Why won't my Surface Pro 3 wake up?

EamonnM

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Mar 29, 2017
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I use a Surface Pro 3. Beginning several months ago, the machine will often go into sleep mode and be impossible to wake up. The screen goes black, the Windows icon on the side of the screen does not buzz when pressed, and the keyboard never lights up in this state.

My attempts to wake up the machine include pressing the power button, holding down the power button and the volume down button for 30 seconds, and holding down the power button and the volume up button for 30 seconds. In the past, the machine always wakes up after repeating these three methods over and over for anywhere from 3 to 60 minutes, but now it won't turn on after 4 hours, 2 of which have been spent trying to wake it up. Furthermore, while this problem originally arose once every one or two weeks, it has now happened three days in a row. It does not matter if I have left it inactive for a few minutes, if I've left it inactive for a few hours, or if I was actively using it recently; once it falls asleep, there is a chance it cannot be turned back on.

The machine never wakes up on its own (meaning without one of the methods above being used).

When I am using one of the aforementioned methods while the surface is charging (it doesn't seem to matter whether the machine is charging at the time or not; the problem usually occurs when the machine is plugged in), the light on the charger flashes every 5-8 seconds, suggesting to me that the hard reboot is happening, just not working.

I am not sure if the machine goes into sleep mode naturally and then cannot be turned on, or if whatever is wrong goes wrong at some time when the surface would not normally fall asleep, thus triggering the forced sleep.

I am currently using Windows 10 and my machine is fully updated. Obviously I cannot uninstall and reinstall the latest update(s) in order to try to solve the problem that way.

I would appreciate any ideas on how to wake up the machine and solve this recurring problem before I throw it away. Thank you.

UPDATE
I finally got back on after trying many more times. I immediately set the machine to never sleep (plugged in or not), and it can no longer be put to sleep by pressing the power button or closing the surface. Not five minutes after saving these settings, the screen went black again, and it took several hard reboot attempts to restart it. After getting on a second time, I disabled hibernation (and fast startup) through the command prompt. I will update if the problem arises again.
 
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rege0039

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Oct 21, 2014
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I use a Surface Pro 3. Beginning several months ago, the machine will often go into sleep mode and be impossible to wake up. The screen goes black, the Windows icon on the side of the screen does not buzz when pressed, and the keyboard never lights up in this state.

My attempts to wake up the machine include pressing the power button, holding down the power button and the volume down button for 30 seconds, and holding down the power button and the volume up button for 30 seconds. In the past, the machine always wakes up after repeating these three methods over and over for anywhere from 3 to 60 minutes, but now it won't turn on after 4 hours, 2 of which have been spent trying to wake it up. Furthermore, while this problem originally arose once every one or two weeks, it has now happened three days in a row. It does not matter if I have left it inactive for a few minutes, if I've left it inactive for a few hours, or if I was actively using it recently; once it falls asleep, there is a chance it cannot be turned back on.

The machine never wakes up on its own (meaning without one of the methods above being used).

When I am using one of the aforementioned methods while the surface is charging (it doesn't seem to matter whether the machine is charging at the time or not; the problem usually occurs when the machine is plugged in), the light on the charger flashes every 5-8 seconds, suggesting to me that the hard reboot is happening, just not working.

I am not sure if the machine goes into sleep mode naturally and then cannot be turned on, or if whatever is wrong goes wrong at some time when the surface would not normally fall asleep, thus triggering the forced sleep.

I am currently using Windows 10 and my machine is fully updated. Obviously I cannot uninstall and reinstall the latest update(s) in order to try to solve the problem that way.

I would appreciate any ideas on how to wake up the machine and solve this recurring problem before I throw it away. Thank you.

UPDATE
I finally got back on after trying many more times. I immediately set the machine to never sleep (plugged in or not), and it can no longer be put to sleep by pressing the power button or closing the surface. Not five minutes after saving these settings, the screen went black again, and it took several hard reboot attempts to restart it. After getting on a second time, I disabled hibernation (and fast startup) through the command prompt. I will update if the problem arises again.

How did you get it to start.

My SP3 was working fine last night and now simply won't start. I've held down every combination of buttons for what feel likes hours. Getting the same thing with the charger as you. It flashes every 8 seconds but nothing happens !
 

mtf1380

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Nov 30, 2015
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I have had this issue on occasion in the past on my SP3. When it did occur, I was fortunate to be able to hold the 'Power Button' down for 30-seconds, or disconnecting/reconnecting from the dock, then 'Power Button' for 30-sec, to get it to power back up. I got so frustrated that I put the machine (SP3) on Insider Fast Ring, and I don't believe I have had the issue since (that I can remember)....knock on wood!
 

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