How to Force Shutdown or Restart Surface device

In this post, we explain how to Force Shutdown, or Hard Reboot or Restart any Surface device – like Surface Laptop, Surface Book, etc, and what the Surface Pro Two Button Shutdown is.

Normal Shutdown or Restart Surface

All Surface Pro users know how to shut down or restart their devices:

Select Start > Power > Shut down, or
Select Start > Power > Restart.

This is a Normal shutdown.

Alternatively, you can press and hold down the Power button for around 15 seconds and then release it. You press it again to start it.

How to Force Shutdown or Restart your Surface device

Press and hold down the Power button until your Surface powers down and restarts and you see the Windows logo screen (about 30 seconds), then release the power button.

This applies to the following Surface models:

Surface Pro (5th Gen), Surface Pro 6, Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro 7+, Surface Pro X
Surface Laptop (1st Gen), Surface Laptop 2, Surface Laptop 3, Surface Laptop 4, Surface Laptop Go
Surface Book 2, Surface Book 3,
Surface Go (all models), Surface Go 2 (all models)
Surface Studio (1st Gen), Surface Studio 2

Surface Pro Two Button Shutdown

In normal shutdowns, the kernel session is hibernated. This is known as Hybrid Boot. In this mode, the kernel session is not closed, but it is hibernated. This “kernel only” data file is smaller compared to the normal Hibernate file.

If you are facing some problem with your Surface Pro, simply shutting it down using the power button may not suffice. You need to completely shut down the device.

You can do this by performing what is called the Surface Pro Two Button Shutdown. This process ensures that ensure that Surface is turned off completely.

To do this, press and hold the Power button and the Volume-up button on your Surface at the same time for 15 seconds and then release both of them. The screen may flash the Surface logo, but remember to continue holding down the buttons for 15 seconds.

This applies to the following Surface models: