Solved Surface Bricked - Jan 2018

[RRC0107]

My Surface Book is now bricked after the Jan windows update. Keyboard lights up and goes blank. Tried all the suggested restart tips. MS says only option is to trade in for a refurbished unit for $600.
Has anyone else had this issue?
Is it worth getting another (refurbished) Surface? Or should I spend my money on a different laptop?
Thanks,

 

[Orlbuckeye]

Well the decision to buy the refurb or a new one would be yours. I have a SB and I haven't had any problems and I just purchased a Surface Book 2.

 

[Plantje]

Que?! No warranty? An update bricks your machine and nothing can be done?

 

[Wevenhuis]

I am also surprised this bricking after a windows update isn't coverend under warranty. You should get a new one from microsoft, or your device should be fixed free of charge.

 

[Plantje]

Yes, that and I still think it is weird that a device can be bricked beyond repair because of an update. I mean: the hardware isn't touched... Just put the device back in the assembly line just past the actual manufacturing of the hardware and have everything flashed and reinstalled....what can go wrong?

 

[Orlbuckeye]

Que?! No warranty? An update bricks your machine and nothing can be done?

Under the warranty they give you a new one. This is the MS 2 year plan that replaced for accidental damage and hardware damage. The 1 year manufacturers only covers hardware.

 

[Plantje]

Yeah, but no, but yeah, but....
I mean... something can be done to it easily...right?

 

[RRC0107]

Call me old school. Finally just put the surface in the freezer (freaked the wife out). Let it cool, pulled it out and let it warm up. Keyboard finally lit up. Repeat cycle 6 times, getting a little further each time. Finally got to command prompt. Tried to rebuild boot rec, no windows found? Decided to refresh windows, got to the point where you take a photo of yourself and it shut down. No response. Back in the freezer for another round.

 

[Orlbuckeye]

Just contact MS and see what can be done.

 

[RRC0107]

Disconnect the tablet and hit the power button, it started up in the setup process where it had stopped before. Ran all the way thru. Shut down, rebooted (yea), then it took about 2 hrs to update. Shut down. Connected to base and now it boots up normally. I'm going to play with it a while before I start re-loading it.

 

[hughlle]

A bizzare experience, but fingers crossed. I'd always thought the old freezer trick was just for mechanical harddrives. Won't catch me putting my surface in the freezer though, you're braver than I am!

 

[GreyFox7]

Well if the warranty is expired, there's really no recourse... Failure during or after update or normal operating is the same. Going back to my old mainframe days, there was an opcode "lodr" that was only used to load the OS bootstrap. If that failed it was hell because that was also used to load the diagnostics bootstrap. Bottom line is, certain hardware operands or components may be infrequently used but are critical to startup and if they fail it's usually catastrophic.

The main difference between an old mainframe and a Surface is in the Surface you have 1000 times more hardware crammed into a space 10,000 times smaller.