Repeated BSOD after firmware update - Surface pro 3, Windows 10

Anonymous

Hey everyone

There was a firmware update for the SP3 I just did and my device now seems completely bricked. When I boot it, I instantaneously get a BSOD with one of those two messages : kernel security check failure or driver unloaded without cancelling pending operations.

The BSOD tells me I have to use a win10 device to boot it from, but when I tell the BIOS to boot with my USB win10 key, it doesn't and keeps telling that the OS can't boot and to use a win10 disc (no CD reader on the SP3). Nothing I've tried works so far.

I've had my sp3 for just over a year and I really liked it before windows 10, and I really hope I can get it fixed.

Thanks for your help,

Émile

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Anonymous

MODERATOR EDIT (10/5/2015): Steps listed here previously are now updated to the following. If you receive a blue screen error after installing the 9/29/2015 Surface Firmware Update please start at step 1 to address.

Step 1 – System Restore Point

1. Boot Surface using USB recovery media. If you do not have recovery media you can download from here: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/downloadablerecoveryimage. Once you have recovery media proceed to next steps. Note: The USB drive must be formatted to FAT32 (not NTFS) in order to work correctly.

2. Press and hold the volume-down button while you press and release the power button. When the Surface logo appears release the volume-down button.

3. When prompted select the language and keyboard layout you want.

4. Select Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, followed by selecting System Restore then select the target operating system.

5. In System Restore, click Next.

6. Click on a system restore point that was prior to applying the System Firmware update. Please use a restore point 9/28 or earlier.

7. Click Next.

8. Click Finish.

9. Click Yes when asked if you want to continue.

10. After moving to an earlier restore point you should boot into Windows.

If you were able to restore to an earlier restore point you should now be able to use your Surface again, no additional steps are needed. If you were not able restore to an earlier restore point or you did not have a restore point then continue to step 2 below.

Step 2 – Safe Mode

1. Boot Surface using USB recovery media by pressing and holding the volume-down button while you press and release the power button. When the Surface logo appears release the volume-down button.

2. When prompted select the language and keyboard layout you want.

3. Select Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, followed by selecting Command Prompt.

4. Type the following command in the command prompt and then press enter:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes

5. Type the following command in the command prompt and then press enter.

exit

6. Press Turn off your PC.

7. Press the power button on Surface to turn it on.

8. Press F8 when the Windows Boot Manager screen comes up to go to Startup Settings.

9. Press “4” to enable Safe Mode.

10. Surface may do disk checking as well as perform a scan and repair. Surface will then restart. If Surface does not do this and instead boots into Safe Mode, go to step 13.

11. Press F8 when the Windows Boot Manager screen comes up to go to Startup Settings.

12. Press “4” to enable Safe Mode.

13. Surface will start in Safe Mode. Sign into Surface. Press the Windows Start Menu, press Power and select Restart.

14. Press Enter when the Windows Boot Manager screen comes up to boot into Windows 10.

15. Surface will start normally. Sign into Surface. Right-click the Windows Start Menu and click Command Prompt (Admin).

16. Click Yes to allow this app to make changes.

17. Type the following command in the command prompt and then press enter.

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu no

18. Press the Windows Start Menu, press Power and select Restart.

If you are now able to boot into Windows you should now be able to use your Surface again, no additional steps are needed. If you were not able to boot into Windows then continue to step 3 below.

Step 3 – Reset Surface to factory settings

1. Follow the steps in the article below to boot Surface using USB recovery media and reset Surface back to factory settings: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/usbrecovery

Please let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Josh

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187 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-10-02T12:08:58+00:00

I had the same issue. My surface Pro 3 failed to reboot after the latest update. I of course panicked and looked for a way to boot in safe mode, but there was nothing that I could do. I have a keyboard attached and it did not work at this point. So I detached the keyboard on the next reboot attempt and there appeared a little keyboard icon in the upper right of the screen. It opened a virtual keyboard and allowed me to hit F8 which brought up a screen that prompted me for my BitLocker key to unlock my hard drive. So I went to the url that was provided to get my key on another machine (you have to login to your Microsoft account) and followed the instructions to unlock my hard drive.

Once that was done I was able to boot into safe mode and when I restarted everything was back to normal. Phew!

So hopefully that helps someone with this issue.
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Anonymous

2015-10-02T12:03:41+00:00

I'm overseas right now so I was in a bit of a panic when I got my SP3 stuck in this reboot loop. Thankfully I was able to get it sorted.

Getting into safe mode worked for me - when it boots up onto the blue screen saying to press the Windows key to access settings, pressing F8 (or a combination of Fn + F8) got me to the Bitlocker screen. Strangely pressing F8 toggles between the screens.

Anyway, after entering the unlock key it have me the DOS style screen asking what to boot into. There were the usual options of Safe Mode and its variations (with networking, or command prompt).

The curious thing is how unstable Safe Mode was. The start menu would flicker in the top left-hand of the screen and not open 75% of the time. Even when I could open it, clicking things on it was unresponsive. Eventually I got to the control panel just by using Explorer instead, but again, clicking things was less than responsive.

In any case, the system restore to before the "critical update" worked.

Unfortunately, when I rebooted back to my now-working system, it promptly downloaded the updates again.. Bah! Well, I delayed the automatic reboot to 7 days from now. So I have a week before I have to go through the process again to remove the update. Yay.
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Anonymous

2015-10-02T10:38:57+00:00

another customer was able to use the following:

"What did work for me was Troubleshooting, Advanced Options, Command Prompt. Once there, I followed Steps 7, 8, 9, and .0 only from here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2569556/safe-mode-windows.html"

to get a safe mode option in a legacy F8 boot menu.

For now, watch this forum for news on this update rather than making any other changes.
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Anonymous

2015-10-02T08:08:28+00:00

Um, yeh. So Apparently I didn't have system restore turned on. So it's been a painful process. Don't download the restore package for Surface Pro 3 - it is Windows 8.1... I learned the hard way 5GB and 12 hours later (that's my great internet speed in Australia).

Instead, follow the steps to download the Windows 10 iso and restore using that.

Anyhow. A tonne of downloading later, I think I have a usable machine again.

/Rant begin

Deb, can you please forward our utmost displeasure to the engineers who severely stuffed up?

I have lost a whole day in potential work, just because I've been stuffing around with a fix. Sure, everything was saved to the cloud, so i've lost nothing, but the process is a pain.

Oh, and to reiterate, We're sick of forced updates. This is what happen when they keep on using as a beta testers. The Surface Pro 3 is my main machine, so I hate to see it die just because of faulty software.

/Rant end
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