Surface Pro will not sleep even when unplugged and cover closed... any ideas why?

Question

This has been a periodic and persistent problem since I bought this MS Surface Pro 9 about six months ago.

Here is a snip of my power plan:

It clearly shows that plugged, or unplugged this Surface should go to sleep after 5 or 10 minutes.

Similarly, here is the setting for how to behave when the lid is closed:

Again, this very clearly shows the Surface should sleep when the lid is closed.

So how is it possible that this morning I closed the cover on my Surface, then unplugged it, and I left it on a table untouched for the bulk of the day, and...

Several hours later the battery is almost DEAD because it has been active the whole time?!!!

Here is the battery charge graph for this experiment today:

So... my Surface very obviously did NOT sleep and spent about 5 hours draining its battery even with the lid closed, left unused, and power settings as shown above.

Why?

This has happened repeatedly for most of the time I have owned this device (in fact the graph above shows the same thing happened the day before when I left it unplugged, unused in the afternoon!). I find I have to leave it plugged in all the time to prevent a dead device when I need to use it. That is clearly undesirable for what is supposed to be a portable, tablet device!

I phoned tech support a few weeks ago, and the tech used remote desktop access to delete my battery driver and re-install it. That actually helped... for a week or so. But now I am right back where I was... with a Surface Pro that ignores the power settings I have in place and refuses to sleep when it clearly should be.

I can't keep deleting my drivers every time this happens. And I have not installed any "weird" 3rd party software that might be messing with WinOS (Microsoft Windows 11 Home - Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621).

Any ideas what is happening here and how to fix it for good? I'd love to stop tethering his Surface Pro to a power plug all the time!!!

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hello JohnStrong11,

Thank you so much for posting in Microsoft Community.

I appreciate you raising this concern to us, and I understand that you're experiencing this issue with your Surface Pro 9. You got me here; we'll isolate this issue together.

Since you were able to reinstall the drivers, here are other steps you may try to fix the issue.

1. Check for updates: Make sure your Surface Pro 9 is up to date with the latest Windows updates and firmware updates. You can do this by going to Settings > Windows Update > Check for Updates > Install > Restart device after.
2. Run the Power Troubleshooter: Windows has a built-in Power Troubleshooter that can help diagnose and fix power-related issues. You can access it by going to Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooter > Power > Run. Restart device once again.
3. Download latest driver and firmware for your Surface: Download Surface Pro 9 with Intel Processor Drivers and Firmware. from Official Microsoft Download Center
4. If none of the steps work, there may be a need to Reset your Surface. This will remove all files in your Surface. See this link: Restore or reset Surface for Windows - Microsoft Support

Let me know how it goes and hopefully it helps!

Best regards,

Rolando S.

Answer 2

Hello JohnStrong11,

We haven't heard from you, so we assume that your issue has already been addressed. We will not be monitoring this thread moving forward so, if you need further assistance, please create a new thread to discuss these concerns by clicking this link: Create a new question (microsoft.com)

Thank you for understanding.

Regards,

Rolando S.