Solved SP4 No Longer Goes to Sleep Automatically

[DavidZ]

I have my SP4 set to go to sleep (and turn off the display) after 5 minutes of inactivity when on battery. I noticed recently that it no longer does that. Any idea what's keeping it awake?

I also have my SP4 set to sleep and turn off the display after 10 minutes of inactivity when plugged in and it doesn't do that either.

 

[jnjroach]

Have you done a sleep study from the Powercfg /sleep or Powercfg /energy ?

 

[DavidZ]

Have you done a sleep study from the Powercfg /sleep or Powercfg /energy ?

I ran a sleep study, but I don't know how to read it or what to look for. Copy attached

Also, I unplugged my Logitech mouse from the USB port and it went to sleep after 5 minutes on battery. I don't know why because it used to go to sleep with the mouse plugged in to the USB port.

 

[jnjroach]

Your sleep study shows 0 Connected Standby events, looks like your Mouse Polling prevented the machine from going into Connected Standby.

 

[DavidZ]

Your sleep study shows 0 Connected Standby events, looks like your Mouse Polling prevented the machine from going into Connected Standby.

I disabled connected standby about a year ago by changing the registry parameter because I have no use for it and it can only cause me problems. Unless an update turned it back on, it should still be turned off.

 

[DavidZ]

I checked the registry and, sure enough, connected standby was turned on. I turned it back off and now my
SP4 goes to sleep automatically at 5 minutes on battery again. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Jeff.

Connected standby must've been turned back on by a recent Windows 10 update.

 

[Philtastic]

How is connected standby preventing your SP4 from going to sleep? This is probably something specific to your usage.

 

[DavidZ]

How is connected standby preventing your SP4 from going to sleep? This is probably something specific to your usage.

It's all explained in this thread. Did you read the entire thread? It's not that long. If you have a more specific question, please ask it.

My SP4 is pretty vanilla. MSOffice. Logitech wireless mouse. That's about it.

As far as "how" it's happening, I have no idea. I'm just reporting what happened.

 

[Philtastic]

It's all explained in this thread. Did you read the entire thread? It's not that long. If you have a more specific question, please ask it.

My SP4 is pretty vanilla. MSOffice. Logitech wireless mouse. That's about it.

As far as "how" it's happening, I have no idea. I'm just reporting what happened.

Yeah, I did read the whole thing. It sounds like your mouse is preventing it from going into Connected Standby which is a kind of sleep mode that works for a lot of people these days, including myself... thus I'm asking how Connected Standby is the problem and not your mouse.

 

[DavidZ]

Yeah, I did read the whole thing. It sounds like your mouse is preventing it from going into Connected Standby which is a kind of sleep mode that works for a lot of people these days, including myself... thus I'm asking how Connected Standby is the problem and not your mouse.

Well, if the problem is with my mouse, then it developed in the last few weeks because I've been using the mouse since I bought my SP4 about a year ago.

I doubt the problem is my mouse. Connected standby has been a problem with the current Surface generation from the get go. In fact, early on, MS even recommended disabling connected standby as a solution to alleviate the many power glitches users were experiencing.

I have absolutely no use for connected standby. Do you?

 

[Philtastic]

Well, if the problem is with my mouse, then it developed in the last few weeks because I've been using the mouse since I bought my SP4 about a year ago.

I doubt the problem is my mouse. Connected standby has been a problem with the current Surface generation from the get go. In fact, early on, MS even recommended disabling connected standby as a solution to alleviate the many power glitches users were experiencing.

I have absolutely no use for connected standby. Do you?

Actually, your mouse might have been a problem since the beginning since you've had connected standby disabled pretty much from when you got your SP4, right?

I'm well aware of the issues that connected standby and sleep in general have had all the way back to the Surface Pro 2. I have had a love-hate relationship with sleep mode due to all of the many screw ups that Microsoft has put out, and it's fair that you ask whether I have any use for it or not. To answer your question, I will first ask whether you have any use for a faster computer, slightly lighter tablet, or more pixels on your screen: surely today's technology completely outstrips most of your regular uses for them. I'm pretty sure that we don't need today's Core-i processors for email and word processing. Even for heavier uses, you could just wait a bit longer while it crunched numbers. In spite of this, we like technological improvements because they make things faster and more pleasant.

I think that sleep and connected standby are nice conveniences. My computer starts up right away on pressing the button, and my emails, files, calendar, and news are already synced. If I regularly used Skype, my messages would already be updated, and, if someone called, I could quickly turn it on and answer. If you play music through your SP4, you can save battery by putting it into connected standby while still playing music. Nothing essential but, much like with faster processors, it's nice and, when it works such as now, makes for a smoother experience. I suppose we might not appreciate it as much since many of these functions are rendered redundant by the connected standby on phones.

 

[DavidZ]

Actually, your mouse might have been a problem since the beginning since you've had connected standby disabled pretty much from when you got your SP4, right?

Not exactly. I owned and used both the SP4 and the mouse for about a month before disabling connected standby. During that first month, my SP4 would go to sleep without any problems.

The SP4's horrible reliability record with connected standby's (including MS's many firmware iterations in an attempt to resolve various user problems) is by far the more likely culprit than a simple little popular wireless travel mouse. If mouse polling is prohibiting my SP4 from going into connected standby (as Jeff postulates), it seems to me that the mouse is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, but connected standby is not doing what it's supposed to.

I'm well aware of the issues that connected standby and sleep in general have had all the way back to the Surface Pro 2. I have had a love-hate relationship with sleep mode due to all of the many screw ups that Microsoft has put out, and it's fair that you ask whether I have any use for it or not. To answer your question, I will first ask whether you have any use for a faster computer, slightly lighter tablet, or more pixels on your screen...

Yes, yes and yes. Fortunately, connected standby is not required to enjoy any of these attributes, nor does it have anything to do with them.

...surely today's technology completely outstrips most of your regular uses for them. I'm pretty sure that we don't need today's Core-i processors for email and word processing. Even for heavier uses, you could just wait a bit longer while it crunched numbers. In spite of this, we like technological improvements because they make things faster and more pleasant.

Again, connected standby is not required to enjoy these features.

I think that sleep and connected standby are nice conveniences.

It's interesting that you say "sleep and connected standby." I've read some people claim that if you disable connected standby, you lose the ability to sleep. That has NOT been my experience (as you can see from reading this thread).

My computer starts up right away on pressing the button, and my emails, files, calendar, and news are already synced. If I regularly used Skype, my messages would already be updated, and, if someone called, I could quickly turn it on and answer. If you play music through your SP4, you can save battery by putting it into connected standby while still playing music. Nothing essential but, much like with faster processors, it's nice and, when it works such as now, makes for a smoother experience. I suppose we might not appreciate it as much since many of these functions are rendered redundant by the connected standby on phones.

These are worthwhile benefits. For you, perhaps, but not for me, thanks. You have to do your own cost/benefit analysis. Are these benefits worth the aggravation of essentially being an unwilling beta tester? For me the cost/benefit analysis is simple. Benefits = 0. Cost = 0.