Surface Book 2 Energy options Allow wake timers

Hi Mrsaxobeat,

Thank you for posting us here in Microsoft Community!

"Allow wake timers" is not enabled by default on the Surface device because of the Modern Standby (previously Connected Standby). In Modern Standby, the PC uses the S0 low power idle model which has the flexibility to configure the default behavior to limit network activity while in the low power state. Windows 10 reduces power consumption by the OS and only wakes from the lowest power state when absolutely necessary. With Modern Standby, the system wakes when there is real time action required, such as OS maintenance, or a user wakes the system.

However, we will look into this further and check for an option for you to possibly enable it. For the meantime, please provide us with the operating system, Version and OS build of the Windows running on both your Surface Book 2 and Lenovo Notebook.

To check for the operating system information in Windows 10:

1. Select the Start  button, then select Settings  > System > About.
2. Under Device specifications, you can see if you're running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows.
3. Under Windows specifications, you can find out which edition and version of Windows your device is running.

For other Windows operating system, go to Which Windows operating system am I running?

Keep us posted so that we can assist you further.

Thanks for your replies !

I originally posted this in the german microsoft surface forum, but only few people seem to read the posts there and there are usually no replies...

So thumbs up for the english/us forum 👍

I have checked the OS Versions and registry on both machines an they are exactly the same for the Surface Book 2 and the Lenovo ThinkPad T530:

Edition: Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit Version
Version: 1809
OS-Build: 17763.316
Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\CSEnabled = 1

So it seems that Connected Standby is also enabled on the Lenovo and there I see the "Allow wake timers" option in the advanced energy settings.

I don't like the idea of doing registry tweaks because

a) Microsoft might not support me any more if I do that and

b) The tweaks are usually gone when you do a Windows update

It shouldn't be necessary to do Registry Tweaks to make the task scheduler function properly.

It is not necessary on other machines.

Has anyone managed to wake up the Surface Book 2 from sleep via a time scheduled task scheduler job at the scheduled time? Or am I the first one trying to do this?

Can someone maybe do the same test on his/her Surface Book 2 like I did:

Set up a task in the taskscheduler that executes a .bat script that prints date and time into a .txt file at 2:00 at every night? That would be great.

The .bat script does look like this:

date /T >> outfile.txt
time /T >> outfile.txtThis enables me to see when the task was actually executed.

Looking forward for your comments and suggestions.

Thanks !

Hello Barb,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I tried that one 2 weeks ago and did it again last night just to make sure I haven't made a mistake.

The tweak makes the "Allow wake timer" option visible in the advanced energy options but it does not lead to successful execution of the task scheduler task at the scheduled time. So unfortunately it does not help :-(

And also, the "Allow wake timer" option disappeared again when updated to the latest Windows build...

Any other ideas?

Thanks Barb,

I have given up on Microsoft support. Spent hours with the telephone support explaining the problem to a dozen of people (sometimes after explaining what the windiws task scheduler is), wrote emails to *** Email address is removed for privacy ***, used the Feedback Hub.

Worst support experience ever ! They just close support cases without giving you a chance for feedback.

It is like you want to get into the Microsoft castle and they are throwing rocks and boiling oil on you.

Seems they are not very interested to help their customers.

It would be a chance to prove that their products (which are not the chespest ones) do support their own OS Windows 10 as good as other far cheaper products on the market. But they don't want to.

So maybe this comment can help others to make the right decision when it comes to buying microsoft products or the ones of other manufacturers. For me the decision is made. 

After many many calls with Microsoft support and many hours of phone waiting music I finally got in contact with a support person with in depth knowldege.

Answer:

The surface book 2 does (only) support the new "Modern Standby" Energy management. Wake-Up is only possible by pressing the ON-key or by an external server which pushes software updates.

Wake-Up by the Task scheduler (wake timer): Not possible

Wake-Up by Wake-On-LAN: Not possible

Wake-Up by something on the USB-Port: Not possibel

Wake-Up by disconnecting/connecting power: Not possible

Disable Modern Standby: Not possible

The only thing you can do to make sure that scheduled tasks are executed at the time they are scheduled is to leave the surface book on and disable all Energy saving modes.

Great! A 1200$ Microsoft-Windows-PC which das not support the functionality forseen by the Microsoft Windows Operating System.

Thank you Microsoft!