Recent Discussions
Update on Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8 X plus
This is a 9 month usage update on my Microsoft Surface 7 Laptop Snapdragon X plus. This laptop in my opinion is the best snapdragon laptop on the market and I now use it more than my MacBook Air M3. Reasons - Battery life is one to two days. Build quality is excellent. Thin bezels and thin bottom chin, edge to edge glass. Keyboard does not look worn and shiny. I do not like the keys on a MacBook Air M3, they look very worn after only six months use, The magnetic charger connection is very good. Better than the 13 inch USB C charger. Main usage - Office, internet, emails, PowerPoint, no gaming. The laptop is very fast. Snapdragon chips are definitely the way forward. Less heat, much more power efficient. Very stable. I will not be buying an Intel based machine again.
Boot Surface HUB 2S from USB leads to Bitlocker Recovery Loop
Hi, I have an issue upgrading my Surface HUB 2S from Win10 to Win11. I already prepared my FAT32 formatted USB with the Win11 image for Surface HUB 2S. I shut down the Surface HUB, pressing and holding Volume-Down Button together with the Power Button. When the Windows logo appears I release the Power Button. After that the Bitlocker Recovery starts loading and when I see the loading circle below the Windows Logo I release the Volume-Down Button. Unfortunately I get the BitLocker Screen and when I press Skip this Drive it leads my to following 2 options Continue starting Windows Recover When I press Recover I get following options from cloud local installation I cant select my USB Drive or get the chance to boot from USB. I´ve done and tried it so many times. I need help to boot from this USB. Any ideas?
Overheating problems with Surfaces
Since the temperatures have risen, we already have four devices(Surface Laptop & Pro) that are constantly throttling to the point of crashing due to overheating. Surface Support only allows us to replace the entire device, so I'll try it here. Are you also experiencing these problems? Did Microsoft provide a bad firmware update in this case?
Surface Hub 3 doesn’t rotate on Windows 11 Pro
Hi, I’ve got a 50” Surface Hub 3 that we’ve switched over to Windows 11 Pro. The thing is, we’re trying to get the screen to rotate — but it just won’t. We’ve noticed that it does work when running in Microsoft Teams Room mode, and also in the Windows 11 IoT admin mode. So what’s going on? Why won’t the Surface Hub 3 rotate when it’s running just Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 IoT without Teams Room? Is there something we need to enable in the system? We even see the rotation icon in the taskbar, but clicking it doesn’t seem to do anything. Thanks!Surface Hub 3 doesn’t rotate on Windows 11 Pro
Hi, I’ve got a 50” Surface Hub 3 that we’ve switched over to Windows 11 Pro. The thing is, we’re trying to get the screen to rotate — but it just won’t. We’ve noticed that it does work when running in Microsoft Teams Room mode, and also in the Windows 11 IoT admin mode. So what’s going on? Why won’t the Surface Hub 3 rotate when it’s running just Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 IoT without Teams Room? Is there something we need to enable in the system? We even see the rotation icon in the taskbar, but clicking it doesn’t seem to do anything. Thanks!
SurfaceHub Gen1 Secure Boot Violation - Unable to Access UEFI Settings
Hi Microsoft Tech Community, We have 3x Surface Hub Gen1 devices showing "secure boot violation invalid signature detected" errors that appeared recently. Issue: Unable to access UEFI settings using the standard volume up + power button method across all affected devices. Attempted Solution: Followed flamurK's solution from 23rd June 2025 to collect Manufacturing.bin files using FAT32 USB drive named "BOOTME". Files collected successfully from all 3 devices. Problem: The secure file transfer link provided in that solution is organisation-specific and inaccessible to us. Request: We need a new secure upload link to submit our Manufacturing.bin files and device serial numbers for the 3 affected Surface Hub Gen1 units. Could Microsoft please provide an appropriate upload link for our organisation? Many thanks.Safe to delete the Surface Hub 3 "admin" account?
We manage our Surface Hubs with Teams Rooms Pro (and Intune where needed). The Windows default local administrator account is disabled during enrollment by the Deployment policy. Intune is configured to add an Entra group to the Local Administrators group, whose membership we manage with an Identity Governance policy. We are all set for administration. And if we were ever to be locked out of a Surface Hub, we would re-image it and begin again. During the Out-of-box experience, a new administrator account named ".\admin", with a well-known simple three letter password, is added to Surface Hub 3 devices. Presumably, the account is added a "convenience". All my testing and research has shown that this account is not needed or used. Is it safe to delete ".\admin" account? Or later, will I find Microsoft expected to use that account in some way? Thanks, in advance.
Trouble Activating Ultimate Performance Plan on My Surface Laptop
Hi everyone, I’m trying to enable the Ultimate Performance power plan on my Surface device. I’ve already used the command powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61, and it shows up in my system. However, when I try to activate it using powercfg /setactive [GUID], I get an “Invalid Parameters” error—even though the GUID matches exactly what was listed under powercfg /list. My current active plan is “High performance” (custom-made). Has anyone else encountered this issue on a Surface laptop? Is this plan blocked or incompatible with certain Surface models, or am I missing a step? Would appreciate any insights or tips! Thank you so much for your attention and participation.SurfaceHub Gen1 violation error at several devices
Following Error occured 2 day's ago on several SurfaceHub Gen1 in our company: SurfaceHub error: secure boot violation invalid signature detected. Check secure boot policy in setup. Solution could be to disable Secure Boot and other UEFI details. But following process to enter UEFI / Bios is not working at all: Shut down the Surface Hub completely. Press and hold the volume up button on the side of the device. While holding the volume up button, press and release the power button. Continue holding the volume up button until the Surface logo appears. The device should now boot into the UEFI (BIOS) settings menu. We did test with several different SurfaceHub devices and all kind of pressing and holding these buttons, even with external cabled Keyboard. Not able to enter UEFI. Does anybody have same issue? Know in detail how to enter UEFI at Surface Hub Generation 1. thx for any hints BrunoARM Surface Laptop 7 file paths too long
We just finished a rollout of the Surface laptop 7s with the ARM processor. after a couple of weeks a have a few members of the staff who are ready to throw them out the window because they are running into constant issues with their synced sharepoint library in file explorer telling them they can't save the file because the path is lost since the file path, itself, is too long. We used to be able to work around this by extending the limitation on characters, but this no longer seems to be an option with the ARM computers. I am in desperate need of guidance. I would tell them they can use SharePoint online, but let's be real, this is one of those behaviors that's hard to break.
The Surface Hub 2S flickers
The Surface Hub 2S flickers when it is switched on — the image appears and disappears. After a few seconds, the image is completely gone. The issue repeats itself only when the device is disconnected from the power supply and turned on again, as described above. What can I do? See thre video: https://streamable.com/0onoa7Multi-cast Surface Hubs
My department has multiple Surface Hub devices around the meeting room floor. We have many instances where it would be helpful to be able to control the devices from a central device - a hub, a computer, or similar. The goal here would be to project a screen, a slide or a video across the devices. They are hung on the walls throughout the floor - one example is when we need to usher groups of people back into the main room, we would love to cast an alert on all screens. Is there a way to do this on the Hub devices? We have considered starting a Zoom or other video call across them all, but that seems like an overly complicated workaround. Let me know if anyone has any ideas or experience with this.Microsoft Surface 7 XIP Laptop continues to impress.
The Microsoft Surface 7 laptops with Arm Snapdragon chips are a real game changer. Impressive build quality and keyboard keys that do not go shiny like the MacBook Air M3. My typical usage - emails, internet, Word, PowerPoint, Excel. battery will last two days, no fan noise heard so far. Good design features - fully laminated screen, thin bezels, thin chin, non shiny keys, reasonably thin, not as thin as M3, but not noticeable, magnetic charge plug with side entry, better than 90 degree MacBook Air M3 plug, upgradeable M.2 2230 ssd, 16 GB ram. Question - Crucial P310 1TB PCie Gen 4 NVMe 2230 M.2 looks like a good upgrade if more storage needed. However will the Crucial P310 generate more heat ?Surface Pro 6 running super slow
Haven't put anything new on it. Visit the same websites daily. Just outta nowhere this thing is super slow the past few days. No viruses or malware. Windows up to date. Ran "a program" ...everything is clean and up to date. Chromium was running in the background, stopped that. Nothing running at startup that shouldn't be. (only Logitech keyboard/mouse, Avast, RealTech audio, and SecurityHealthSysTray) Task manager says 3% CPU usage - 49% memory usage. Any ideas? Thanks!Can't get support for my Surface 3 hardware issue
I can't seem to get support for my Surface 3 laptop, which is still under warranty. There is something wrong with my charging port. I got a new charger (thought that might be the issue) but the same thing happens - light is on but laptop doesn't charge. When i fiddle with the position of the charger something it starts to charge but then stops when i let go of the charging chord. Seems like it's a hardware issue. Windows is up to date. Here are the issues I'm experiencing when trying to get support: There is no Microsoft store here in London, the website listed Curry's as a support provider. Called Curry's - they said that information is wrong. they don't provide support for Microsoft products Tried to contact customer support through the chat - keeps crashing was able to get a customer service person to call me - got disconnected after 2 mins got another person to call me. after 40 minutes of waiting for them to enter a ticket, they said they had an issue and couldn't do it Told me to do it myself online - but I keep getting an error message showing an image of a melted popsicle and saying something went wrong try again (tried about 10 times) Tried to call support again today and whenever I enter my number it says there is an error (see below) I feel like this is kind of insane. why can't i get help for my product? One thing's for sure, I will never be purchasing a Microsoft product again....
Type Cover will not Connect
I’ve tried everything — up-to-date, restarting, turn off and on, troubleshooting, running device tests—and I can’t get in contact with Microsoft customer service. My type cover for my surface pro 8 is magnetically connected but it won’t work at all and the connection won’t register in the tests. Without the type cover my surface pro is essentially useless. I can’t type on the keyboard or use the type cover mouse. I’ve submitted a ticket for customer service and haven’t heard back yet. A service repair is like $180 for a type cover!? I bought your device like 2-3 years ago and it’s still in great condition. Haven’t even dropped it once & it randomly stops working. Wtf. There doesn’t seem to be a scratch or anything. What could I do to fix this?Accidentally booted ASUS laptop from Surface Hub 2S Recovery USB, now can't boot/reinstall Windows
*This post is not about troubleshooting a Surface Hub device, it's about troubleshooting my personal ASUS GU604VI laptop that a Surface Hub 2S Recovery Image on USB has altered and potentially destroyed* 🙁 Backstory: I had a task at work to reset a Surface Hub 2S device. I followed Microsoft's instructions (here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/surface-hub/surface-hub-recover-reset) to create a Windows 10 Team 2022 Update recovery image on a USB device. I then accidentally booted my own personal laptop from the USB drive - I was trying to put a couple of files on it and put it in my laptop before turning the laptop on (I should not have used my personal laptop for this in hindsight). The laptop booted automatically from the recovery flash drive instead of my internal SSD. I then realized I what was happening and shut it down. After that point NO Windows OS or other Windows install media will boot on my device. It appears that simply booting from the Surface Hub 2S recovery media made firmware-level changes to my laptop and is preventing me from booting into any non-Surface 2S Windows installation or even reinstalling Windows via boot from any Windows install media. I can boot Linux. Here is what I've tried to resolve it myself: Confirmed boot order and all the basics within the BIOS/UEFI firmware Reset BIOS to defaults Reflashed my BIOS (tried multiple different BIOS version levels) Disabled Secure Boot Wiped Secure Boot keys (returned to Setup Mode + restored default keys) Wiped my hard drive and tried to reinstall Windows (can't boot from Win11 or Win10 install media - I've tried created it using the Windows Media Creation tool and Rufus from the latest official Win11 and Win10 ISOs. None will boot into Windows setup, all return me directly to the boot device selection screen. Tried to boot to Windows Recovery Drive made from another Win11 system - same situation, returns me directly to the boot device selection screen Tried to boot Hiren's Boot CD on USB (based on WinPE) - same situation as above Tried multiple USB ports Tried multiple USB flash drive brands Tried disconnecting my laptop battery and letting it sit (CMOS reset type-of-thing) Tried booting directly from the various Windows .EFI files using shell.efi from UEFI - none will boot, they do nothing. Launching Linux .EFI files boots them just fine My laptop is a UEFI-only device. I cannot boot it into CSM/BIOS mode. I have to use UEFI boot. Power cycle/hard reset procedure with holding the power button for 1 minute Removed my SSD and tried to get the laptop just to boot to a Windows setup USB stick - same situation, returns me directly to the boot device selection screen Called ASUS, they want me to send them the laptop for an $85 diagnosis. It's out of warranty by 4 months. They will likely have to replace this motherboard, and this will cost big bucks. Tried to follow Microsoft's documentation on how to 'Migrate to Windows 10/11 Pro or Enterprise on Surface Hub 2S' (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/surface-hub/surface-hub-2s-migrate-os#update-uefi-on-surface-hub-2s-to-enable-os-migration) thinking that this may hold the key to being able to unlock the boot capabilities to allow my laptop to boot to normal non-Surface Windows again. I can get to the 'Update UEFI on Surface Hub 2S to enable OS Migration' step but cannot complete it since I don't have the Surface-specific UEFI options to install the DfciUpdate.dfi management settings file from USB. I finally installed decided all was so screwed up that I might as well actually fully install the Surface Hub 2S Windows 10 Team 2022 Update on my laptop and go from there - so I did. It booted and fully installed successfully and now I have a Surface Hub 2S laptop. It boots, but not to what I want it to, of course! I want to be back at normal Windows 11. I found one or two others having similar issues online (but not many people!): These three posts are from the same person - I tried but cannot use his solution because I cannot get Shift+F10, Windows+R, Ctrl+Shift+Esc or any other combo to give me the ability to launch a cmd.exe window. I think this is because the Surface Hub 2S is running in Windows S mode. https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/unable-to-boot-uefi-from-sata-or-usb-after-connecting-surface-hub-ssd.3757053/ https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/unable-to-boot-to-uefi-via-sata-or-usb-device/655da88e-e5fe-4077-a9ce-5915e918cc90 https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/tt4d8v/unable_to_boot_to_uefi_sata_or_usb_installer/?rdt=57727 This post is extremely close to my situation, probably the exact same root issue https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/all/i-have-interesting-situation-please-read-carefully/3470d7eb-b62d-48db-afda-b7c85c3991c0 Could you please help me get my laptop back, Microsoft engineers? (and/or anyone else!) Thank you!Surface User Update February 2025
This is a user update from the UK for Surface 10 core XIP6400 16Gb 512GB 13 inch Laptop. Almost identical in use to MacBook Air M3 (Apart from OS) but better battery life. Fully laminated screen with thin bezels. No fan noise heard so far. Services disabled - - Connected user exp and telemetry. - Dolby Dax - Windows Search - All Xbox apps - SSD indexing. It looks like the Arm Snapdragon has transformed the Surface Laptop. A question - My surface laptop has a 2230 M.2 512GB ssd which appears to be a SDDPTQD 1124 WD. Is there any benefit in changing to a Samsung 2230 990/991. Would this impact battery life or heat generation ? ie, The Samsung is better in theory but would I ever notice using MS Office/emails, etc.MDT Replacement Mode
I'm trying to replace the screen on a Surface Pro 8, and the manual straight from Microsoft says I need to run some pre-repair software. There does not appear to be any documentation showing how to actually do that. Here's the section in the manual: • Prep Device – Device must be set in TDM Replacement Mode prior to removing a faulty TDM. a. Connect software tools USB drive with SDT to USB connector on device under repair. b. Connect power supply to device. c. Power on device – Depress the power button on the side of the device. d. Run software tool – At the device OS, use Windows Explorer, navigate to USB drive and run: SDT – Select Repair setup and validation. Run the Touch Display Setup. At the end of the tool process device will power down. IMPORTANT: This step must be carried out on the device successfully before removal of a faulty TDM. Ensure light levels in the work area remain consistent during the touch display setup process. I've been able to determine that the correct version of the SDT software is the "for Business version". The options to put it in setup and validation mode are not present when running from the machine. There are no directions for making a portable install on a USB. I started here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/all/tdm-replacement-mode-on-usb-drive/9b02132e-6fee-46fe-9d90-1934303b8255 and after that and a bunch more reading I found some guidance that got me to creating a custom package, which I placed on my USB. It doesn't run. I've got to be missing something here. I just need to get this screen replaced. I have the hardware part handled, this software is really throwing me for a loop. Could I get some direction on how to actually make it work, or a detailed description of what would happen if I ignore it and just replace the screen?
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