Nov 27 2012

Microsoft Surface – You’re Locked Out!

I think I may have let my Microsoft Surface run dry of power at some point over the weekend as I used it without a problem on Friday but my Surface refused to switch on Sunday and Monday. I believed that I had charged it up yesterday but it appears that I hadn’t connected the magnetic clip properly. Anyway, after power up yesterday I ran into the below boot screen with Preparing Bitlocker recovery on it.

Microsoft Surface - Preparing BitLocker Recovery

Microsoft Surface – Preparing BitLocker Recovery

After this screen, I encountered a blue screen telling me “you’re locked out!” and to enter in the recovery key to get back up and running.

Microsoft Surface - You're Locked Out!

Microsoft Surface – You’re Locked Out!

As advised, I went to http://windows.microsoft.com/recoverykey to get my BitLocker recovery key and then punched it into the screen which was straightforward enough but a little time consuming. After entering the key it was confirmed as being the correct recovery key.

Microsoft Surface - Successful Recovery Key

Microsoft Surface – Successful Recovery Key

However, when I clicked on continue I was again advised that I was locked out and “an internal error was detected”.

Microsoft Surface - Internal Error Detected

Microsoft Surface – Internal Error Detected

Clicking continue would just send me in a loop of restarting the tablet and further attempts to enter in the recovery key which would appear to work and then immediately fail.

Unfortunately, my only option was to completely wipe the tablet and start again. This was not a catastrophic event given that everything apart from some podcasts were up in the cloud but still an inconvenience. The root cause of this issue is still a mystery but I will be less likely to let my Surface run out of juice for too long.

Boydo

My name is Boyd and I’m a Service Management Specialist with a knack for operational data gathering, transformation, analysis and reporting.

In 2012, I obtained my Masters of Science in Information Technology through the University of New South Wales @ The Australia Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA).

I was also part of an online community known as the Panasonic Insider Crew in the capacity of “Insider Guru” for Panasonic Australia where I interacted with other tech enthusiasts and find out more about Panasonic's latest gadgets.

I love technology, gadgets, and the Internet and maintain a keen interest in these areas locally, nationally, and globally. I hope by sharing my views on these topics that people will receive an honest point of view from someone with a genuine interest in these topics.

I have also written and edited articles for Neowin - you can check out my articles over @ https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/boyd_chan

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

3 comments

    • Amy Rivera on February 7, 2014 at 10:19
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    The same thing happened to me except the recovery key I am getting is a mix between numbers and letters and the only option the key pad is giving me is numbers. Did you run into the same problem? Do you still have your code?

    • Teena on June 29, 2016 at 07:07
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    • Reply

    I am having the same issues. How did you go about wiping the tablet? I can’t figure out how to do anything except look at the bit locker lock out screen

    1. The steps I used on my original Surface RT can be found @ https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-au/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/refresh-or-reset-surface-rt

      I used the USB stick reset option to wipe the device and reinstall Windows RT.

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