Solar flares, cosmic rays, and bit flips?

[CJM]

My Surface Pro 4 has a weird issue where the Group Policy to show the "Safe to Shutdown" screen seems to be reversed.

When I tell it to shutdown, it is difficult to power it back on. My battery drains when it is in its laptop bag. Unfortunately, the screen is completely blank.

In an attempt to diagnose and resolve the issue, I decided to opt to switch back to the ancient "Safe to Shutdown" screen from the Windows 95 days. Now the device seems to be operating like a modern laptop. I can easily power it back up with one click of the button, and the battery life seems to be preserved when powered off.

It is weird behavior,...

[_I_]

what year was the laptop made?
could be bad caps or something
often smd caps act good when warm, but when cool they like to short causing problems

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Surface = It's a Tablet

[SlowClick]

It's a tablet that runs Win10 - I have one. Mine is never without the attached keyboard, so it works like a lightweight laptop.

[[N]ebsun]

CJM の投稿を引用：

the Group Policy to show the "Safe to Shutdown" screen seems to be reversed.
I decided to opt to switch back to the ancient "Safe to Shutdown" screen from the Windows 95 days.

Are you assuming it was some cosmic ray that flipped a bit on the setting ?
It's not impossible, but is very unlikely especially at ground level and especially on non volatile storage (far more likely to affect ram)

[CJM]

Nebsun の投稿を引用：

CJM の投稿を引用：

the Group Policy to show the "Safe to Shutdown" screen seems to be reversed.
I decided to opt to switch back to the ancient "Safe to Shutdown" screen from the Windows 95 days.

Are you assuming it was some cosmic ray that flipped the big on the setting ?
It's not impossible, but is very unlikely especially at ground level and especially on non volatile storage (far more likely to affect ram)

Toggling the setting for the "Safe to Shutdown" doesn't actually provide a message.

The laptop does not have a proper power LED indicator either. Something I have only just now noticed, as I never needed to diagnose if it was powered on or not.

I don't know if it is shutting down correctly, or if there is something wrong with my battery.

Bad 💀 Motha の投稿を引用：

Surface = It's a Tablet

The "Platform Role" according to MSInfo32 is "Slate".

SlowClick の投稿を引用：

It's a tablet that runs Win10 - I have one. Mine is never without the attached keyboard, so it works like a lightweight laptop.

I was providing technical support for the devices when I got it, and that included their dock. So it works like a Desktop, I guess that would make it a "Desktop Replacement" device?

_I_ の投稿を引用：

what year was the laptop made?
could be bad caps or something
often smd caps act good when warm, but when cool they like to short causing problems

Eh, Google the year it was made, I gave you the make and model.

I don't think it is a capacitor problem. I'm not taking it apart to find out. 0/10 on iFixit.

[[N]ebsun]

CJM の投稿を引用：

I can easily power it back up with one click of the button, and the battery life seems to be preserved when powered off.

It is weird behavior,...

So if it's working fine now, is there still an issue ?

[_I_]

bad smd caps are not visibly bad, they may be slightly more browned than normal, but that can be due to heat from other components too

no way to tell other than replace them

but thats just one possible cause to the problem
it may have other issues causing it not to boot

first i would try windows windows fast boot
powercfg -h off
and see if that helps, forcing it to actually shut down instead of hibernate/sleep

[CJM]

Nebsun の投稿を引用：

CJM の投稿を引用：

I can easily power it back up with one click of the button, and the battery life seems to be preserved when powered off.

It is weird behavior,...

So if it's working fine now, is there still an issue ?

It shouldn't be powering off, if that is what it is doing.

I changed the setting to not shut down the computer when I click "Shut Down" from the Start Menu. It should only be shutting down Windows, not the computer...

[_I_]

are you wanting it just to log off?
or what is the desired effect?

[CJM]

_I_ の投稿を引用：

are you wanting it just to log off?
or what is the desired effect?

No. I want to shut down from the Start Menu. Then when I see "Safe to Shutdown", I want to manually press the power button to complete turn off the computer.

I want to diagnose whether the computer is actually shutting down when I shut it down from inside of Windows.

_I_ の投稿を引用：

bad smd caps are not visibly bad, they may be slightly more browned than normal, but that can be due to heat from other components too

no way to tell other than replace them

Yeah, replacing the capacitors requires destroying the LCD. Removing the LCD might also destroy some ribbon cable essential for the laptop to function, turning the device into a brick.

[_I_]

shut down will soft shut down the laptop, thats what its designed to do
its not a pc from the 90s pre atx where they had to be powered off separate from the shutdown menu soft off
newer boards can tell the power supply to turn off and back on again
psu will always put out a small amount of power and when the turn on circuit is activated it will power the rest of the rails

if it is bad caps, no, it will not need to destroy the panel, but it will take a tech repair shop to do it
but odds are the repair will cost more than the laptop is worth

check the power control panel, and make sure the power button is set to shut down, not sleep/hibernate/nothing
same with close lid, to power off not sleep/hibernate/nothing

[CJM]

_I_ の投稿を引用：

if it is bad caps, no, it will not need to destroy the panel, but it will take a tech repair shop to do it
but odds are the repair will cost more than the laptop is worth

I AM the tech repair shop.

I did go through a Wise Level 2 certification to see if there were additional techniques I was not aware of.
https://www.wisecertification.com/why-wise/

I've studied for the CompTIA A+, but I never bothered with certification, because the bulk of A+ is basic computer hobbyist stuff.

_I_ の投稿を引用：

check the power control panel, and make sure the power button is set to shut down, not sleep/hibernate/nothing
same with close lid, to power off not sleep/hibernate/nothing

I'm not using the power button at all.

Definitely not using a lid. The keyboard/lid died four years ago. It hasn't been attached since.

[_I_]

its the same effect
the power button is like another button on the keyboard, just quick to shut down or sleep/hibernate when you press it
it does not disconnect the battery

since you are not using the lid, set the power options for lid to nothing, then if it does detect it as closed it will not try to turn off or anything

[isomorphic_projection]

Nebsun の投稿を引用：

CJM の投稿を引用：

the Group Policy to show the "Safe to Shutdown" screen seems to be reversed.
I decided to opt to switch back to the ancient "Safe to Shutdown" screen from the Windows 95 days.

Are you assuming it was some cosmic ray that flipped a bit on the setting ?
It's not impossible, but is very unlikely especially at ground level and especially on non volatile storage (far more likely to affect ram)

It's rare, and you need lots of scientists and expensive equipment to figure that out.

But it does happen.

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021arXiv210505103N/abstract

[Lord Flashheart]

CJM の投稿を引用：

My Surface Pro 4 has a weird issue where the Group Policy to show the "Safe to Shutdown" screen seems to be reversed.

When I tell it to shutdown, it is difficult to power it back on. My battery drains when it is in its laptop bag. Unfortunately, the screen is completely blank.

In an attempt to diagnose and resolve the issue, I decided to opt to switch back to the ancient "Safe to Shutdown" screen from the Windows 95 days. Now the device seems to be operating like a modern laptop. I can easily power it back up with one click of the button, and the battery life seems to be preserved when powered off.

It is weird behavior,...

I expect it is a microsoft issue.

As for cosmic ray/bitflips, it can happen and if a concern, use ECC memory. Probably not needed or even available on a surface pro 4.