Screen locks of every few seconds

Hello, Anna Podlasek

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

Thank you for your feedback. We understand the issue you are currently experiencing with your Surface Pro 7, where the screen remains locked during active use. This is indeed very frustrating and significantly impacts the usability of the device. Here are some troubleshooting steps:

1. Detailed check of screen and sleep settings:

Open “Settings” > ‘System’ > “Power & battery” > “Screen & sleep.”

Ensure that “When plugged in, turn off the screen after” and “When on battery, turn off the screen after” are set to a sufficiently long time (e.g., 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or “Never” for testing).

Ensure that “When plugged in, put the device to sleep after” and “When on battery, put the device to sleep after” are also set to a sufficiently long time.

2. Advanced power plan settings:

Type “Edit power plan” in the Windows search bar, then select “Edit power plan.”

Click “Change advanced power settings.”

Expand the “Display” option and ensure that “Turn off the display after this time” is set to your desired value.

Expand the “Sleep” option and check “Sleep after this time” and “Hibernate after this time” (if enabled).

Important check: Expand “PCI Express” > “Link State Power Management” and set it to “Off.” Sometimes, this setting can cause the device to shut down components prematurely when inactive.

Important check: Expand “USB Settings” > “USB Selective Suspend Settings” and try disabling it (if enabled).

Click “Apply” and “OK.”

3. Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC):

Surface devices typically have this feature, which automatically adjusts brightness based on screen content to save power, but it may sometimes cause the screen to suddenly dim or turn off.

Open “Settings” > “System” > ‘Display’ > “Brightness & Color.”

Look for options like “Help improve battery performance by optimizing display content and brightness” or “Automatically change brightness when light changes,” and uncheck them.

4. Surface devices have very high compatibility requirements for firmware and drivers.

Check for updates using the Surface app:

Download and install the “Surface” app from the Microsoft Store (if not already installed).

Open the Surface app and check for any available firmware or driver updates.

Manually download and install the Surface driver and firmware package:

Visit the official Microsoft Surface driver and firmware download page:

Download drivers and firmware for Surface - Microsoft Support

Locate your Surface Pro 7 model and download the latest .msi driver and firmware package.

Once downloaded, double-click the .msi file and follow the prompts to complete the installation. Even if you believe the drivers are up to date, this package ensures that all Surface-related drivers and firmware are properly installed and updated.

If the above methods do not work, we recommend using USB image recovery.

Recovery Tool (IT Toolkit) - Surface | Microsoft Learn

I look forward to your feedback.

Best Regards, 

Ami | Microsoft Q&A Support Specialist

Hello,
It might be helpful to connect your device to an external monitor to see if the issue persists.

• If the external screen works fine and doesn’t go black, the problem is likely with your device’s built-in screen.
• If the external screen also goes black, the issue could be related to software settings or a system-level problem.

I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes.