Surface laptop 2 keeps crashing

Question

I recently bought a Surface Laptop 2. Approximately every two hours of operation time it crashes. The screen freezes and I get a blue screen telling me I have a system thread error. This occurs regularly and I have to reboot it or it tells me the system had a problem and it is checking for it. It then displays the percentage of the fix operation until it restarts on its own. I ran the Windows 10S fix tool. I think it is a firmware or hardware issue. I saw in previous discussions the Surface pro and Surface laptop freezes with great regularity. I am not the only one. Will this be addressed by Microsoft?

Answer 1

Hi Scott, 

Thank you for your response. We totally understand that your Surface device keeps crashing. In this case, we suggest to contact ourMicrosoft Support for possible replacement for your Surface device. 

Additionally, you may wish to try the workaround mentioned here that applies to some devices: Surface Laptop 2 Memory Leak

Best regards,

Loyd G.

Answer 2

Hi Scott,

Thank you for posting us here in Microsoft Community! There are few reasons why you are getting to this issue. One of which may be due to an issue with its software, what we can do is to reimage the device to a factory state using USB recovery drive.

Important Creating 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.  

**Note:**Make sure you have access to the product keys and installation files for any desktop apps, such as Microsoft Office, that you plan to reinstall after the reset.

Click this link to Download a recovery image for your Surface, you'll need:

• A PC running Windows 7 or later.
• A USB drive with a storage capacity of 8 GB or larger (16 GB or larger for Surface Pro series)

1. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
2. 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 3. Download the recovery image using the button on the page 4. 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. 5. Create a recovery drive:

• Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
• From the desktop, open File Explorer
• Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
• 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
• Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
• Tap or click OK when the format is complete
• On your PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it
• At the top of the window tap on Extract and then Extract all. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

To reset the Surface device using a USB recovery drive:

1. Make sure your Surface is turned off and plugged in, and then insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port.
2. Press and hold the volume-down button while you press and release the power button.
3. When the Microsoft or Surface logo appears, release the volume-down button.
4. When prompted, select the language and keyboard layout you want.
5. Select Troubleshoot, and then select Recover from a drive. If prompted for a recovery key, select Skip this drive at the bottom of the screen.

Note: Be sure to select the Troubleshoot option on this screen. Don’t select the Use a device option. If you select the Use a device option, your Surface will reboot from the USB recovery drive again and the reset process will start over.

• Choose either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive.

The option to clean the drive is more secure but takes much longer. For example, if you’re recycling your Surface, you should clean the drive. If you’re keeping your Surface, you just need to remove your files.

• Select Recover.

Surface restarts and displays the Surface logo while the reset process continues. This can take several minutes.

Keeep us posted with the outcome.

Answer 3

I contacted Microsoft technical support. They took control of my Surface Laptop 2. They installed firmware updates and did a memory diagnostic. These did not work. The technical representative then initiated a factory reset. This also failed. Tomorrow I am taking the laptop back. As I mentioned previously, based on comments, on several message boards this problem is happening to many Surface laptop 2 owners. Something is wrong with the laptop's hardware or firmware. I have used Windows 10 and never had this problem with the operating system. These machines need a recall or time has to be spent uncovering the problem.