Surface Stuck on Restarting – Why & How to Fix It

If your Microsoft Surface is stuck on a restart loop, or on the restarting screen, you can fix it by hard resetting your surface book. There are a few ways to reset your surface without having to log into windows.

You can either reset your surface or use the troubleshooter in WindowsRE if you don’t want to lose your data. In this article, let’s explore the ways to reset it.

Why is Surface Stuck on Restarting?

Your surface can be stuck on a restart loop due to a faulty update process. If you force your computer to turn off while the windows is updating in the background, it can corrupt boot files. This can cause the computer to get stuck on the restarting screen.

If your computer keeps restarting when you boot it, it may be because of corrupt boot files. The fixes for this issue are listed below.

How to Fix Surface Restarting Loop?

There are limited options you can do to fix a computer stuck in a restart loop. As you can’t get to the windows interface, some generic fixes may not apply here. You can give these fixes a shot.

Soft Reset the Surface

Soft resetting will force your device to shut down completely and restart. It can also fix your windows stuck in a boot loop. Different versions of Surface have different ways to force a shutdown.

For models such as the Surface Book, Surface RT, Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, Surface 2, and Surface 3, follow these steps to learn how to hard reset:

1. Press and hold down the power button until the screen completely turns off and the surface shuts itself down.
   
2. Press and hold the power and volume-up buttons simultaneously for 15 seconds. Hold the button for 15 seconds compulsively, even if the surface logo starts flashing.
   
3. Release the buttons after 15 seconds.
4. Wait for another 10 seconds and press the power button again to turn on your surface.

For any other models, try these steps to soft reset the PC:

1. Press and hold the power button till your device shuts off completely and starts again. After a successful restart, it should display the windows logo.
2. Let go of the button after it restarts.

Try Image Restoration

If your surface is still stuck in a restart loop, you can try completely resetting the surface or either restoring it from a recovery image. You will need an image recovery drive for this process. You can make a recovery drive on another computer if available.

Here’s how you make a recovery drive.

1. Download the surface image recovery file from the Microsoft website.
2. Extract the recovery zip file to a familiar location.
3. Insert a formatted USB stick of 16GB size or more.
4. Search and open the recovery drive in the taskbar. You might have to enter your user account password to continue.
5. Uncheck the ‘Back up system files to the recovery drive’ box and click Next.
6. The recovery wizard will search and display any drives available. Select your preferred drive and click Next to start the process. It will format the drive and turn it into a recovery drive.
   
7. Press Finish to complete the process.
8. Once the process completes, copy the extracted recovery files into the USB stick.
9. The computer will then ask if you want to replace the existing files. Click on Replace the files in the destination to proceed.

After the copying process completes, eject the flash drive and follow these steps to boot your surface from this recovery drive.

1. Plug the recovery USB drive into your surface.
2. Press and hold the volume down button and briefly press the power button. Do not release the volume down button until you see a spinning circle below the Surface logo.
3. This will force your surface to boot from the recovery USB drive. You can also do this by changing the boot order from your UEFI settings.
4. Choose the language and the keyboard layout after your surface boots into advanced startup settings.
5. Then go to Troubleshoot > Recover from a drive.
   
6. Press ‘Skip this drive.’
7. Click ‘Just remove my files’ and press Recover to start the process.
8. If prompted to clear the Trusted Platform module, press ok.

This will reboot the surface and start the resetting process. After the recovery process ends, it will redirect you to a welcome screen.

Resetting your surface is effective, but there are also other ways to fix this issue without having to reset it. Try these fixes if you have important files you don’t want to lose.

Uninstall Latest Updates

Uninstalling updates will remove the latest update files and revert it back to an older version.

1. Go to the Windows Recovery Environment by following the steps mentioned above.
2. Click on Troubleshoot.
3. Click on Advanced Options > Uninstall Updates.
4. Click on Uninstall Latest quality Update and follow through to the end. You can also click on ‘Uninstall latest feature update’ to uninstall new features update.
   
5. Reboot your PC.

Boot into Safe Mode and Check Update Error

You can boot your computer into safe mode to try troubleshooting. Safe Mode loads only the most basic boot files. If it successfully boots into safe mode, you can check the update log to pinpoint the exact error. You can find the update history in the windows update settings. 

1. Press Windows + I key to open settings
2. Click on Updates and security.
3. Click on ‘View update history.’
   

The update history also sometimes shows info about failed updates with the update error code. You can look up the error code on any search engine to find more information on the error and reinstall that part of the update. The windows update troubleshooter is also an option worth exploring in safe mode.

Startup Repair

The startup repair is a built-in program that tries to repair the computer if it fails to boot. Sometimes it automatically executes on a failed boot, but you can also manually launch the startup repair from the WindowsRE.

Follow these steps to run startup repair:

1. Enter into Windows Recovery Environment.
2. Click on Troubleshoot.
3. Select Advanced Options > Startup Repair 
   

Windows will then ask you for password and try to repair your PC.

System Restore

You can also click on System Restore to restore your OS to an older version. It will turn your computer into an exact replica of that restore point. Just choose the latest or the recommended restore point when prompted and follow through the wizard by clicking the next button.

Follow our comprehensive guide on how to perform the system restore.

Fix Boot Sector

The advanced startup option also provides an option to launch the command center. The command center is a powerful tool if you know how to use it. Try inputting these commands in the command prompt for MBR disk partitions.

1. Enter into Windows RE
2. Click on Troubleshoot > Advanced options
3. Select Command Prompt
4. Enter the following command and press Enter after each command:
   • bootrec /FixMBR
   • bootrec /FixBoot
   • bootrec /Scanos
   • bootrec /RebuildBcd
     

If you use a GPT partition system, forward to this article to learn how to do it.

Visit Repair Center

You can take your surface to the nearby repair shop to let a professional personnel handle your device. They have the tools necessary to fix or even replace the surface if necessary.