Surface Book 3 - The newest update has completely bricked my Surface Book 3. Is there any hope for me?

Anonymous
2022-02-05T03:24:34+00:00

Hello, I am desperate for help. Microsoft "support" has told has no known solution. Thank you

Issue:

Since the latest Windows update, my computer will not turn on.

When attempting to power on, I receive the following error:

"Boot Error: Couldn't find a bootable operating system. Check the Boot Configuration to try to fix this"

Support told me to download a "Surface Recovery Image Download" from the website and extract the contents onto a 32gb Thumbdrive. I followed the instruction to boot up the computer with the thumdrive and select the "recovery option"

The computer begins to restart/recover process and immediately stops and goes to a blue screen that says the following:

"Reset this PC. There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made." the only option to select is cancel.

Here is where microsoft support says that they know no other solutions and they can only tell me that I no longer have a working computer. I must buy a new computer.

Looking for any help that they might have missed. The computer was working flawlessly before the update.

Details:

Update was the Morning of February 3rd, 2022. I was using my computer normally without a single issue. At about 10am I was prompted to begin the newest Windows update.

I have previously completed every update at the time I am prompted, so I believe I was up to date with all updates.

Device:

Surface Book 3 - 15 in. 512GB i7 32GB with GeForce

Thank you anyone that can help in advance.

My entire business workflow has been devastated. And because of the shortage in supply chain, I can not seem to find a comparable computer available for sale to replace mine

Surface | Surface Book | Install and update

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Anonymous
2022-02-07T20:11:06+00:00

Thank you for reporting this issue.  We are actively investigating. For additional help, contact Microsoft Support

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-02-11T20:47:33+00:00

    Oh, I also had a download of the firmware dated 2-7-22, I downloaded the firmware available today, since the date on the site changed to 2-9. The MD5 sums match so they are the same firmware.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-02-11T20:41:37+00:00

    I manage a fleet of 45 SB3s and have had the same issue. As well as MS Support offering to replace what they broke for a fee.

    From our fleet I tried to determine a common denominator.

    Our fleet has 3 different SSDs present across it:

    • Hynix HFM256GDGTNG-87A0A
    • Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G
    • SAMSUNG MZ9LQ512HALU-00000

    Of these only the Hynix are failing, and only ~50% of those, immediately after the Firmware update.

    You can boot the devices to an external Windows environment, so hopefully this is actually repairable with a working Firmware that could be installed in that environment. I tried an older SB3 firmware, but it detects the newer version and silently doesn't install. I also tried linux tools to wipe/format the SSD. The Linux kernel log indicates I/O errors when sending any commands to the NVME device.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-10T20:10:26+00:00

    Hello Barb,

    Thank you for the help, I appreciate it.

    I had two support cases:

    1. 122020321002378 - This was an email support case which had hours between each response and only sent me links to support pages on the Microsoft website. They closed it with no solution after I told them I need a working computer immediately and they told me my only option is to buy a new one.
    2. 1034967247 - this one was a call I made to support. finally got a person on the phone. they ran me through downloading the system image for the reboot, which did not work. he ended up telling me I need to send my computer for service and it would cost $650 and take 1-2 weeks. which is completely a non starter for me considering that I can not have my business down for that long, and also that I couldnt even proceed with that option at all. the process ends in error

    Anyways, I already bought a new computer completely.

    Microsoft bricked my computer with their update and then provided no support.

    I bought a new surface book because i can not maintain the down time for my business. Having entire business flow ruined, seems to be an urgency that microsoft just doesnt seem to care to understand.

    However, when more of the M1Max Mac book Pros become available, I will immediately migrate my business to apple devices, and out of principal alone, I will never, ever use microsoft devices ever again. This experience has been something of a nightmare. a problem microsoft create and then ignored. never again

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-02-10T00:00:25+00:00

    I'll take this as a tacit admission that MS knows they put out a bad firmware update. They haven't updated the updates history page, but they published a new file today.

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