The free Surface RT update that cost some owners their tablet
Windows RT 8.1 update left some Surface RTs unbootable
The market's verdict: -2.5% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
Windows RT 8.1 arrived in the Store on October 17, 2013 as a free update, and for a batch of Surface RT owners it was their tablet's last act for a while: it started the update and never finished booting again. Microsoft pulled the update from the Store the next day, and the official remedy for bricked units was to download a USB recovery image from a second computer, because the tablet could not fix itself, and apply it manually. A patched update returned on October 22. A vendor update that kills the device, then requires another computer and a thumb drive to revive it, is a rite of passage normally reserved for phone hackers.
This one is officially acknowledged.
Were you affected? Unbreak it
Re-released update fixed the boot failure
Microsoft has acknowledged this issue; a fix ships in an out-of-band or next cumulative update. Check Windows Release Health before manual workarounds.
Links
↳ caused by Windows RT 8.1 update
Timeline
- Oct 17, 2013 Confirmed First reports came in.
- Oct 22, 2013 Fixed Patched update restored to the Store; recovery image posted.