Strange happenings on 2 x Surface Pro X - No Office, PIN, Facial Recog

TheFlea · 03 Feb 2020

Hi All, Chris Phillips from NZ here!.. nice to meet everybody and hoping there's some good Surface geeks who can help!

Bought a Surface Pro X as it suits my browsing / Tablet / Productivity needs. Within the first days of owning, started having issues directly relating to loss of Facial Recognition, PIN number de-activation, Loss of Windows Store, all Office products not opening (getting to SPLASH screen and crashing).

Spent the last 2 months with Microsoft USA and the retailer trying to find the issue, but with no luck. The only thing that fix' it is a re install of Windows. Have also re-installed a new image of the base Surface software, as well as Windows.

3 days ago I got a full refund from the retailer after 4 attempts to rectify the issue. As I love the unit (and because the customer service from the retailer was sooooo bad), I went to another retailer and purchased another X of the same spec, hopefully ruling out a hardware issue. Within 2 days of owning the unit, the same issues have again surfaced (no pun intended!).

The issues start when re-starting the unit and also after any Windows update. I've attached the OS Version for reference.

I really want to fix the unit as the only 2 other options are the iPad Pro (Cant replace my laptop) and the Surface Pro 7 (But I really need the LTE connection)...

Happy to answer any questions, and hopefully someone here can succeed where the Windows AND Surface Techs have been unable to.

Cheers and thanks!

Chris

Caledon Ken · 04 Feb 2020

Hi TheFlea. Welcome to TenForums @TheFlea

If you just load Windows and no other software do you have this issue?

Are you loading any third party AV's, cleaners, optimizers, privacy tools or any changes to registry or Host file to defeat Windows spying?

Ken

TheFlea · 05 Feb 2020

Hi Ken

Yes, still happened. Happened previously with just a restart, and more recently after a Windows update to 1909. When I setup my new X, Office immediately started having issues as soon as I started using it, which is why I suspect OFFICE may be the issue.

Software I have loaded are CCLEANER, WINDOWS EDGE CANARY and AIRFLOW. But again, it still seems to have issues without this software loaded.

Today I will re install windows (which will re-instate PIN, Facial Recog etc) and immediately uninstall OFFICE which comes pre installed and see how I go.

Cheers Ken

Chris