acer w4 - turning screen off via display settings puts the tablet to sleep - why ?

Hi i am from India

I had purchased the acer w4 3G [with sim slot] model

Now to conserve battery - i set the display settings to have the screen turn off after 1 min - now when i play the music via vlc then after 1 min screen turns off and music also stops - it seems it goes into sleep mode

Somehow the screen state is linked with laptop state - so in advanced settings for display - if i set the screen to turn off after 1 min - it turns the laptop into sleep mode

then i hit the power button - screen comes back and music starts playing from the point where it'd stopped

I have the acer iconia w500 also - but it keeps playing music even when the screen turns off and when i touch it's screen - the screen comes up - why can't the same be so for acer w4 ? why?

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Hasse_P

Maybe this thread will help you

http://community.acer.com/t5/Windows-Tablets/how-do-I-turn-off-the-screen-on-W4-820-without-putting-it-to/m-p/335128#M14292

duhai

@windows_anc

Hey windows_anc,

To continue listen to your music when the Display is OFF for now there is one “solution” – Disable system’s Sleep Mode:

1) Open command line as administrator and run Registry Editor:

regedit

2) Find out the key CSEnabled. Here is the key location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\CSEnabled

3) Click over the key CSEnabled and change its value from:

1 -> 0

4) Reboot the system

After the reboot you will be able to keep your application running with Display Off and unfortunately without Sleep functionality!

I fully agree with you that this is very unpleasant situation which should be resolved ASAP by Acer!

windows_anc

but i do not want to touch the power button as it'd soon wear out and will become hardware issue

why it cannot be like iconia w500 - which is amazing ! - just set it to screen off after 1 min and when you touch the screen - it wakes up the screen and behold my music keeps plaing never stops in between the screen going off and touching it to bring it back on

windows_anc

I like win 7 based acer iconia w500 but it's poor battery and huge 10 inch screen does not make a great wifi music streamer

i purchased acer iconia w4 [3G sim version] just becoz of the form factor and great battery and the screen turn off and turn on issue is the one which is most disapointing !

How 'd Acer do such thing or may be it's windows 8.1 that's the culprit ! not sure

Hasse_P

Can't you just use the "empty" Windows screensaver after 1 minute. The screen gets black after 1 minute but the music still plays?

duhai

Hey Hasse_P,

You are right and what you’ve suggested works.

The system save more energy when its Display is OFF and this is a part of the main idea in mobile world to save more energy when and where it is possible especially in this specific case when you are not using the screen.

@windows_anc

You should call Acer’s support and make them aware of your problem.

For me this is not a big issue because I’m not a regular mobile user. Even if this important tablet’s feature was working as it’s supposed to be I’m not using it. The source of the problem comes from that the W4-820 hardware is not properly adjusted to the OS interface via its BIOS/Firmware and/or related Driver. It’s Acer’s responsibility to make our W4-820 to work properly with the shipped preinstalled OS.

billsey

Instead of using Display to set this feature, use Power Options. You should have separate settings for screen and sleep.

duhai

The problem is that in Power Option I can control Brightness and Sleep settings while the Display option is missing.

This is the situation with BIOS version 1.16 and the last Drivers version too.

The same stays and after applied OS updates.

Note: I forgot to tell you that I can’t control Display state via the command line and powercfg too.

billsey

Did you look in Advanced when changing power settings? I don't have a W4 here, but my W700 and Switch12 both have Sleep and Display.

duhai

I appreciate your intention to help. Unfortunately the problem can be resolved only by Acer. I hope someone from the support to address it to the right people responsible for W4.

As far as your question I’ve did what you suggested as a first step a month ago. We don’t have separate setting for Sleep & Display modes. When you set Display OFF it actually performs Sleep which is BTW the problem described by the Original Poster.

I’ve tried the direct settings for Display via CLI where you have full access to any parameter without success. And that is normal when we are in the situation as I said - wrong software interface between the unit and the OS. It is like you are trying to play piano without attached strings. So we need those strings – BIOS/Driver(s).

The other manufacturers Asus and Dell that use the same chipset have the same problem. Asus customers are already happy because they have the solution. The last BIOS/Drivers for W4-820 are from December 2014. I don’t know how problem like this can slip by QC.