Solved No login screen after Surface splash. No errors...

[Projeckt_Mahy3m]

So I've got my hands on a friends SP3. He's been docking it with the MS dock and using a display port hub for multiple external monitors.

He calls me up and says the external displays stopped working and then after a few reboots, the Surface stopped booting. He called it a "blue screen" so I fully expected to see a BSOD.

After a hard reset the Surface splash screen appears, then the display goes to a dark/royal purple... that's it. As far as I can tell this "looks" like the second monitor during a normal login, but there's nothing on the screen. No errors, nothing.

Any troubleshooting hints?

Thx.

 

[kundas1]

Try the 2 Button Start-up, Shut the SP3 completely down...now with the Volume Rocker Up pressed, press the Power Button (keeping the Volume Rocker Up Pressed), when the Surface Logo comes up, let go of the Volume Rocker, exit without making changes.

 

[Projeckt_Mahy3m]

No joy. It still show the Surface splash screen then goes back to the same dark purple/blueish screen. I've been trying to get Windows into Safe Mode by mashing Shift + F8 (I also read somewhere it is Fn+F8) with no luck either.

I have been able to get into the BIOS at one point. So at least I know that's good.

How/why can't I get Windows into Safe Mode?

 

[jnjroach]

Try to login blind.... press a key and have your friend enter their password, then use Windows P to cycle through the options, or plug it into a DP Monitor....

 

[Projeckt_Mahy3m]

Bingo. Windows was still detecting external displays that weren't there and trying to use them. I drove to his office where he's got his dock and display port hub and was able to prove this theory. He's got some low end ASUS monitors and one of them isn't going through the display port handshake well, that display happened to be Window's primary monitor. I did a blind login using his password and was able to reach the desktop to disable that display.

Still it's odd that I couldn't get into Safe Mode. Had I been able to it could have saved a drive.

Thanks for the tips guys! Happy New Year!

 

[kundas1]

great glad it worked out, going to mark this as solved, well done Jeff!!