I have a surface pro 8 and the problem is when I'm using it will just restart. How can I fix this?

Question

About every time I use my surface pro 8 it restarts at least once. I purchased my suface pro 8 from the Microsoft website about 5 months ago.

I first thought it was due to video chatting apps and it was just overheating, but this morning it has done it twice just while I was looking for tips on the Microsoft help page.

I ran the surface diagnostic tool and it said everything was up to date and everything worked well. As soon as I finished, it restarted again.

Sometimes when it restarts the screen will just freeze than after a little bit it will make a beeping noise and restart. Other times my screen will just go black and it will restart. Sometimes the battery area is hot and other times it isn't.

I had another chat open before but I went on vacation and was away for more than 3 days so it closed.

These are the things that were suggested and I've done and nothing has worked.

If issue persists, try restoring the power plans of the Surface to defaults by following these steps below:

Type Command Prompt on the search menu of your Taskbar

On the results, select Run as administrator for Command Prompt

Click Yes on the User Control prompt

Type powercfg -restoredefaultschemes

Hit Enter restart the Surface

Kindly check also in the Event Viewer what were the error that causes the random restarts. Press Windows key + X then select Event Viewer. On the left pane, select Windows Logs > System and check what are those errors that occurred at the time when the device randomly restarts. If possible, take a screenshot of the error then share it to us here.

Thank you for providing the screenshots. Basing on the screenshots, it is possible that this is already a hardware issue on the device but just to make sure and eliminate any software possibilities, I suggest that we perform clean installation of Windows on the device through USB Recovery. This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset, and it will wipe out everything on the device. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. See the steps below for guidance.

How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

To download the Recovery Image:

• You'll another working device running on Windows.

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

I did this last USB recovery drive a few days ago and my surface still continues to shut off.

EDIT: Removed personally identifiable information (PII) from the photo.

Answer 1

Hi Tyler Brimhall,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. We are aware of how inconvenient it can be to have such performance problems with Surface device. This is definitely not the experience we want you to have with your Surface.

We appreciate the time you have spent in trying to resolve this issue. If recovering your Surface using a USB recovery drive doesn't fix the problem, then it is definitely a hardware failure. For hardware concerns, we recommend contacting our live support team to check available options for your device. You may reach them following the instructions below.

1. Go to Contact Us - Microsoft Support
2. Choose how you would like to get support for your Surface device.
3. Type in the problem you need help with.
4. Look at any available solutions offered and select Contact Support.

Kind regards,

Lavenia