Can I roll back my SP3 to 8.1 if a reset doesn't work?

[Talldog]

My SP3, upgraded to Windows 10, is having problems that apparently aren't unique to me: horrendously draining battery, docking station doesn't work right, etc. I spent a couple of hours with MS tech support uninstalling/reinstalling devices and running that firmware refresh that's been mentioned in other threads (which only temporarily resolved the battery issue). Microsoft is now recommending that I either do a reset or roll back to 8.1.

I'm willing to go through the pain of a reset because I really don't want to give up Windows 10, but if that doesn't solve my issues, does anyone know if I will still be able to roll back to 8.1 at that point? I can't risk getting stuck on Windows 10 with no resolution for the problems I'm having.

 

[eusty]

mmmm...I tried a reset on my SP3 and it failed to boot and even the recovery USB couldn't help, and I'm not the only one who appears to have had this problem.

Rather than a reset create a W10 USB for the MS website and boot from that and do a clean install after deleting any partitions.

Windows 10 DL Tool

 

[Talldog]

Rather than a reset create a W10 USB for the MS website and boot from that and do a clean install after deleting any partitions.

That's a pretty drastic step, especially since I'd end up with over 40Gb of data to sync down from OneDrive, but OTOH, it would be like having a new computer.

Once you did a clean install, was Windows 10 solid on the SP3? And where do I find the product key for a clean install?

 

[Guzzler3]

You'll most likely end up with the same or slightly less issues with W10 on a clean install. I keep playing with various install methods of W10 on my SP3 (I think I've done over 6 installs of W10 now), the one method that produces the least amount of issues is oddly enough is updating from W8.1 to W10. This method also preserves your OneDrive files that are stored locally, so you won't have to re download them.

One thing I've noticed is that when you do an upgrade from W8.1 with the downloaded ISO of W10, the battery issue, and overheating that a lot of people complain about doesn't manifest itself as bad. When I've done a fresh W10 install from the ISO, that is when I found the overheat and short battery life happened the most.

When ever I hear about a nice cumulative update, I try W10, again. Sadly, after a couple of days of running W10, I keep rolling back to W8.1. I REALLY want to run W10. There are some nice features to it, but it's still buggy and there are some interface issues in tablet mode that are just really difficult to overcome.

 

[enixon]

Yes, you can go back to 8.1 if you do choose to. Under recovery, you will have an option that says reset back to factory settings. If you did not erase any of your partitions, you will be able to go back to 8.1 without any issues. I've done this under an extreme circumstance for my Surface 3. However, I would try installing the latest drivers by searching for "Surface Pro Drivers" on the Microsoft website. Maybe for whatever reason, your drivers aren't getting correctly signed.

 

[Talldog]

I REALLY want to run W10.

Me too. :unhappy:

 

[eusty]

You'll most likely end up with the same or slightly less issues with W10 on a clean install.

Strange as I found the opposite!! The battery life is pretty much on par with 8.1 with either install, but the wi-fi is miles better after a clean install!

I'm guessing the difference between issues may not have much to do with W10, after all the hardware is common so a clean install should end up with the same result?

There are a few bugs which can get annoying (the pop-up keyboard always goes to handwriting mode is the worst) but I wouldn't go back to 8.1 by choice.

 

[Lloyd_S]

Me 3