Some new Surface Pros are randomly hibernating, Microsoft is investigating

A few weeks ago, a select group of Surface Pro owners took to the Surface Subreddit and the Microsoft forums to vent about hibernation and random shutdown issues occurring on their new devices. Though the issue still appears to be linked to only a small set of users and devices,  a more recent report from Paul Thurrott shows that the issue is still persistent, and Microsoft is now investigating.

The report shows that roughly 300 people have confirmed the hibernation issue, with some people even experiencing a loss of data. In a response on the Microsoft Answers forums, though, Microsoft indicates that they are aware of the issue with a “small group of customers,” and are “investigating the issue.” In the same forum thread, Microsoft MVP Barb Bowman also offers up an explanation and advice for users who are experiencing the issue on their Surface Pro.

“Reading between the lines, I interpret this as they could not reproduce this with their in-house new Surface Pro’s…. They also say “small group”. While there are 200+ me too’s in this thread, and 20 pages of posts, the term “small group” may be relative…. So, in my OPINION, based on the fact that it has historically taken Microsoft months and months to identify issues and come out with a fix and since these devices are still eligible for return for full refund, you may want to consider returning for a full refund and repurchasing. If you do that, you get another 30 days of being able to return and repurchase, etc…”

To be fair, Microsoft has not exactly had a good record when it comes to fixing issues with Surface devices. As Barb Bowman points out, after a customer experiences an issue with a device within six months of purchase, the company would simply exchange it for a refurbished unit, which the quality of  “has not been consistent.” Bowman instead suggests customers who are experiencing this issue should return the device for a full refund while they still can and then consider repurchasing again.