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SP3 won't turn on, charge light flashes

timotheos1

New Member
Hi all, regular problem with my i5 SP3 is that it won't turn on after going to sleep sometimes.

Common problem I know, but here's the unique behaviour I haven't seen anyone write about:

When it's dead, plugged into charger and charge light on:
- if I press the power button, the charge light instantly turns off for 1sec then back on.
- if I hold the power button down indefinitely, or power+vol, the charge light will flick off for 1sec every 10 seconds.

Surely this means something??

Further info:
- Only way I have ever gotten it back on is to mess around with the 2 button resets, give up, then come back to it days later and bam it turns on! (sometimes). Hardly a viable long term solution..
- Has done this on both win8.1 and 10
- unlike others stuck in sleep, my windows button does not vibrate on touch.
- never had problems with charging. Power brick seems to be fine except my phone never seems to like charging from the usb socket.
- when surface eventually turns back on it is always at full charge.
- when it turns back on the clock is always wrong ie says the time from a few days ago when it would've gone to sleep/got stuck in sleep.
- I have previously called support and gone through the 2 button resets with no success, ordered a replacement, only to have mine turn back on as I was packing it up to ship back to Microsoft..

Would appreciate any help. It happens once a week now. I just think surely the light turning off and on indicates it's aware of me pressing the power button. Surely it means something?
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
Um is this the original unit?
- Yes - Replace it.
- No - try replacing the charger.

Surely it means something ... I would tend to agree ... unfortunately I don't speak the charger blink language either. :)
 

amrobbo

New Member
mate, I'm glad I saw your post because I have literally THE EXACT same symptoms as you. This phenomena of not turning on happens to me all the time and just seems to turn back on at its own will. And like you said, when you can finally manage to get it back on there doesn't appear to be any issue with the charger or the battery for that matter but I suspect that it could possibly be some sort of issue with the battery. I am currently unable to turn mine back on after about 48 hours and this afternoon I am giving mine back to where I bought it from to get a REFURBED (what a joked right?) replacement.

What a shame that I have to lose the hundreds of photos that I have stored on the thing. Ha! maybe that's why cloud storage is such a thing now, because nothing is designed to last anymore!
 
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