BitLocker Issue after Updates Surface Book 2

Anonymous
2018-08-06T12:04:27+00:00

A few months back I purchased the new Surface Book 2 for a bit over 3,000 EUR. I had high hopes that as Microsoft knows this hardware inside out (just like Apple does with their MacBooks) I would not anymore have to go through the usual driver issues and what not but instead have a nice, reliable machine at hand that would make my everyday work life easier, not harder. 

1. Sleep of Death

Before my holiday I then started using my old Dell notebook again, as there was no way, I could put this 3,000 EUR Surface Book 2 to hibernate (or sleep! - both did actually not work) without having to do press the power button thereafter for 20 sec or so and hardresetting the thing to wake up. It seemed to be the (what seems to be quite common actually!) sleep of death issue. In light of the many users seeming to have the same issues I was hoping Microsoft would get on to a firmware update during my vacation and all would be solved upon my return. In fact, after my return this morning there were about 20 or so updates that got installed after I powered the SB2 up, amongst them a firmware update.

2. Laptop Bricked after Update - for good!

After installing and restarting I then had this issue: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfbook2-surfupdate/surface-book-2-bricked-after-latest-firmware/06fb11b2-4eb2-4141-9cd1-1e02d54afd78 - A blue screen with a prompt to enter the BitLocker key. Well, I looked it up and seemed to have recovered the key in my MS account (luckily! as other users seemed not to be so lucky as can be read in the link above). The (almost funny by now) thing is, that my keyboard does not work. My touchpad works just fine, I can "change keyboard layout" or "skip this drive" (obviously of little use, as this drive is my system drive with my Windows installation on it). But when I click into the blank field to enter the key, my keyboard does not respond at all and I cannot enter a key.

3. Excel Pixelated Issue with Surface Dock

Did I already mention how much I like the idea to have my two 1080p monitors hooked up to my laptop via Surface Dock with just one magnetic cable? Well, Excel becomes almost unreadable and in general the (text) image quality is poor compared to my old Dell, which has a HDMI and a Mini Display port so that I can hook up the two displays directly. This is sad...

Microsoft, seriously? I had such high hopes that (after investing 3,000 EUR) I would finally get a machine that would give me the same reliability as my Mac Book Pro. You cannot ask these prices, offer a super fancy top of the nodge notebook and then have issues like this. I mean, my laptop is bricked! I am having nothing but issues with the thing, can't even close the lid (to slee or hibernate) without recovering all my files as the bloody thing goes into a sleep of death. WTF is wrong with this thing ... I thought the old days of bootable CDs (or USB sticks nowaday) were kind of over by now... especially after paying this price!

Any ideas how to get around this w/o investing half a day to re-install Windows and all my programs?

Had I not started to like the new Windows 10 and have many programs that need Win, I think I'd already be back to a Mac Book. 

Thanks for your help in advance.

Moved from: Windows 10  / Windows update, recovery, & backup

Surface | Surface Book | Install and update

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2018-08-22T15:41:28+00:00

The Surface BitLocker Protector Check tool is now available to verify that the BitLocker settings are properly configured on your Surface Book 2 13” NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 and to help ensure that future updates go smoothly on your device.

For more information, please view our Known issues and additional information about Surface Book 2 article.

Updated 11/2/2018

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-08-06T19:54:55+00:00

    Hi Barb,

    I shutdown and restarted and the problem does not repeat. I have also just run the Surface Diagnostic tool, not sure if it took any action.

    On the need to enter the Bitlocker Key,

    The first time I needed to enter the key was after a firmware update, entered the key once and got through. Based on the Bitlocker message it seemed like there was a problem with keyboard settings.

    The second time was after resetting the SB, by pressing the on/off button for 20 seconds from a shutdown state, was asked twice in succession for the key before getting through. I was resetting to respond to a problem with the SB not waking up after hibernating (resetting solved that problem a few months ago after updates were installed).

    Again, all of these problems started after installing updates a couple of days ago. I did notice that before the updates were installed there was a message in red indicating "a policy issue", on the windows update page, I have never seen that before and assumed that windows would manage this. I do change keyboard language occasionally, switching between English US and English Canada. I went to the keyboard settings page and noticed that windows was "searching" for the English Canada Language Pack.

    My concern is getting stuck in a "Bitlocker key entry loop", and losing use of the SB.

    Can I just Turn Bitlocker Off in settings, and leave it off, without creating abnormal system behaviour?

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-08-06T18:48:38+00:00

    Hi Nick,

    So booting to USB and deleting partition worked. That's a great! From what I have read if you try to install without deleting partition you'd run into the same problem.

    Regards,

    Linnell

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-08-06T18:35:56+00:00

    Can you check and see if your Bitblocker is Enabled in the UEFI firmware settings

    Press Escape at Bitlocker screen

    It will say Preparing recovery

    The BitLocker screen will come up again

    select

    Skip this drive

    Click on Troubleshoot

    Then Advanced options

    Then UEFI firmware settings

    In UEFI firmware settings Is the Secure boot is disabled if so enable it

    Then save

    Windows should boot up without Bitlocker Recovery screen

    Hi Isamis

    I was able to reformat the drive & reinstall from a USB stick earlier this afternoon.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-08-06T18:32:32+00:00

    Hi Barb

    The laptop was originally a local account.

    You realise that I have now rebuilt the drive?

    Secure Boot is enabled, but I can't get Bitlocker running. That's no biggie for me though.

    I reinstalled Windows into partition #3. The other partitions may not be correctly linked.

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