Why do I have battery drain when my Surface Pro 4 shuts off?

[Gonzax]

Battery drain when Surface pro 4 shut off

Ok, I've had my surface pro 4 for a few weeks now and I love it but the battery is driving me crazy. Apart from the crappy battery life and the battery saver meter (which is a **** joke, sometimes it says 2 hours left, ten seconds after, it says 8 or whatever) I am having a more serious problem with it.

Last night I fully charged the surface, I turned it off (NOT Sleep but off, from the start menu) and this morning when I turned it on it says 78% battery remaining. How can that be?? Does it drain more than 20% of battery overnight with zero use?? It is not the first time it happens, I charged it the other day to 100%, didn't use it for a day and the next day couldn't even turn it on, it was totally empty and I had to connect the charger.

Is anybody else experiencing these problems?

 

[Grimmric]

Re: Battery drain when Surface pro 4 shut off

Check this. http://forums.windowscentral.com/mi...-battery-life-surface-pro-4-do-you-agree.html
I followed the instructions from zkyevolved and GatsbyGlen and installed the Intel drivers.
It made a huge difference for me.
Hopefully it can help you too.

 

[Gonzax]

Re: Battery drain when Surface pro 4 shut off

Thanks, I'll give it a try but it still doesn't explain why there is any battery drain at all. I could understand it if the device were in sleep mode but not when it is completely shut down. My old tablet, a Samsung ATI which lasts 10-11 hours could be turned off and stay like that for a couple of months without losing any battery. I can't understand why the surface goes from 100% to 0% in just one day, it is a huge disappointment.

 

[Grimmric]

Now i had tried to have it turned off overnight.
No cable inserted and when i turned it on this morning (after 9h30m) it still had 100% on the battery.
Try the updated intel driver. If that doesnt help i get the feeling it might be faulty.
I had no drain when it was turned off.

 

[Gonzax]

After doing some research online I found two possible solutions:
1- disable "connected standby"
2- disable Intel Management Interface

I tried option 1 first. 100% charged when I went to bed, I turned it on after 16 hours and 0% drain (yeah I'm happy now). That seemed to be the problem. It is obvious that the Surface doesn't really turn off with "connected standby" on. It takes 2 more seconds tu shut down and another 2-3 seconds to start up which is great because it is still super fast when you turn it on so that's "problem solved" for me. What a silly feature, to be honest, pretty useless considering how fast the device is.

I think I'm gonna try option 2 as well with "connected standby" on to see how it goes. I'll get back here if I do to tell how it went.
I hope this helps other people.

 

[RicKaysen]

I had this happen last night, which is the reason I'm reading this thread. I fully charged the device before bed, turned it OFF and when I arrived at my morning meeting all prepared to display an important spreadsheet, the battery was drained. I'm not talking 75%, but 100% drained and warm to the touch. Unacceptable.

 

[Gonzax]

I had this happen last night, which is the reason I'm reading this thread. I fully charged the device before bed, turned it OFF and when I arrived at my morning meeting all prepared to display an important spreadsheet, the battery was drained. I'm not talking 75%, but 100% drained and warm to the touch. Unacceptable.

Do what I did Rickaysen, disable "connected standby" and see how it goes. If it doesn't work for you do step 2. CS It's a stupid feature that does nothing but save you a couple of seconds. If you presss the "power off" button and you see the surface turn off right away that means it is not really powering off but more like some kind of sleep/hibernation state. Once you disable CS you'll see that it takes a couple of seconds to power off, still very fast but you will notice the difference which, of course, it is more than worth it.
MS should really correct this obvious bug in W10 because losing 20% battery overnight, even in sleep mode, is totally unacceptable, let alone 100%. This is not a cheap device, things like this should not happen.

 

[sott3]

Are you using the camera for Windows Hello? If so, see what happens if you turn that off.

 

[RicKaysen]

Are you using the camera for Windows Hello? If so, see what happens if you turn that off.

I don't understand why that would be an issue if the computer is shut down.

 

[GatsbyGlen]

Try turning Fast Startup Off and then back On, or just keep it Off. When you shutdown, you really don't when Fast Startup is on. It saves your state and the problem might be there (perhaps it's trying to save, but can't). You'll notice this when making a registry change, for example, to turn off connected standby. If Fast Startup is on, and you shutdown and start up, the change doesn't take place. You have to restart.

You're probably better off turning Fast Startup off all together, but it's really a personal preference.

 

[dkp23]

Do any of the intel driver/management tweaks improve battery life in general? im not talking about what shows on the icon because that isn't accurate and changes based on usage, im talking about noticable longer use for just normal web surfing.

 

[Gonzax]

Disabling "fast startup" fixed all problems for me, no more battery drain when the device is off and I'd swear, though I have to do some more testing, that battey life in general has improved as well.

 

[Matt Rosen]

Any chance you can help me through disabling Connected Standby? Not seeing how to do it within options in Settings, and a Google search provided no clear help.
Thanks
Cancel that - just tried it in registry editor....hopefully will work tonight.

 

[tboy2000]

Yes how do you turn off connected standby and fast start?

 

[Akshay Tak]

same problem with me also..........

 

[onlysublime]

Can you provide a link for how to do those 2 options? Or provide some instructions?

After doing some research online I found two possible solutions:
1- disable "connected standby"
2- disable Intel Management Interface

I tried option 1 first. 100% charged when I went to bed, I turned it on after 16 hours and 0% drain (yeah I'm happy now). That seemed to be the problem. It is obvious that the Surface doesn't really turn off with "connected standby" on. It takes 2 more seconds tu shut down and another 2-3 seconds to start up which is great because it is still super fast when you turn it on so that's "problem solved" for me. What a silly feature, to be honest, pretty useless considering how fast the device is.

I think I'm gonna try option 2 as well with "connected standby" on to see how it goes. I'll get back here if I do to tell how it went.
I hope this helps other people.

 

[Akshay Tak]

Re: Battery drain when Surface pro 4 shut off

i have same problem also......

 

[fj_cruiser]

Disabling "fast startup" fixed all problems for me, no more battery drain when the device is off and I'd swear, though I have to do some more testing, that battey life in general has improved as well.

Thanks for the insights Gonzax! I am a new owner of an SP4 and am encountering similar issues as you stated above. The battery meter is all over the place and the device is draining battery for no apparent reasons. In one of your earlier posts you listed the 1. and 2. options and in a later one you mentioned disabling "fast startup", making it #3. Which one of these three options do you recommend I start with? Note that am not only new to the SP4 but also to Windows, so please excuse my ignorance.

 

[rajai_bulbul]

can u plz tell us how to disable the fast startup?

 

[ttsoldier]

can u plz tell us how to disable the fast startup?

Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power.
Double-click CsEnabled and set to 0, then click OK