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Problem with power saver mode

S-tension

New Member
My 1 hour old Surface Pro 2 slows to a crawl in power saver mode. Seems others are having such a problem too. Any ideas?
Surface Pro 2 128Gb/i5 4300U here.
 

mennogreg

Active Member
I use Power Saver mode the vast majority of the time, and haven't experienced that. What are you running that's slow? Power saver at its defaults is awful for gaming or anything gpu intensive.
 
OP
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S-tension

New Member
Do you have the 128/4300 version?
Just opening metro apps, task manager,... anything. Nothing hardcore at all.
 
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darkfangex

New Member
Do you have the 128/4300 version?
Just opening metro apps, task manager,... anything. Nothing hardcore at all.

have you done a software update? I had the same issue whine the derive would go unresponsive whenever I used power saving mode right up until I did the software update. :D
 

jrapdx

Member
Well I checked and there were no updates available.

That seems rather strange. After I got my current SP2 about two weeks ago, there were a ton of updates. Every day there is some kind of update, if only the daily Defender edition. If your SP2 is out-of-box new, the OS, drivers, etc. were installed (or as old as) August 2013. Check the age of drivers, OS files, etc. Some should be newer. For example, the UEFI driver (under Firmware in Device Manager), is dated 12-20-2013 on my SP2.

That said, Power saver shouldn't be extremely slow, but just go into a lower energy mode when activity is minimal. For average uses, like writing in this forum, there isn't a subjective difference in the computer's performance that I notice. Maybe you should try "Balanced" or "High performance" to see how much better/faster it works, or if it doesn't the "Power plan" isn't the issue.
 
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S-tension

New Member
Strangely enough when I checked for update thru pc settings it found a bunch of them. Fist time I checked the traditional Windows update window and it said system is up to date.
I'll post the results when I get home. Meanwhile do I have to keep the SP2 connected to ac or keep discharging and charging it? I say this because it's mostly at home.
 

jrapdx

Member
Strangely enough when I checked for update thru pc settings it found a bunch of them. Fist time I checked the traditional Windows update window and it said system is up to date.
I'll post the results when I get home. Meanwhile do I have to keep the SP2 connected to ac or keep discharging and charging it? I say this because it's mostly at home.

Well, nobody says things are going to work consistently re: settings one way vs. another. Why have one way to do a task when we can create 20 variations on the theme? Getting it done is the important part.

I strive to avoid having too many rules about anything, including running on battery vs. plugged in. At home, the SP2 is mostly plugged in, but at work it often is on battery. When not "pushing" the CPU/GPU utilization, I often get 9 or 10 hours of "battery time", that is, between turning the SP2 on and when the battery runs low. (Fully charged overnight of course.) Can't say my habits reflect ideal patterns of use as far as batteries go, but isn't the idea to use the computer the way it works for you?

Taking care of equipment, handling it with due respect is an ethic I adhere to, but really, we can also worry way too much about merely using it.
 
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S-tension

New Member
The good news is that it's apparently fixed after installing the updates. But seriously aren't today's PCs smart enough to stop charging after reaching 100%?
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
The good news is that it's apparently fixed after installing the updates. But seriously aren't today's PCs smart enough to stop charging after reaching 100%?

All high-end devices stop charging at 100%. Low end laptops, usually always draws power from the battery, so when plugged in, the battery is always charging. This is a cost saving feature.. but the consumers wants a 400$ laptop.. so he or she gets what he or she paid for.
 

jackh

Member
That seems rather strange. After I got my current SP2 about two weeks ago, there were a ton of updates. Every day there is some kind of update, if only the daily Defender edition. If your SP2 is out-of-box new, the OS, drivers, etc. were installed (or as old as) August 2013. Check the age of drivers, OS files, etc. Some should be newer. For example, the UEFI driver (under Firmware in Device Manager), is dated 12-20-2013 on my SP2.

That said, Power saver shouldn't be extremely slow, but just go into a lower energy mode when activity is minimal. For average uses, like writing in this forum, there isn't a subjective difference in the computer's performance that I notice. Maybe you should try "Balanced" or "High performance" to see how much better/faster it works, or if it doesn't the "Power plan" isn't the issue.

That's interesting about the Firmware dates on your 2 week old SP--I just got a new Pro 2 512gb last week lot code 1352 with the 4300 processor and all my drivers in device mgr date as far back as August 2013--My UEFI driver is dated 9/16 and I also do not have any Surface Cover Telemetry Driver anywhere in Device Mgr and no Unknown Devices--

I also have a 3 month old Pro 2 256 and it has All the newest drivers including the Telemetry driver where it should be located in the System category in Device Mgr--

I talked to Support on the question of why all my drivers are so old on a device made the last week of December with the new processor and the missing Telemetry Driver and they didn't have a clue!!

By the way my Type Cover 2 works perfectly without that Driver--

Jack
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
Telemetry drivers is data collecting.
Microsoft is interested in seeing how you use your keyboard cover of choice, so that they can collect all sorts of data and dump in a database, and then all they see on their side, is stuff like:
-> "40.225% of TypeCover users that use the left and right click, and seams to tap it several times in a row (more than double click action) without moving the cursor" and then they can conclude for example: this may indicate that the button implementation that we added isn't good. Can we release a firmware update to fix that, or help the issue? Yes/No. And also: "This is something to consider in improving in the 3rd generation of our covers."

Stuff like that. There is no keylogger, nor nothing to identify you about this. This is nothing new. Microsoft has been tracking how you use Windows, since ages ago, and been pretty open about it. Just look at the Windows 8 development blog side if you want to see some fancy charts in some posts.
That is how they have information on what users do, how many display people have. No information to identify you is even sent as per the license agreement. Windows 8 has options if you want to send some additional information, but those are disabled by default, most likely because it touches some gray area of what could be, to some, personal data, and avoid lawsuits. Knowing how many monitors people have in general with no way to identify who each are, is no personal information. Even hackers and spyware doesn't care about such information (beside they can get it themselves without any issue or complications, no need to hack the telemetry system, but they don't 'cause it's useless. its is non-valuable information).

So don't worry about it.
 
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