My Surface book suddenly asking for a PIN. I don't remember it. I can't change it. I can't reset the password. It's usually facial recognition and worked 10 minutes before.

Question

Why are they changing it? It worked all morning, I closed it, came back, and says:

"Requires a Pin".

I try every PIN I use for anything, none work.

"Password"

It's not recognizing my account password. There is not option to bypass it, or reset it. Just keeps asking for a PIN and ignores facial (which worked 10 minutes ago)

What gives? How Can I just go back to facial recognition or reset password at least? Why is it forcing a PIN?!?!

*Moved to Surface* (Unsure of version)

Answer 1

Hi ChrisFountain,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear that you are unable to log in to your Surface Book due to the PIN issue.

To troubleshoot, please try first doing a Force Shutdown on the device by following the steps below: (reference: Force a shutdown and restart your Surface (microsoft.com))

1. Press and hold the power button on your Surface until the screen turns off (about 30 seconds), then release it.
2. Press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time until the screen turns off (about 15 seconds), then release both.

The screen may flash the Surface logo, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds. 3. After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds. 4. Press and release the power button to turn your Surface back on. You should see the Surface logo.

After performing a Force Shutdown, try to log in on the device again. It the issue persist, please try to check if the device connected to your network by selecting the Wi-Fi icon on the lower-right area of the log in screen. Connect if not then restart the Surface. If it is already connected, try disconnecting it from the network then restart the Surface and try logging again using password if in case facial recognition still does not work.

If in case the issue persist after the steps provided, I suggest that we perform a reset on the device. We can try doing a reset first selecting the Keep my files option to save the files that you have on the device. To do this, press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard then tap the Power icon on the screen and select Restart. Release the Shift key once you have the Choose an option screen. Select Troubleshoot > Reset this PC and select Keep my files then follow the on-screen instructions.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 2

When I do the second step, it just brings me to the Surface UFEI. And rebooting after that just has the same problem.

Answer 3

Hi ChrisFountain,

Thank you for the response. I'm sorry to hear that the issue persist. Were you able to proceed doing the Reset selecting the Keep my files option? If yes and still the issue persist, I'm sorry but I think we'll need to proceed reinstalling Windows on the device using a USB Recovery Image. This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. If you like to try, you can follow the steps provided below:

How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

To download the Recovery Image:

• You'll need a PC running Windows 7 or later or Surface Device.

1. Visit the page to Download the recovery image for your Surface
2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
3. From the list of Surface devices available, select the device that you need a recovery image for
   Please note that while you will only be presented with devices that are currently registered on your account, you will also be presented with the option to get an image for a different type of device. If you try to use this option, you will be prompted to enter the serial number for that device
4. Download the recovery image using the button on the page
5. When the download bar pops up at the bottom of your screen, save the file in a location you will be able to find it.

 Format USB Drive:

• Note: Formatting a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.

1. Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
2. From the desktop, open File Explorer
3. Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start
5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete

Create a recovery drive:

1. On your Surface or PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it or right click then select Extract and then Extract all.
2. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface:

1. Shutdown the Surface
2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port
3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker
4. Press and release the power button
5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker
6. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive
7. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout
8. Select Troubleshoot
9. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC.
10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives
11. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 4

Hi ChrisFountain,

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our first response yet. We would like to know if you still need some assistance on the concern raised and if you were able to reinstall Windows using the USB Recovery Image?

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Marrion