Surface bricked?

[Kal]

I recently bought a Surface on vacation in the US. I am now in Norway and have been playing around with it for only a few days (no hacking or anythinbg). Today when i turned it on, the word "Surface" appeared on the middle on the screen. I guess this is the normal start up screen, but anyway, nothing happens after that. I have restarted many times by holding the power button, but it never gets past the surface screen. Tried both when plugged in and on battery and let it on for hours without any progress.

I am a bit scared as there are no Microsoft stores in Norway as far as i know, so i am hoping there is an easy fix to this. Any suggestions?

 

[mrasmussen]

You could always factory reset the device. Here's how:

Windows RT
Press Windows Key and Power buttons together

As a last resort you can restore the factory image from the recovery partition. The recovery partition on a Surface is a hidden partition on the drive. You should not delete the partition to free up space as this contains the factory image.

To restore to the factory image

Turn on your device and press the backspace key
Press F8
Select Repair your computer and hit enter
After the recovery wizard select cmd Command Prompt and then open the D:\recovery directory
Enter recovery.cmd and then hit the enter key.
Wait until it finishes
After restarting your device, you'll need to go through the setup wizard.

If there isn't anything important on it, this is probably the easiest thing to do.

 

[Kal]

Thanks for the quick reply!
'
Just to be clear, this is the Surface RT an i bought the touch keyboard with it. There is no F8 on this keyboard as i can see. There is a cogwheel where ths F8 should have been. But there seems to be no response from the keyboard. I have tried pressing both the cogwheel and backspace without any response.

Pressing the windows key when i turn on the device makes no difference. Pressing the windows key and power button together at the surface screen gives a vibration feedback, but i am still stuck with the same black screen with "Surface" written in the center

 

[jnjroach]

Power it off and when the surface logo comes on power down again (do this 2 times) on the third it will over to do a repair, at the Bitlocker screen, click skip this drive and then do a full reset, it should take about and hour to do a full reset. You'll need to apply the updates once its back up and running.

 

[mrasmussen]

Try Jeff's approach, I haven't tested either, I just grabbed a snippet from a web search for factory reset MS surface. I've never tested either approach.

 

[Kal]

Thanks again for helping me! Really appreciate it.

I turned it on by clicking the power button. When the surface logo appeared i turned it off by holding down the power button until the screen went off (~5s). I did this two times, and then turned the surface on again. Still only the surface logo.

I also tried the same apporach by turning on by holding power button until surface logo appears. Makes no difference. Also tried 3, 4, and 5 times.

Starting to think it is really bricked

Any other suggestions? Or does anyone know Microsofts guarantee policy? I forgot the receipt in the hotel room, but they filled out a form with my name and address when i bought it, so I guess it is registered in their systems. The same thing happened to my iPod once, and they sent me a pre-payed envelope to return it and then sent me a new iPod. Hoping it may be as easy with the Surface, but i have my doubts since they dont sell it in Norway...

 

[Kal]

After re-reading my own post: Yes, i know the iPod is from apple which is a completely different company. But maybe MS has the same system?

 

[mrasmussen]

this is where i got my info

Restoring a Microsoft Surface Unit to the Factory State

There are some other pointers on that site. If this doesn't work I would call MS

 

[mrasmussen]

0 out of 11 rated this helpful

Not a good sign for that page. Also, why does the page mention windows vista. I don't see a date on the page. Did MS have some other product named Surface?

 

[doobzter]

try power + volume up (or) power + volume down when it gets stuck.. i've done this a couple of times, i *think* this is a soft reset / reboot.

 

[mrasmussen]

I just tried delete and backspace on my device upon boot, nothing, I guess ignore that technet post

 

[jnjroach]

That TechNet Article was for the original Microsoft Surface which now called PixelSense.

OP - Try this:
1. Turn off the device by holding power for 6-10 seconds
2. Tap the power button to turn it back on.
3. Once the surface logo appears, wait for circling dots to appear and then hold power for 6-10 seconds to turn device off again.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until the surface logo appears with words underneath saying “Preparing Automatic Repair”
5. Recovery mode will start.
6. At the Bitlocker screen, tap “skip this drive”
7. Tap advanced options
8. Tap Troubleshoot
9. Tap Refresh
Refresh will take 10 to 25 minutes, when it's done the Surface should go to the login screen. If this doesn't work, try again but select Reset instead of Refresh. I hope it works for you!

HTH,