Surface Bricked.

[FrodoBaggins]

Hey guys

Currently got an issue with my Surface Pro 2. My screen brightness will not change at all when I try to turn it up in the settings or via the charms - it is stuck on the dimmest setting - however once I disable adaptive screen brightness, it will allow me to change the brightness freely, which suggests that my brightness/ambient light sensor is not functional. I'm wondering if any of you have any ideas as to how I can fix this before I do a reset, or potentially claim warranty.

Thanks guys

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Re: Ambient light sensor broken

Update:

Today while I was using the surface it bricked entirely. Whenever I try and boot it up, it just goes straight to the BIOS screen and won't load windows. I have contacted MS support and they're going to replace it, still annoying though. I'll get a screenshot up tonight. Was in the middle of a presentation when it bricked too.

 

[RajeevT]

Timing couldn't have been worse for sure! How old was it?

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Timing couldn't have been worse for sure! How old was it?

Yeah I know, was rather inconvenient lol! It was only 2 months old. This is the screen it goes to whenever I boot it

 

[RajeevT]

Does it boot from a USB recovery or install drive? Anyway, even if some amount of fiddling brings it back to life best thing to do for peace of mind is to just get it replaced.

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Does it boot from a USB recovery or install drive? Anyway, even if some amount of fiddling brings it back to life best thing to do for peace of mind is to just get it replaced.

Nah it wouldn't even boot off of recovery media, pretty strange how it just died like that. Anyway fast forward a week - I got my replacement today!! Pretty stoked with how quickly they got it replaced and back out to me.

 

[cre8tivspirit]

I just sent mine back to Microsoft yesterday for the same reason. Was working fine that morning and then it wouldn't boot beyond that weird BIOS screen in the afternoon. Mine was only about 8 months old. I did some internet searching on this and there was some speculation that the solid state drive was failing, but nothing definitive.

 

[zocster]

Wow I guess I was lucky that the used device I got has not got this problem, hope it won't ever. Good to know.

Sent from my Q10 using Tapatalk

 

[RTGent]

I've also had great experiences with Microsoft replacement practices. A few months ago a tech-support person sent me a free overnight replacement for an Amazon-purchased, out-of-warranty mouse I called them about. Only a mouse, but still remarkable practice and much appreciated.

Also: thanks, Rajeev, for still another reminder to set up a USB recovery drive.

 

[cre8tivspirit]

Nah it wouldn't even boot off of recovery media, pretty strange how it just died like that. Anyway fast forward a week - I got my replacement today!! Pretty stoked with how quickly they got it replaced and back out to me.

I wish my replacement story was as good as yours. Sent mine back on 10/7, they received it on 10/8 and I am still waiting for them to even process my replacement. In the meantime, I've had my original service request cancelled and a new one opened with a SP2 of a different serial number. MS doesn't know how or why that has happened but they did tell me to change my MS account password as a precaution. Best estimate they are giving me is some time before 10/24 for me to receive my replacement. Expecting it to be refurb with problems of its own so I'll probably start a new service request and complain about the wifi/bluetooth bug that MS still hasn't been able to fix yet.