Surface Pro 3: Unable to Activate After a Factory Default.

Question

Earlier today, I turned on my old Surface Pro 3 that I donated to my church years ago when I purchased my Surface Pro 7. The device is used primarily for Zoom meetings and working with Office apps.

Much to my surprise, the unit booted up with a message about a missing partition...which I associated with the KB that just won't update. A few weeks prior, I had downloaded the tool to hide that particular update, and everything worked well since.

I tried multiple restarts of the Pro 3 but the unit kept booting up to the different screen.

I grabbed the recovery drive and proceeded to factory default the Pro 3. This, of course, rolled the unit back to 1511. The first sign of trouble was that the unit could not sign in during the initial configuration. The only way to get past that was to make a local account.

After the initial setup was completed, the Pro 3 ran the available updates that were available for 1511. The unit doesn't see anything beyond that. I can't log into OneDrive or the Store. I either see an error message (store) or a never ending "Loading" when trying to log into OneDrive...etc.

I can't even access the Windows Updater to try to force an update to the latest version of Windows 10 (22H2).

It appears that I am being blocked from bringing the SP3 back up due to the age of the default version of Windows 10.

Is there any way around this or is my old SP3 being forced into retirement? 🤔

Answer 1

Hello Dexman,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

The Surface Pro 3 is indeed an earlier version of the Surface device, which was released 10 years ago.

This Surface device shipped with Windows 8, but it also supports the upgrade to Windows 10, but unfortunately it can't upgrade to Windows 11: **http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/%E5%93%AA%E4%BA%9B-surface-%E8%AE%BE%E5%A4%87%E5%8F%AF%E4%BB%A5%E5%8D%87%E7%BA%A7%E5%88%B0-windows-11-76c3c125-82e0-4d1e-9550-12ed09f9058e**

I'm sure you've referred to the information in the support link below to restore the Surface Pro 3 to factory Settings with the Surface Pro 3's dedicated recovery drive. However, I have noticed that you will then experience various "login issues" and problems with updating to the latest version of Windows 10:

Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com) ****

Clicking "Update now" in the unlink got no reaction? Or do you see any error messages?

Just in case, I recommend that you download the driver and firmware package for the Surface Pro 3 from another device, and then copy it to your Surface Pro 3 via USB flash drive to install it:

Download Surface Pro 3 from Official Microsoft Download Center

If there are some driver failures on the Surface, then this should fix it. Then test whether you can log in to your Microsoft account and whether you can "update now" Windows.

If that doesn't help, go directly to the MCT tool to get the latest Windows 10 ISO image file and manually upgrade your Surface to Windows 10 22H2:

Hopefully, this will help you update your Surface to Windows 10 22H2, but if that's not possible, it may be time to move on to a new Surface product.

We'd love to help you upgrade to a new, more capable device. Please check out our****online Microsoft Store, visit one of our locations in person, or chat with an expert to learn about ongoing and special promotions.

Best Regards,

Mitchell | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 2

When I try to access the Windows Update Tool, I reach a blank screen. It's as if Microsoft is disallowing machines running such an old version of Windows 10 from updating to the latest version.

I do not have access to any other SP3s. This is the only one the church has (I purchased it myself and donated it to the church when I purchased my current SP7).

It seems that I'm stuck at this point. I was able to load Zoom to the SP3, so that buys me some time. Unfortunately, I am unable to connect to OneDrive as well as the Microsoft Store to reload apps as well as Microsoft 365.

Seems like a shame. Except for the weakened battery, the SP3 has been a workhorse for me and for the church.

Answer 3

Hi Mitchell,

It appears that this problem was connected to yesterday's outage.

I just turned on the SP3 and OneDrive immediately began to download files from the Cloud.

I'm now connected to the Updater downloading 22H2.

Hopefully all updates will complete properly. After all that transpired yesterday, I can live with the KB5034441 issue (although I wish a permanent fix was available).

Answer 4

The SP3 updated to W10 2202, BUT, now, after applying patches, I'm thrown back into the Bitlocker Loop.

So, a patch from Microsoft was the cause of this problem to begin with.

I will default the SP3 one more time to determine which patch is the culprit.

Answer 5

Hi Dexman,

And what happens when you follow these step with your Surface Pro 7 and download the upgrade to a USB drive to then apply to your Surface Pro 3?

...Just in case, I recommend that you download the driver and firmware package for the Surface Pro 3 from another device, and then copy it to your Surface Pro 3 via USB flash drive to install it:

Download Surface Pro 3 from Official Microsoft Download Center

If there are some driver failures on the Surface, then this should fix it. Then test whether you can log in to your Microsoft account and whether you can "update now" Windows.

If that doesn't help, go directly to the MCT tool to get the latest Windows 10 ISO image file and manually upgrade your Surface to Windows 10 22H2:

Hopefully, this will help you update your Surface to Windows 10 22H2, but if that's not possible, it may be time to move on to a new Surface product.

We'd love to help you upgrade to a new, more capable device. Please check out our****online Microsoft Store, visit one of our locations in person, or chat with an expert to learn about ongoing and special promotions.

 

Best Regards,

Mitchell | Microsoft Community Support Specialist