Can not reinstall Surface book 2

Question

I have a surface book 2 that is blue screening with whea uncorrectable error and there is no dump file to diagnose the issue with the laptop.

I have tried to reinstall with the built in reset option however this is not possible as it crashes while doing so.

When I go to the trouble shooter on start up it says reset was not possible.

I downloaded the recovery image and put it on a usb this fails to restore from as well.

I have tried to install the os from a windows 10 install USB but it does not detect the in built drive when I do so this is not possible.

I have extracted the surface nvme controller driver onto the USB and the drive is still not seen (i can not use disk part to clean it with this either.

Occasionally when restarting the laptop it says no bootable operating system found.

Booting off a linux usb wont crash but it will not see the in built drive to format it for reinstalling.

Any ideas how I can re install the OS to see if it is a faulty operating system otherwise it will need a new SSD likely also needing a new screen as it may be damaged in the process.

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately those did not work it seemed to be a dead SSD chip as no bootable USBs would even see it either with lunux or windows.

I managed to get the screen off albeit with a lot of time and patience and replace the SSD it now works.

Thanks again

Answer 2

Hi Arran Sheldrick,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community and I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your Surface Book 2.

Regarding with the Windows 10 reinstall through USB Recovery that you tried, did you use the Surface Recovery Image from this page: Surface Recovery Image Download - Microsoft Support?

Yes, it is possible that this is already a hardware issue on the drive of the device but kindly try first running the Surface Data Eraser Tool on the device. See this page for the steps and guide in using the Surface Data Eraser Tool: Microsoft Surface Data Eraser (Surface) - Surface | Microsoft Learn. Once you have successfully ran the tool on the Surface, proceed with the clean installation of Windows on the device by using the Surface Recovery Image through USB Recovery. 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

Let me know how it goes.

Kind regards,

Marrion