I've Changed My Mind: The SP4 is Terrible

[awwshoot]

Yeah - this is technology. It's wonderful when it works, its interesting when it doesn't. To me technology would be boring if it didn't need work done to it - I'd also be out of a job.

One thing folks have to remember - (or not) - When someone hands you a PC in need or repair, they can claim they "didn't" do anything to it until they are blue in the face. That doesn't mean they are innocent. I had a customer bring me a PC in which it would lock up after it was booted. The customer said they had just "took it out of the box and BAM!" - Turns out they took it out of the box and dropped it causing no noticeable exterior damage but fried the hard drive........ I usually ask the customer in this manner. If you did something to it, you can tell me, I break shit all the time - AND it will cost you a lot less, as I won't have to troubleshoot the issue, I can just look for a repair - They will still LIE. LOL

LOL Isn't this the truth, and they will continue swearing it was nothing they did even if you were standing there when they did it!!! LOL

When I help out people outside of work, they will usually fess up once I tell them the same point you mentioned about it costing more trying to find out what happened so I know what to fix. LOL

At work, No I didn't drop the laptop!

Oh and I now swear by the Kensington Black Belt Case for these tablets! Watched a user repeatedly knock one to the floor over a week! Still works perfectly without a scratch!

Me, I think I turned white when I saw it heading off the table!

 

[awwshoot]

Rotation Lock turned on?

ROFL! Of course I checked that first but the option is gone, Checked and it is no longer in the options to add it to the notifications. I'll find the issue shortly. LOL

 

[hughlle]

Yeah - this is technology. It's wonderful when it works, its interesting when it doesn't. To me technology would be boring if it didn't need work done to it - I'd also be out of a job.

One thing folks have to remember - (or not) - When someone hands you a PC in need or repair, they can claim they "didn't" do anything to it until they are blue in the face. That doesn't mean they are innocent. I had a customer bring me a PC in which it would lock up after it was booted. The customer said they had just "took it out of the box and BAM!" - Turns out they took it out of the box and dropped it causing no noticeable exterior damage but fried the hard drive........ I usually ask the customer in this manner. If you did something to it, you can tell me, I break shit all the time - AND it will cost you a lot less, as I won't have to troubleshoot the issue, I can just look for a repair - They will still LIE. LOL

It's a funny old situation. The reason they're giving it to you is because you're the "expert", and being the "expert", you'll diagnose the problem, understand how it came about, fix it etc. So by virtue it would make no sense to lie because chances are they'll be sussed out. I've seen it on this forum regarding things like significant dents and scratches which just appeared overnight while in a padded bag on the kitchen table Manufacturing defects, quality control, inferior materials they say

ROFL! Of course I checked that first but the option is gone, Checked and it is no longer in the options to add it to the notifications. I'll find the issue shortly. LOL

Have you checked the regular display settings page? (Mine is grayed out Because I am docked)

 

[awwshoot]

That didn't even show up on the Display settings page either.

Had a hardware hiccup. Checked Device Manager and saw I2C HID Device had an issue. Couldn't get it to update the driver software, installed the current updated drivers file with no change. I have lots to do today so I just ran the current version of Windows 10 set to install updates, leave apps, and files. Came back and it was back to 100%. I really like how easy and fast it is to repair an OS hiccup in Windows 10!

 

[Philtastic]

Well, looks like the good running times may have come to an end (and, to be fair, it has been running quite well over the past 2 months): put my SP4 to sleep last night at 86% battery and it completely drained over night OR the battery indicator is messed up even after restarting my SP4. Even the powercfg battery report doesn't know what happened to my battery since it didn't indicate that it was even on after it went into hibernate at 84%. Just another time that I could have been screwed if I really needed it on battery.

 

[DavidZ]

Well, looks like the good running times may have come to an end (and, to be fair, it has been running quite well over the past 2 months): put my SP4 to sleep last night at 86% battery and it completely drained over night OR the battery indicator is messed up even after restarting my SP4. Even the powercfg battery report doesn't know what happened to my battery since it didn't indicate that it was even on after it went into hibernate at 84%. Just another time that I could have been screwed if I really needed it on battery.

Did you put it to sleep or did you hibernate it? If you put it to sleep, is it set up to hibernate after a number of minutes? I think 120 minutes is the default.

 

[Philtastic]

Did you put it to sleep or did you hibernate it? If you put it to sleep, is it set up to hibernate after a number of minutes? I think 120 minutes is the default.

Yes to both. It's supposed to go to sleep automatically anyway after 10 minutes and then hibernate after 2 hours. The bug that's been around since at least the Surface Pro 2 is that it will automatically wake up and then never go back to sleep, thus running down the battery. Since that last occurrence, it hasn't happened again so far but that's the problem that I've been having with Microsoft products and software: they'll work but then an update might cause it to go to shit for a month until they fix it again. For example, getting text messages on my desktop and SP4 through Cortana from my phone was working great for a month but then, following a Windows 10 update, I can't seem to get it to work again. I've toggled it on and off on my desktop/SP4 and even uninstalled and reinstalled the Cortana app on my Android phone but nothing seems to get it to work. I've basically given up on that feature. Maybe one day it will magically work again.

Edit: It turns out that the settings in my phone's Cortana app had, at some point coincidental to those Windows updates, reset itself to not send notifications from my phone. Re-enabling that setting has fixed the Cortana issue.

 

[DavidZ]

Yes to both. It's supposed to go to sleep automatically anyway after 10 minutes and then hibernate after 2 hours. The bug that's been around since at least the Surface Pro 2 is that it will automatically wake up and then never go back to sleep, thus running down the battery. Since that last occurrence, it hasn't happened again so far but that's the problem that I've been having with Microsoft products and software: they'll work but then an update might cause it to go to shit for a month until they fix it again. For example, getting text messages on my desktop and SP4 through Cortana from my phone was working great for a month but then, following a Windows 10 update, I can't seem to get it to work again. I've toggled it on and off on my desktop/SP4 and even uninstalled and reinstalled the Cortana app on my Android phone but nothing seems to get it to work. I've basically given up on that feature. Maybe one day it will magically work again.

As soon as I got my SP4 a year ago, I essentially disabled sleep mode. My settings are:

1) Power switch triggers hibernate
2) Close lid triggers hibernate
3) Sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity
4) Hibernate after 1 minute of sleep

Best move I could have made. Since my SP4 starts up from hibernation in 10 seconds, there's no need for sleep mode. It takes me about 10 seconds just to get in a comfortable position.

I agree that the SP4 sleep mode should work as it was designed. But it doesn't. So, you can keep banging your head against the wall, or you can walk around it. Your choice.

 

[chuckdee]

Thanks for that! Just noticed that mine keeps waking from sleep, and it's annoying. Hadn't put together that hibernate isn't that slow to come out of on a SP4.