Random lines on screen during boot up of my Surface laptop

Question

Hi 

During booting up there are few random lines that flicker on screen and then laptop works fine, have problems earlier and now with this replaced piece in warranty same issue, what to do.

Worried once the warranty period is over windows wont provide support for faulty device provided and also during this Covid period the warranty replacement is taking 1 month which is Hugh time to spent without laptop.

Rgds

Anupam Mathur

Answer 1

Hi ANUPAMMATHUR1,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community.

We’re really sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. Lines through the screen are commonly due to a possible display hardware problem.

Please follow these steps for us to isolate this issue.

1. Force a shut down and restart your Surface. Press and hold the power button for 20 seconds. It resets the hardware and clears all the cache and memory for your hardware.

2. Boot to UEFI and see if the issue is present. Go to Windows > Power > Shutdown. Once the device is shutdown, press and hold the volume up button, and single press the power button.

Note: If the issue exists in UEFI, then we know it’s a hardware failure. Kindly contactMicrosoft Surface Support to set up a possible exchange based on the status of your warranty.

If it does not exist in UEFI, please proceed in resetting the device.

Reset. Perform a USB recovery image on the device. This option reimages the entire device, including the partition on the hard drive. It is the most complete form of reset. You must have at least 16GB/32GB of USB Flash drive and it must be formatted to FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. 

Note: This removes all the files and apps on your device. You will need to back up your data and reinstall the desktop apps or run updates after the completion.

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.

1. Visit the page at http://www.surface.com/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/downloadablerecoveryimage
2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account (this is the email address we asked you for at the start of the call)
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:

• A USB drive with a storage capacity of 8 GB or larger (16 GB or larger for Surface Pro series)

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.

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
2. 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.

Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface (Cannot load Windows):

1. Turn the Surface off by pressing the power button
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 Reset
10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives

If the issue still persists after the completion, this means there is more likely a hardware problem on the device. Kindly contact Microsoft Surface Support to set up a possible exchange based on the status of your warranty. Replacement cost applies to out of warranty device and for further assistance.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

StevenK