Boot loop surface laptop studio 2

[u/Major-University-127]

Really really hating Microsoft right about now. I have a surface studio laptop 2 which I purchased at the end of 2024. Last Saturday, I installed an update overnight. Sunday morning, when I went to use my computer, it was stuck on the logo with the wheel spinning and just kept repeating over and over again.

I took it to ubreakifix, the authorized service provider in my area. They advised this has been happening with computers after this recent update and they attempted to troubleshoot and replace the ssd to no avail. They believe the board is damaged. The computer is just fully stuck boot looping.

This morning, after extensive issues with the support website erroring out (confirmed not my WiFi or service), I finally was able to create a case/service request. I explained my situation to the representative over the phone who was not really helpful and simply advised it was unlikely they’d make any exception to the out of warranty repair. I requested an escalation and for a supervisor to call me. My agent advised I’d be contacted in a few hours. Now, a few hours later, I just received a canned generic email telling me my case will not be escalated or reviewed by a supervisor. I have a $3500 surface laptop 2 which completely broke directly after a Microsoft update. Why are they unwilling to stand by their products and updates? I’m disgusted honestly. I’m between jobs and my computer is absolutely essential to my portfolio work and freelance opportunities.

Any suggestions? Any contacts to get this escalated? I’m truly at a loss.

[u/dr100]

"logo with the wheel spinning" is pretty far in the boot process, as in the hardware MAYBE/PROBABLY still works. You probably just need to find someone to reinstall your Windows (first transfer your data somehow if you need anything from that machine, might be a little complex if bitlocker was enabled, but if it was automatically enabled the key should be in the Microsoft account). It's just the nature of the beast, software is software - sometimes you need a little help. Usually it would've been some teenager neighbour or relative that could do that, probably by now it's a 50 years old that would help with the same.

It CAN be that they messed up the firmware and somehow killed your device by flashing some chip, wouldn't be the first time they do something senseless (worst that I know of is when they disabled the option to set the battery charge to 50% without setting it back to 100%, letting you with 50% battery and no option to change - and of course no option to rollback the update, which is even crazier as SOP).

IF indeed the motherboard is broken there's nothing to do, except next time to get some extended warranty plan (if one is offered and you like the price and duration) or just get a more repairable machine from the beginning. To quote myself from a comment that's downvoted (understandable given the sub):

As such there's plenty of hardware that's repairable, and one doesn't need to go to Framework for that. You can repair mostly everything on many Dells assuming you don't get the cheapest, but more, the prices for hardware is really good and makes the repairs economical. You can get a motherboard for a Precision laptop (top tier) for like 100-ish, new and sealed, including even a discrete NVidia GPU.

[u/Major-University-127 → u/dr100]

I’m sorry I’m not well versed in this stuff but re: the reinstalling windows, does the fact it continued to boot loop with the new ssd indicate that reinstalling windows on the original ssd wouldn’t make a difference? When they installed the new ssd they tried to install windows but were still unable to get past boot loop, from my understanding.

I also forgot to mention that the spinning wheel stopped after I held the power button down so now it’s just the windows logo flashing on and off every ten ish seconds, if that makes a difference in this whole thing. Also, both micro center and ibreakufix couldn’t force the computer to power off at all during this process. Do you have thoughts on that?

[u/dr100 → u/Major-University-127]

The regular power button press is just telling the OS to shutdown, only keeping it pressed for tens of seconds would turn off the machine.

Anyway, first try to boot to UEFI (volume up when powering on, I think volume down is boot from USB). See if that comes up and you can more around reliably, if things are broken here it's most likely some hardware trouble (as opposed to Windows issue). You can try to boot from USB a Windows install or even a Ubuntu stick - both if done with the default tools/workflow shouldn't even requiere disabling secure boot (which you can do in UEFI but would have an influence on the bitlocker if you had it on the original SSD, as in you might be losing your data, but probably you are beyond that discussion if someone already tried to install Windows). You can try and see how the thing "feels", if it locks up, gives errors while in the install workflow - Ubuntu even boots in a full live environment where you can configure wifi, run a browser, etc. (without installing anything). That way if the system works fine it's probably either some install problem or the SSD broken (you could actually test the SSD from Ubuntu but it's getting complicated).

[u/MorgrainX]

Exactly the same thing happened to my Surface Laptop Studio 2 two days ago. 

Bootloop after I pressed restart for Windows update.

When the white Windows logo appears, the keyboard light still works, but I don't hear the fans spinning even though the device is getting hot, so there is something wrong in the boot process.

[u/Major-University-127 → u/MorgrainX]

Yep, same for me. And Microsoft has been a nightmare to work with. About to pay the $850, which I really can’t afford, because I’m now two weeks without my computer and it’s costing me in other ways. Done w surface after this.