I got a shiny new Surface Book on Monday and started using it immediately… more specific notes on it later when I have more time. I ran into a problem today, though, and wanted to document what I found.
Symptom: the touchpad and keyboard don’t work. The clipboard switches to tablet mode (if you’ve enabled automatic switching). You can’t use the base unit’s USB ports. The taskbar “undock” icon shows that the base is undocked.
Cause: beats me.
Resolution: boot into the system BIOS by turning the machine off, then holding the power and volume-up keys for 15 seconds. When you get into the BIOS, just exit BIOS setup and the machine will reboot normally. There’s a thread here that outlines the exact procedure.
Overall, I love the machine: the form factor, build quality, screen resolution, performance, and trackpad are all superb. I expect this kind of temporary hiccup, so it hasn’t put me off at all.
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I almost never buy Gen 1 hardware products now because of stuff like this. Which is a shame because Surface Book sounds great (even if it is hella expensive in AUD).
In the grand scheme of things this was a very small problem– and it hasn’t recurred, so I presume it was an easy fix. So far I looooove the SB.