Sleeping problem with hall effect sensor reed switch

Hi, I have an early 2011 17" macbook pro running bootcamp.

It intermittently goes to sleep without warning. I use various programs to keep it awake by blocking the sleep command but it doesn't always work and it isn't ideal. Have tried reinstalling both OSX and Windows, doesn't help.

I suspect an issue with the lid close sensor - windows is reporting (in the system log) that this is the reason for it sleeping.

So my question is - can I replace or disable the sensor? Happy to just remove it and just manually tell it to sleep or shutdown - the macbook stays on the desk 99% of the time so I don't need to close the lid.

Thanks for any help.