Surface pro 12 battery drain while it is turned off
As the title indicates, I'm experiencing power leakage while my Surface is off. I have Fast Startup disabled. I also have the Microsoft keyboard and Slim pen2. Any idea if either of those two devices could be draining power while the Surface is off? About three days ago, I fully charged my Surface, and today when I turned it on, it was at 49%. Iknow It should be in sleep mode and I should use it more often, but at home I mostly use my desktop.
The “secret handshake” part isn’t really a thing for Surface users. That’s more of a service-tech myth. It’s just your Modern Standby (S0) keeping Wi-Fi and Bluetooth awake even after shutdown. A proper shutdown /s /t 0 or disabling “Always On, Always Connected” stops the drain nothing secret, just settings doing what settings do.
That does sound like a significant power consumption. It may be that the pen charges even when the tablet is turned "off".
Also, almost all modern computers, and all Surface devices, can't actually be turned off without doing some very special "secret handshake" when shutting down. This "secret handshake" that some devices have is for service techs to use. Normally, when you shutdown a computer some components are still running. The power button is not a power switch and needs to be monitored to know when it is pressed. Also, depending on BIOS settings, the networking components (wired, WiFi, cellular, ...) are idling to all for "wake up on network access" signals to be acted on.
This is actually te same that is happening to a lot of pc`s as well in my organisation.
The battery completely drains overnight even after shutdown. Fast startup is disabled. Event logs says that the system is in shutdown mode. I have created a case with Microsoft, but they deny it is after a firmware update( 1.18.2616.4) or System update (1.0.104.0 )
This started to happen after the 10th of November 2025. The battery history says nothing about background apps or apps running during it`s shutdown.
Instead MS want to us to gather logs and install firmware from their website.
I have multiple reports of this too, for us it only seems to be affecting surface laptops. Its not consistent either, I can look at the battery report from while the device was off and some days it shoots down other days it glides down, like it's supposed to, dropping a couple percentage a night. We replaced the first device but then started getting reports of it from multiple people.
u/JzeroX30 we are seeing the exact same problem with the same firmware version installed and around the same timeframe. Only affecting some users so far, but the reports are increasing. Not logged with MS support yet (as I fully expect them to be completely useless on an issue like this, comforting to hear you are getting such amazing response from them...).
Will keep investigating at our end and may end up with an MS case too - if we find anything useful will let you know!
For information: A SL6 went in shutdown. Screen black, but keyboard was still on. FN key turned on/off when pressing it. Upon hearing the laptop, it was still on and making a strange noise that is not the fan.
Had to press F4 pluss on/off to start and shutdown pc.
Ofc, I have asked what MS did, but can`t reproduce it on another test SL6. There has to be a background app or something that is not shutting down or keeps the pc alive during shutdown
Has someone got any feedback from Microsoft?
We still get this issue intermittently, but it`s not drain of battery. Sometimes a battery reset (F4 + off/on) will start the laptop and battery will not be drained
Hi, after trying a few things, the power drain stopped when I shut down the Surface (with Fast Startup always disabled). I leave the Slim Pen 2 detached from the magnetic connector on the back and Bluetooth turned off as well. The keyboard doesn't cause any power drain. With this setup, I can leave the Surface off for weeks, and when I turn it on, the battery percentage is the same as before. The pen also maintained its previous battery level.
For information It seems the January 2026 update (KB5073455 for 23H2) prevents devices from shutting down among other issues https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/01/18/microsoft-confirms-windows-11-january-2026-update-issues-releases-fix-for-at-least-problems/