Surface 2 with cover turns on and drains battery in my bag

[g808]

The last couple days I've been taking my Surface 2 to work in my laptop backpack. When I take it out it's hot and doesn't turn on. I believe since I have the type cover attached the Surface turns on when the cover opens a little while in the bag and therefore drains the battery. I really would hate to have to store the surface in it's own tighter sleeve/space, or store it with the cover off. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[stmav]

Are you just hitting the button to turn off or shutting it down? When I shut down, I can do whatever I want to the cover and it doesn't turn on.

 

[g808]

I just put it to sleep by closing the cover and put in my bag. I don't want to always shut it down. Defeats the point to me.

 

[anon(5326758)]

Same thing happening here. Using the touch cover to put it to sleep or letting it sleep when idle (but not pushing the power button to turn it off). The Surface 2 gets really warm but the screen won't turn on when opening the cover, or by pressing the power button. I need to hit Power+VolDown to restart it. Nothing in Event Viewer that points to any sleep/wake activity, so it's like the screen is going black but the Surface isn't going to sleep. The Windows Button vibrates when pushed, so it acts like it is on.

Amazingly the battery still has ~50% left after being in this state for hours.

M

 

[g808]

Putting it to sleep before closing the type cover is working for me. Not ideal, but at least it works for now. It does take longer than I'd like to wake up after extended periods without use.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

I just use the button to put it to sleep. Seems to work and instant wake up still.

 

[thatnurse89]

Next time this happens look to see if the camera has turned on. I have found that my Surface 2 tablet often does this. I will close the type cover over it to put it in my bag and I notice it is very warm and that the white light on the back is on indicating that the camera is in use. I am going to go take it to the Microsoft store to see what they say about it.

Good luck

 

[Cobb]

Ive read a few stories like this. Me, I power off and disconnect the keyboard vs just folding it forward or backwards. Read a lot of the early keyboards suffered internal broken wires from all that flexing. The keyboard snaps on in an instant and it powers up faster than it can connect to a wifi network.

 

[Gamely Lounges]

I'm experiencing weird behavior like this too. I have been putting it to sleep (via "charms" > "power" > "sleep") every night but in the morning the battery is drained. I always leave the cover attached.
From my battery report I can see where I am putting it to sleep (connected standby) but then seconds later it returns to active and the battery gets sucked dry.

 

[Dayyan James]

The point about the camera turning on by itself is happening to me also.
If I close the cover, a few minutes later the camera turns on, when I open the cover the camera app is active in lock screen mode. If I click the padlock icon (Unlock) I can get into my tablet without entering the account password.

In the event viewer, all I can see that might be relevant is the location service performing some actions around the time the camera turns on. I am yet to catch exactly when the camera is turning on to validate if there is a correlation between the location service and the camera activation.

But as the post suggests, pressing the power button before closing the cover seems to prevent this issue.

 

[Jack Bauer7]

I have the same problem with the camera turning on for no reason and drains the battery. Is there a fix for this? or I got a defective unit?

 

[exkerZ]

I have the same problem with the camera turning on for no reason and drains the battery. Is there a fix for this? or I got a defective unit?

Disabling the camera from the lock screen is one fix.

 

[Plazma1]

This is happening to my new Surface Pro 3 all the time. It actually happened to my old Surface Pro a lot - it would overheat in my bag even thought I would put it to sleep. I am 100% confident that it is what ruined the digitizer in my first Surface.
Is there anyway to disable whatever is making this happen?

I was on the bus today and tried out an experiment. I put the surface to sleep and let it sit closed on my lap. The vibrations alone from the bus ride kept causing the Surface to turn on. Even though it is in a pocket in my bag - I'm sure my walking shakes it in a similar way and this is triggering it to wake up.

I can't ever see this great battery life that the SP3 is supposed to have if it keeps draining all day in my bag.

 

[anon(8195883)]

Something to try is run a sleep study report to find out what is causing your Surface 2 to wake up, open cmd & run;

powercfg /sleepstudy

open the saved sleepstudy-report.html in IE.

Something else one could try is put an elastic band around the cover while its in your bag... should prevent it from opening.