Stuck in start up screen

Jessica Clark 0 Reputation points
2026-09-22T15:48:12.0666667+00:00

I have a Surface Pro 4, and it is stuck in a loop- flashing backlit Microsoft logo and then a black screen. I have tried to force it off by holding the power button, but also by holding down the volume up button and then the power button; same with the volume down and I have also downloaded the Recovery USB and let the battery completely drain. It doesn't recognize the USB and still won't do anything but flash in this loop. I just talked to someone to fix it who said he has some tricks he can try but isn't able to reset the motherboard in a Surface since it is all fused. Any recommendations?

Surface | Surface Pro | Performance and maintenance
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  1. S.Sengupta 32,666 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-09-23T00:48:55.1466667+00:00

    Yes. Given what you have already tried, I would not jump straight to a motherboard replacement or any board-level modification yet. The flashing Microsoft logo followed by a black screen indicates that the Surface is failing very early in the boot process, and the fact that it apparently does not boot from the Recovery USB is an important clue.

    First, I would make absolutely sure the Recovery USB was created correctly. Microsoft requires the recovery drive to use FAT32, and recommends using the official Surface Recovery Image rather than simply copying a few files to an ordinary USB drive. If there is any doubt about the USB, recreate it from scratch on another Windows PC and, if possible, try a different known-good USB drive.

    For the Surface Pro 4, connect the Recovery USB, make sure the Surface is powered off, then press and hold Volume Down and press/release Power. Keep holding Volume Down until the Surface logo appears, then release it. This is Microsoft's procedure for booting a Surface from USB.

    I would also try Volume Up + Power with the USB disconnected to see whether you can enter the Surface UEFI. If UEFI appears, that is useful evidence that the basic firmware/hardware initialization is working and the problem may be further down the boot chain.

    If you cannot reach UEFI and the Surface will not boot from a correctly created, known-good FAT32 Recovery USB, despite the Volume Down + Power procedure, then I would start looking beyond ordinary Windows corruption — for example, the SSD/storage, firmware/UEFI, power circuitry, or motherboard.

    At that point, I would have the device examined by someone experienced with Surface board-level repair, rather than immediately allowing a Windows reset or motherboard replacement.

    If the data on the Surface is important, tell the technician not to reset, reimage, repartition, or erase the SSD until the storage and data-preservation options have been assessed.

    Microsoft's own guidance says that when a Surface cannot boot from the Recovery USB, USB boot may need to be enabled/configured in UEFI, and recommends trying another USB drive.

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