surface booted with bitlocker recovery now seems to have crashed

Question

I have a 2017 surface pro that booted with a bitlocker recovery page today, never seen this before. When I typed in the code then this seemed to be working, but when it booted the screen went to blank, when I held the power button the slide to shut down panel appeared so I shut this down.

Now the screen isn't displaying anything when I try to boot this again, but seems like device is powering on and the cooling fan kicks in occasionally. Battery is fully charged and connected to power.

If anyone knows what might be going on here and what could help that would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Thanks for keeping me posted, Dylan_Michael.

Those updates with error code might have been interrupted or the operating system itself might be corrupted which lead to such errors. However, you can always troubleshoot those error. See Fix Windows Update errors (microsoft.com) for more details.

Anyhow, I'm glad that we have sorted it out by resetting the device. I hope you would also help our Community who may have the same concern as you by marking my post as an answer.

Best wishes,

StevenK

Answer 2

Hello Dylan_Michael,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about this issue on your device. I understand how frustrating it is to have such issue. I'll do my best to help.

If I may ask, when the device crashes, did a blue screen error appear? A screenshot of the blue screen error would be more helpful.

But in any event, the device still crashes after several force shut down and restart and won't boot anymore, then we may need to perform a recovery image on your device. This option reimages the entire device, including the partition on the hard drive. It is the most complete form of reset. See and follow the procedures in Creating and using a USB recovery drive for Surface (microsoft.com).

Let me know how it goes. I'll wait for your response.

Regards,

StevenK

Answer 3

Right now there is no blue screen, nothing is appearing on the screen and the device doesn't seem to be powering up at all.

There was the blue screen earlier when it requested the bitlocker recover code, but no blue anymore.

Reseting may be the way to go if nothing else might help can try that thanks.

On this page it looks like I need a second device running windows 10 to download and set up a usb drive, which I don't have, but it says you may be able to mail one out to me or I could pick this up at a store? I'm not too far from Seattle if that's an option, or could set up windows ten on my macbook but don't have a current copy right now. I'm not sure if my surface is the model 7 or 7 +, it was just called the "surface pro" when this version was released in 2017. Won't run windows 11 I checked.

Answer 4

Right now there is no blue screen, nothing is appearing on the screen and the device doesn't seem to be powering up at all.

There was the blue screen earlier when it requested the bitlocker recover code, but no blue anymore.

Reseting may be the way to go if nothing else might help can try that thanks.

On this page it looks like I need a second device running windows 10 to download and set up a usb drive, which I don't have, but it says you may be able to mail one out to me or I could pick this up at a store? I'm not too far from Seattle if that's an option, or could set up windows ten on my macbook but don't have a current copy right now. I'm not sure if my surface is the model 7 or 7 +, it was just called the "surface pro" when this version was released in 2017. Won't run windows 11 I checked.

Thanks for letting me know, Dylan_Michael.

Regarding the USB drive to be mailed to you, I think you should check that option with our Microsoft assisted support at Contact Us Microsoft Support first. And about your device, since it was released in 2017 I believe you have the Surface Pro (5th Gen). Anyhow, if only your device would turn on you can Find out which Surface model you have (microsoft.com).

In addition, you can try the methods on Surface won’t turn on or start (microsoft.com), since your device won't turn on. But if it still does not work, then I suggest to contact our support.

I hope this helps.

Answer 5

Thanks for your reply,

Some good news: I was able restart the device by holding power button for twenty seconds, went back to bitlocker recovery key screen, I entered the key again and then I clicked to restart again, and to "accept some changes," don't know what those are if this was from an update or something that caused this? Hope computer didn't get hacked, does anyone know what usually causes this screen to appear?

When I got past that I got to login screen, but it said I can't use my pin to login, may need to reset this and/or reset the whole computer. Would be ideal if I don't have to do a full factory reset.

Ran into some kind of hiccup at that point, now back to recovery key screen, will try again now.