Sleep mode => shut down

[heyyou]

I have a minor problem. I use a Surface Pro 2, and I often press the power button at the top right to put my Surface into sleep mode, and then press it again to wake the computer up to use it again. This works most of the time. But every now and then, instead of waking up, the computer just shuts itself down.

When I press the power button, the computer's fan starts spinning. I can hear it blowing for a few seconds. The screen itself doesn't turn back on. And after just a few seconds, the computer is completely shut off. I didn't even hold the power button down, I just pressed it, and this happens.

Turning the computer back on is easy enough, but still, this might become a problem if I have a process or work in progress that I can't afford interrupted.

Is anybody else having this problem? Is there a solution to prevent this?

 

[jefhart]

You can set it up so the power button does whatever you want. Go to Search in the charm bar, search for "change what the power buttons do" and then you should see a screen where you can modify what the power button does both while it is on battery and when it is plugged in to the charger.

 

[Philtastic]

^Didn't read the OP

Some people had that problem early on where it would crash on wake up. Is your Windows up to date? When did you get your SP2? It could be that you have some of the old firmware or buggy Windows updates installed which means you'll probably want to refresh Windows to clear some of that up. It could also be that one of the programs you use doesn't like sleep mode.

 

[jefhart]

^Didn't read the OP

I read the op, I thought maybe he had changed the button behavior accidentally. I was speaking from personal experience

 

[heyyou]

^Didn't read the OP

Some people had that problem early on where it would crash on wake up. Is your Windows up to date? When did you get your SP2? It could be that you have some of the old firmware or buggy Windows updates installed which means you'll probably want to refresh Windows to clear some of that up. It could also be that one of the programs you use doesn't like sleep mode.

I updated my Windows about a week ago. Maybe not recently enough? I bought my SP2 in the middle of last spring. The exact date eludes me at the moment. Sorry. And sometimes the only program I really have running while in sleep mode is Google Chrome, but sometimes no programs at all, and I still have this problem.

You can set it up so the power button does whatever you want. Go to Search in the charm bar, search for "change what the power buttons do" and then you should see a screen where you can modify what the power button does both while it is on battery and when it is plugged in to the charger.

Well, to be honest, I didn't set up my power button in any alternative way. It's left in its default setting. It's just that sometimes it makes my computer sleep and wake up, and sometimes it shuts the computer down. I want to prevent it from shutting down like that.

 

[Philtastic]

Hmm, well, that's interesting. The updates by then were alright so I'm not sure what the problem is. The only possible solution that I can provide is, if it really bugs you, you should refresh Windows in case something somewhere went wrong with the OS which is causing the crashing on wake up. This, however, means reinstalling all of your programs and backing up your important documents (you don't have to do this but I'd highly recommend it). These days, it's not such a harrowing thing to do but will still take a bit of time.

See the following link for more in-depth instructions on how to do this. I'm pretty sure the SP2 has a hidden partition with the Windows install so I don't think you need a USB stick with Windows on it:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

 

[girarcat]

I bought my SP2 more than one year ago and during the firsts weeks I had this very issue quite often. With an update it was almost fixed, but sometimes I'm still having it. I think for the last weeks I'm experiencing it more frequently...