromebook, an iPad and a Nexus 7. Neither run Office, Dragon Naturally Speaking or Adobe Pro; these are all necessities for me. Plus the time to reload and redo all my personalization would really hurt; I work full time and tutor also. I did read all those answers while I was searching; I never changed that setting - it's set to allow the turn off. I'm half convinced it was just a glitch since I've read more than one post abut it and Microsoft even has a help page for the won't wake up issue.

 

[oion]

I do have other choices for class; not optimal - but I do have a Chromebook, an iPad and a Nexus 7. Neither run Office, Dragon Naturally Speaking or Adobe Pro; these are all necessities for me. Plus the time to reload and redo all my personalization would really hurt; I work full time and tutor also. I did read all those answers while I was searching; I never changed that setting - it's set to allow the turn off. I'm half convinced it was just a glitch since I've read more than one post abut it and Microsoft even has a help page for the won't wake up issue.

If it's really a loose hardware connection according to them.... try shaking it. (I'm only half kidding.) Otherwise, if you really don't want to return it, just cancel the RMA and go on with your life and hope it was a one-time deal.

 

[jacewt]

During my first week of using the Surface, something like that happened to me. It discharged I suppose. It wouldn't turn on, even when I plugged it in. I went through RMA procedures, then left it plugged in for hours and then it finally booted after I left it alone for a while. It has happened since.

 

[ron677]

It is not hardware, I returned my surface and did the exact same thing. They have a real problem with sleep issues. I called support and they told me to set the drive to never sleep but that wasn't the issue, it still did it. I will be calling them again. Last time I let them off the hook without giving me a bug id, this time I won't be so easy... I want a bug id that can be tracked. I don't want to keep having to hold the button and the up volume for 15 seconds about 3 times to wake up my surface... bad issue for Microsoft. They need to get this fixed.

 

[beman39]

this has happened to me a couple of times, it has something to do with the sleep/awake program... all you need to do is hold the power button down to turn it off and then press the power button on again and it will boot up. it happens very infrequently on my device and doesn't really bother me. I'm sure it won't happen again for a looong while so I wouldn't worry about it, and if it does worry you then I suggest sending in the unit for a replacement....