Windows 10: Stop Modern Standby from activating on SP4

I have repurposed a MS Surface Pro 4 that has a cracked display into a file server to replace a very old HP laptop that was serving in that role. The SP4 has no keyboard, has several USB drives, a USB Ethernet connection, and is connected to AC power. The drives are shared on the network, and in the middle of the night, WinZip jobs run on the SP4 to update several Zip archives. If changes were made, they are then copied by a scheduled batch file to my OneDrive folder on the SP4 where they automatically sync to the cloud. It all worked great on my HP laptop. Since I don't need to use the SP4 display all interaction with it is from my main PC via Remote Desktop, I set the display to turn off after 1 minute. Thus, after I power up the SP4, the drives get shared on the network, and the screen goes blank after one minute. I can access the network drives from my main PC and I can RDP into the SP4 if I need to. BUT...I find that somewhat randomly, the SP4 goes into S0 Standby mode, creating major problems. The sleepstudy reports a Video Idle Timeout caused the Standby mode. When this happens, I can't RDP into it, I can't access its shared drives over the network, and it does not run the scheduled WinZip jobs. I've set the power configuation to NEVER sleep, yet it still goes into S0 Modern Standby. Basically, I want the SP4 to run ALL THE TIME, 24/7 and never go into any sort of standby or sleep mode, but with the screen turned off. How can I make this happen?

:)

 

Is there any OS function that let us check system is going to enter modern standby?

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



Windows 10 Modern Standby (Modern Standby) expands the Windows 8.1 Connected Standby power model. Connected Standby, and consequently Modern Standby, enable an instant on / instant off user experience, similar to smartphone power models. Just like
the phone, the S0 low power idle model enables the system to stay up-to-date whenever a suitable network is available.



We would suggest you to refer these articles for additional information:

What is Modern Standby?

Prepare software for modern standby

Modern standby SleepStudy



However, as you are into software development. Let me point you in the right direction, where you would get the appropriate help for this issue. I would suggest you to post your query in
MSDN forums, where we have experts and support professionals
who are well equipped with the knowledge on Modern Standby to assist you with the appropriate troubleshooting steps.



Regards,



Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Nvidia dGPU blocks modern standby on laptop

@gorgor, I finally had some time (and spare NVMe) to reinstall Windows 10 2004 on my XPS 9570. I installed Dell Command | Update application after installing Windows and used the option to reinstall all the drivers. After that I ran a regular check for updates in Dell Command | Update and it had about 6 more updates to install, at which point I did that.

In the mean time I found this article from Dell ( https://www.dell.com/support/article...havior?lang=en ) that outlines some settings to change and drivers to install in specific orders to improve the sleep. I did not install their Modern Standby Performance Improvement Package Application as they suggest since they say it only automates some of the instructions they give.

After all that, the first overnight sleep only used 7% battery with SW and HW in low power state 100% of the time!





One thing to note, the dell site says to change to Disconnected Standby but doesn't tell you how. Here are the commands I ran for that (taken from Enable or Disable Network Connectivity in Standby In Windows 10 ):

Disable while in standby on battery: powercfg /setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_none F15576E8-98B7-4186-B944-EAFA664402D9 0

Disable while in standby plugged in: powercfg /setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_none F15576E8-98B7-4186-B944-EAFA664402D9 0

I have not tried performing these steps on my previous install. I did a full re-install because Microsoft specifically states that you cannot switch from S0 to S3 sleep without reinstalling the OS. I figured you probably couldn't go the other way around either.

I'd be curious if the steps outlined on the Dell page solves your issues. I don't have my hopes too far up as I feel like I've had similar results before but it eventually stopped sleeping so well and I had no idea why.

 

Can't enable Modern Standby

You need an exclusively UEFI PC (without Legacy support) for Modern/Connected, at least it's what I've heard. I guess if that Z390 doesn't have it, I am not really expecting any consumer desktops to implement it, I assume it would require manufacturers to kinda rewrite their BIOS. It is also indirectly suggested on Anandtech that the feature depends on the onboard WiFi:

Personally I love my Ethernet cables and 1Gbit speeds, and WiFi would be the last thing I'd do to my PC, but I would like to test this feature when I buy a new PC, since Z370 is clearly out of question. Considering that Z390 basically has onboard WiFi and Z370 doesn't , it further solidifies this as a potential WiFi only feature. Maybe it's possible for the PC to switch to WiFi for Connected Standby and then back to wire after it wakes up? That would be nice.

Edit: there's also this:
"Modern Standby is only available on some SoC systems. When it's supported, the system does not support S1-S3."

Yeah... S3 is the "normal" standby. So if your firmware manufacturer supports that, it's bye-bye Modern? Ouch.