Surface 4- Connected Standby....InstantGo

BCL_WA

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Ran a test last night with a Surface 4 - i5, 256gb with 16gb ram. Hibernation turned off. No open apps. Unit closed and presumably in Connected Standby (or instantgo).

In 8 hours I had a 18% drain - per Sleep Study; however, I cannot really pinpoint why. The graphs in the sleep study are not displaying properly in Chrome and/or Edge.

Capture1.JPGCapture2.JPG

About a year ago I bought a Dell Venue Pro 11 which had similar 'battery drain' issues but I resolved them through trial and error. My main issue back them was the WIFI driver being too active during sleep. I figured out if the driver was installed 'manually' my issue with battery life diminished a lot. In addition I had issues with the MS Store sync and live tiles. Once dialed in I manually only installed driver updates. My battery drain was less than 10% for an 8 hour sleep period.

Curious if anyone else is investigating this.... I really like this device but at this price I expect near perfection.
 

BCL_WA

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Yes turned Windows Hello off once I read about the issue yesterday. Also I didn't mention but I installed this--winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm (I cannot post actual links since I'm new to this site)

Another post suggested this and I didn't see the harm. The Ads have diminished too. And I think it's helping. I've been using the Surface all day (on/off) and compared to yesterday it's doing much better. I'm at 47% left and it's been off the charger since 7AM this morning or 10 hours total since the last charge- screen 50% w/battery saver.

I'm going to run more tests this evening.
 

GatsbyGlen

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Yes turned Windows Hello off once I read about the issue yesterday. Also I didn't mention but I installed this--winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm (I cannot post actual links since I'm new to this site)

Another post suggested this and I didn't see the harm. The Ads have diminished too. And I think it's helping. I've been using the Surface all day (on/off) and compared to yesterday it's doing much better. I'm at 47% left and it's been off the charger since 7AM this morning or 10 hours total since the last charge- screen 50% w/battery saver.

I'm going to run more tests this evening.

I did something similar, but used the hosts file from this link

Using a Hosts File To Make The Internet Not Suck (as much)
 

BCL_WA

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An update- for Surface 4 i5 16gb
This is my analysis.

11/4-11/5 (night test): battery beginning @ 100%. Over 8 hours on standby with hibernation turned off. Notes- no open programs before connected standby, Hello-turned off, battery saver enabled before connected standby. Placed near the wifi router. Results- the battery drain was 13% overnight leaving 87% remaining- 1.6%/hour drain.
Not bad. I can live with this.

11/5 (day test)- battery beginning at 100%, surface was run for 11 hours. During this time the screen was 80% set at 25% brightness most of the day. Hibernation was enabled to kick in every 30 minutes. This occurred three times during the day for an about 2 hours max total hibernation time (I estimate). Streamed Rhapsody for about 4.5~5 hours. During this time no pops or other audio issues occurred. BTW, Windows Hello was turned on and worked very well. Other stuff- internet browsing (chrome only), excel , and one note used frequently. The screen was set to turn off every 5 minutes. This occurred frequently throughout the day. Surprisingly, at 6 PM I had per Battery pro app 50% battery life left. This matched with windows but has we all know the remaining time in windows isn't right. The Battery pro app actually provides a good estimation on remaining battery life. Other - unit over 60 feet from the router(weak signal all day). Results- 50% battery remaining after 11 hours.

Still not bad. I didn't expect this, especially after streaming online music for this length of period.

11/5-11/6 (night test):battery beginning @ 100%. Over 8 hours on standby with hibernation turned off, Hello turned on and Edge left open displaying a news site. Battery saver enabled before Connected Standby. Unit placed next to the wifi router. Results - 17% drain or 83% battery remaining.

Overall, I'm seeing anything bad here. This is somewhat close to the Dell Venue pro 11 Connected Standby performance. I am going to photoshop / lightroom for about 1 hour today and see how it does. I expect a considerable drain given these two programs are processor intense.

brian
 

GatsbyGlen

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An update- for Surface 4 i5 16gb
....

Overall, I'm seeing anything bad here. This is somewhat close to the Dell Venue pro 11 Connected Standby performance. I am going to photoshop / lightroom for about 1 hour today and see how it does. I expect a considerable drain given these two programs are processor intense.

brian

In looking at your first post, with the graph, I see a drain rate of 863 mW per hour. I think that is reasonable. I get something similar, between 500 and 700 mW (Hello is disabled). The battery is rated at around 39 Wh, or 39,000 mWh. So at that rate, it could last 45 hours on CS, having a drain rate of about 2% per hour. I guess that's good? I don't know what Microsoft says, if anything, what it should be.
 
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BCL_WA

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You know I can't recall the doc but there was some specification to mfg re: Connected Services battery drain goal of 1% per hour....something really small. I never achieved this with the Dell Venue.... it had it's own challenges..
 

Daniel Rubino

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My latest numbers on build 10586 are looking real good, imo. I was shocked the last day I haven't had any heat issues and battery didn't budge much overnight. I had more on-charge times than I'd like for a data set, but for a few times it is looking good even during travel.

cs-10586.PNG
 

ttsoldier

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11/4-11/5 (night test): battery beginning @ 100%. Over 8 hours on standby with hibernation turned off. Notes- no open programs before connected standby, Hello-turned off, battery saver enabled before connected standby. Placed near the wifi router. Results- the battery drain was 13% overnight leaving 87% remaining- 1.6%/hour drain.
Not bad. I can live with this.

how can you live w/ This? 13% over night .Maybe in just old school, but I can't .I've disabled "connected" standby . when I close my sp4 I know when I return it will bet same %, and this is what I want. Sure, it takes a few seconds to boot up but it's like what, five seconds?
 

BCL_WA

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how can you live w/ This? 13% over night .Maybe in just old school, but I can't .I've disabled "connected" standby . when I close my sp4 I know when I return it will bet same %, and this is what I want. Sure, it takes a few seconds to boot up but it's like what, five seconds?

I know what you mean. But 13% isn't bad considering the background checking going on during this period (e.g. wifi connection). I wish I could remember the stat from MS. It's was ridiculously low.
I don't plan to use this feature expect through the day. When the day is over I shut'er down the old fashion way.

I've been reading lots of posts about drain this...drain that and was concerned there was a significant issue. I don't think there is. I'm using HELLO again today and it's not depleting the battery all that much.
 

ttsoldier

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I know what you mean. But 13% isn't bad considering the background checking going on during this period (e.g. wifi connection). I wish I could remember the stat from MS. It's was ridiculously low.
I don't plan to use this feature expect through the day. When the day is over I shut'er down the old fashion way.

I've been reading lots of posts about drain this...drain that and was concerned there was a significant issue. I don't think there is. I'm using HELLO again today and it's not depleting the battery all that much.

Guess it depends on the way you use your device. And i'm beginning to realise that the way I use my sp4 needs to change from the way I used my dell laptop :(
 

BCL_WA

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With such a compact design you'll have to compromise on some things. These units will never compete on battery life with a dedicated notebook, unless new battery tech is introduced. There is just no way. Also with regards to battery, this tablet won't compete with an iPad or android tablet either; however, it does a heck of a lot more than either of those other tablets! I guess there are trade offs.... for me the ability to take meeting notes is priceless with the pen (in onenote). I couldn't haul a notebook in and do the same.
 

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