When your Microsoft Surface won’t turn off, here is what you need to do (and of course, we cover how to turn it off normally as well). Causes relate to software not responding or even blocking the shutdown sequence, you have (perhaps inadvertently) loaded up the memory and your frozen Surface Pro needs time to unload this memory burden before turning off, or process threads are running in the background and won’t let it turn off or reset.

We cover the basics on how to turn off a surface pro normally and what to do if your Surface won’t turn off. Read on and follow the steps!

Introduction to how to turn off Surface Pro Normally AND if it Won’t Turn Off at all!

I started looking into this when my wide said across the desk, “my surface pro won’t turn off”. That was just the fan and I was able to help her easily. Having said this, on other occasions my Surface Pro has frozen and would not turn it off with the power button. There can be other similar sounding issues and one of the solutions below will help with those too.

This was the prompt I needed because I had also been meaning to write a little guide about how to turn off a Surface Pro normally.

That was because in the workplace I found that raw beginners also were looking for a suitable way to turn off their Surface Pro. Some were confused whether it was in sleep mode or turned off. If that is you don’t worry, I will cover this first.

If not feel free to skip further down this page.

Normal Shutdown or Power off options

First, make sure your files are saved and programs are shutdown.

Make sure there is no Windows update going on (normally there will be signs of this if you have been using your tablet-PC).

Many background backup facilities are on by default but you should not rely on auto save and auto recover for any of your needed files.

While you close your files and other apps, be aware to look to see if there is anything strange like an internet browser taking a very long time to respond (some websites use a lot of your PCs memory and power and it doesn’t go well if you have 30 tabs of these open!).

This can be a cause to look out for when your Surface Pro won’t turn off.

Try using the Windows logo to shutdown normally first.

Step 1: Click the windows icon

This is bottom left of screen in Windows 10 for the standard setup.

Alternatively press the <Windows> key and <x> key at the same time to bring up the ‘WinX’ menu. A third alternative is to press <Alt> and <F4> keys at the same time.

In Windows 8 there is a keyboard shortcut; Press the <Windows> key and <i> key at the same time.

Click the power button and then choose the shut down option

Step 2: Tap or click the power button (see image further below)

If you used the keyboard shortcut to display the ‘WinX’ menu, tap or click “Shut down or Sign out”.

You will see the options (including Sleep and Restart).

Step 3: Click “Shut down”. This closes all the apps and turns off the Surface Pro.

See if your Surface Pro won’t shutdown using the normal method first. You can select Sleep or Restart. Only Restart completely turns off your Surface Pro.

Put Surface Pro to Sleep Mode:

Alternatively, to put your Surface into sleep mode, naturally you want to select ‘Sleep’ instead of shutdown.

You can also shutdown to sleep mode simply by closing your Type Cover if you have one connected.

This is often when people proclaim their “Surface Pro won’t turn off”!

Note: Sometimes when you close your Surface Type Cover, the sleep mode will take time to activate as it prepares for hibernation, which can make you think it won’t turn off.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch out for those awkward moments when your surface pro plays music when you expect it to be off or in sleep mode!

Often that music will come from a website tab like You Tube. This can happen minutes after you closed the cover and expected it to be turned off!

Also, expect your Surface Pro to take time for the fan to stop.

Surface Pro Fan won’t turn off

It can be quite noisy and sometimes the fan on your Microsoft Surface won’t turn off for some time to cool the internals down (TheTechMentor.com has written about over heating problems before).

When the fan on your Surface Pro 4 won’t turn off at night, don’t resort to earplugs to sleep – use this fix instead! It works when a Surface Pro 3 won’t turn off too!

Not nice when you have just finished surfing the internet or watched a movie and it is time to sleep! At night when you want to sleep that fan can sound very loud!

After a moment, you can stop the Surface Pro fan much faster by doing the following:

Step 1: Re-open the Surface Type Cover and follow step 2.

Step 2: after only 1 or 2 seconds, re-close the Surface Type Cover again.

In a moment, the fan will turn off.

This problem relates to fan cycling times and the temperature of the Surface Pro. Below a certain temperature, it no longer requires the fan to run.

Re-opening and closing again makes it check if the Surface Pro is cool enough to turn off the fan faster than the general run-time programmed for the fan.

Okay, so we’ve saved you some sleep! Perhaps. Now onto the major issue.

Surface Pro Won’t Turn off or Shut Down properly

As stated above the identified causes are:

• Surface Pro Won’t turn off due to software not responding
• Surface Pro looks like it won’t turn off because the memory is loaded up (and needs to unwind first)
• Process threads in the background won’t let your Surface turn off.

The Symptoms

Symptoms include your Surface going into sleep mode with the fan still running and music starting to play when you think the Surface Pro is off, and of course not turning off when you tell it to!

Shutdown Surface Pro frozen & won’t turn off with locked memory or other overload

Before you try any forced shutdown method, make very sure you give plenty of time for any possible Windows update to have completed. Sometimes it is not possible to see an update is working through the process, so just give it some time first.

This is important because forcing a restart during a Windows update can damage your Windows installation and render a difficult challenge to recover your Surface Pro.

Go into task manager (see steps below) and view the Processes that are running. Perhaps more important that which ones they are, you want to see what the percentage use of CPU, Memory and Disk usage are.

See below for an example of Processes running ‘so hard’ that this Microsoft Surface won’t turn off, so you know what to look for.

This frozen Surface Pro won’t turn off due to locked up processes!

In this machine, it seemed there were no apps operating, as nothing was actually being used at the time. The entire Surface Pro 4 was frozen and wouldn’t turn off when the user tried the power button.

However, the reality was that the apps had tied up all practical operation (in this case the internet browser was to blame). This Surface Pro would not turn off due to the severe memory (RAM), disk and CPU blockage.

No doubt, some processes had gone into something like a traffic jam! Doesn’t matter how it happened – if you see this and cannot shut down the apps, you have little choice but to do a hard or forced shutdown. (See below)

Force Processes to Shutdown Using Task Manager

First, force shutdown of the apps using most of the memory:

Step 1: start Task Manager

This will likely be very slow to start as very little processing is available, but you need it in order to proceed.

Note: I suggest you do not use Cortana or the Microsoft Windows search, as these will require more processing to start the Task Manager.

The best way is to use Control-Alt-Delete; hold down the <Shift> key, they <Alt> key and then while holding them, also press the <Delete> key.

With a system all blocked up your Surface Pro may take a long time to respond so to be sure make sure you press these buttons clearly and deliberately.

Step 2: Wait for the Options to appear.

As I wrote above, your Surface has a blockage in the processors and memory so any activity including starting task manager can take a long time.

Step 3: Move selector down to Task Manager and select it.

Press the down arrow on the keyboard 3 times to select Task Manager, (or just tap/click directly on Task Manager).

Step 4: Observe the Processes and how much out of 100% the Memory and other functions are used.

If they are very high (anything over 80%) your system will slow noticeably. A slow Surface Pro is a good reason why you decided to restart or shut it down in the first place. So if you find this type of problem you are well on the way to fixing it!

Step 5: Sort by RAM (Memory usage) and select the app using the most memory.

Click or tap on the ‘Memory’ heading to sort from the highest RAM user to the lowest.

This little arrow indicates the memory using apps are sorted in descending order, with the highest user at the top. (Yes this is from the same Surface Pro frozen won’t turn off above.)

If you have done this before it will remain your view the next time you use Task Manager.

Select the item in the top row (by clicking or tapping on it).

Alternatively you can just type the <down> arrow key.

Step 6: Stop the worst memory draining app.

With the top row selected, click ‘End Task’. This button is down to the bottom right of the task manager window.

Note: you may have to scroll down or to the right to see it.

Now wait again for Windows Task Manager to force the task to clear from the Memory and CPU and other processes. This can also take longer than expected.

If you want, you can monitor the percent usage at the top. Ideally, these would decline to less than 80%.

Alternatively, you can click or tap on the ‘Performance’ tab and observe the trend of these processes as they decline.

The image below shows the Surface Pro frozen memory trend and it’s recovery (decrease in memory usage) after the above steps.

Frozen memory blockage released. If you have now solved the ‘Surface Pro frozen won’t turn off’ problem, you should now be able to use and shutdown your Surface Pro.

If you have stopped the cause of the problem, after a minute or two your Surface Pro may regain something akin to normal operation. It is still a good idea to close down other apps and restart. The good thing is this way you might regain performance enough to save files in the other apps before you do any further forced shutdown.

You may repeat steps 5 and 6 to shutdown more apps if the problem continues.

Forced Shutdown of the entire frozen Surface Pro that Won’t Turn Off

Step 1: Use the power button

Press and hold down the power button for a count of 30 seconds or so until the screen goes blank. The power button (on/off switch) is at the top left of your Surface Pro when facing the screen.

Step 2: Observe if your Surface Pro can turn off

As you hold down the power button, observe for your tablet to turn off.

Sometimes to press and hold for a count of only 3 seconds or more until the screen goes blank will work. That is to say it will shut down sooner than the 30 seconds stated above.

This alone may help when your Surface will not shutdown at first.

Further shutdown and Reset

After your Surface turns off, you may want to continue with the following two-button reset method to reset and clear all issues.

Step 1: Use the forced shutdown

Make sure you have tried the preceding Step 1 from above using the power button.

Step 2: Press the two buttons for reset

Press and hold volume-up button and the power button at the same time, for at least 15 seconds.

Note: The screen may flash the Surface logo before 15 seconds as part of the reset, but it is best to continue to hold down the buttons for the full 15 seconds.

Step 3: Wait a little more

(Yes I know, lots of waiting!)

After you release the buttons, wait for 10 seconds.

This should allow the reset process to complete in the background (even if it looks like your Surface Pro has turned off).

Step 4: Check function of your Surface Pro

Even though you might be satisfied at this point that your Surface Pro is off and reset, it is a good idea to check it has all worked successfully. Press (and release as per normal) the power button. Your Surface will turn on again.

Step 5: Let your PC fully restart

Give your Surface Pro plenty of time to go through all its start-up processes and let it sit for a few minutes. Now everything should be reset, any memory issues cleared, and your Surface pro should turn off as per normal.

Other fixes

There is another thing you can try. Other methods may exist but the ones I have found online are not suitable for the Surface Pro.

Let the battery Drain Down

Normally it is not a good idea to let the battery drain down completely. However if there is no other practical alternative, then your Surface Pro that won’t shutdown will eventually run out of power and stop.

This will clear any locked keyboard and power button issues due to rogue processes.

Step 1: disconnect the power supply and charger.

Step 2: let your machine operate until the battery goes flat.

In my opinion, it is okay to try again a normal shutdown during this process, as there is no harm done and perhaps you will avoid running to complete battery-drained status.

Step 3: Wait. Again (sorry – nobody said it is fun when your Microsoft Surface won’t turn off!).

This will take several hours potentially. I know this is not ideal if your Surface Pro froze and it won’t restart to allow you get back to work.

However if the forced shutdown methods above are not working, then this is the next best option in terms of recovering your laptop back to working condition.

Step 4: Press the power button and give your machine say 30 minutes to start.

Should I be Concerned When My Surface Won’t Turn Off?

The way some apps and websites use the computational power and other resources available in your PC, windows can’t always maintain spare processing power.

There are many processes running to do all sorts of things, including those routines called into action by Windows when you want to turn off your Surface Pro.

As there is no true power switch, all shutdown processes are software driven. You do not see these. They normally run quickly in the background.

Naturally, if your software can’t operate the necessary processes because they are frozen, your Surface Pro can’t shut down.

So overall you should not worry when your frozen Surface won’t turn off because this overload can happen unrelated to your tablet’s hardware. One clarification: the processor in the hardware can make a difference but it only to do with the capacity of the processor. I am not suggesting there is a hardware problem to be fixed.

All Surface Pro devices use Intel processors, the Core i3 Core i5 and Core i7 models.

Core i3 and i5 Surface Pro devices are more likely to suffer this problem than a Surface Pro with an Intel Core i7 (or higher) installed, as they have more ‘headroom’ (or spare capacity) in the processor.

Okay, that is how to turn off a Surface Pro even if it won’t shutdown normally.

Related Article: The opposite problem is when your Surface won’t turn on or start.

Summary: What to do with a Surface Pro that Won’t Turn Off

There are several actions to take when your Surface Pro won’t turn off or restart. Often it can freeze up because one app has blocked the memory, CPU, or disk access. Core i3 and i5 Surface Pro devices are more likely to suffer this than Surface Pro with an Intel core i7 installed, as the core i7s have more ‘headroom’ (or spare capacity) in the processor. We also covered how to turn of your Surface Pro normally.

The post Turn off Surface Pro Even if Frozen and Won’t Turn Off appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.

This is the fix for when you can’t turn off airplane mode in Windows 10 (for a number of laptops, including on a Microsoft Surface Pro) and you want to turn on the WiFi (including Surface Pro WiFi). The airplane mode won’t turn off and seems to be stuck. It is generally a problem with the laptop or Surface Pro wireless controller rather than fight mode itself. There seems to be two triggers, the first one where you’ve just installed Windows 10, and a second one where your device has got too hot and it has affected the WiFi controller. This same step by step procedure may fix both causes of the problem. I’ve added a lot of screen copies to help anyone follow.

Without this procedure, you can find it difficult to recover your Surface Pro when it gets stuck in flight mode. At the time of writing I have not found this specific problem identified anywhere else. In addition I have added a further solution below to help some for whom the first fix didn’t work.

This guide is simple and easy to follow, with screen pictures to help guide you.

This is the more detailed procedure. For a short cut method (and if you have a laptop other than a Surface Pro) you can try this link Fix Windows stuck in airplane mode in 60 seconds.

If your problem is your entire Surface Pro won’t turn off read this.

First I’ll describe the problem and symptoms in more detail, and then I’ll take you through the simple procedure to unlock from Flight Mode step by step with screen shots. I go into great detail so it is clear and anyone can follow it.

The Problem: Can’t Turn Off Airplane Mode Windows 10

Sometimes your Laptop (any make) or Microsoft Surface Pro 3 can get stuck in flight mode. I found this can happen when your surface pro gets quite hot, and this is the issue that this how to article solves. Computer techs supporting businesses with a Microsoft Surface Pro will find there can be an overheating issue when using the original Surface Pro docking station (especially if the office is not climate controlled). You may notice Microsoft does not sell this style of dock anymore (with new devices, as far as I can tell). It isn’t so much a problem in climate controlled environments in general, as explained below.

Surface Pro Docking Station (Click for specs, to buy & more in a new tab)

The overheating issue and related flight mode problem can be caused when you have used your Surface Pro in a docking station when the room temperature is warm – I believe it gets too hot and I suspect the docking station restricts air flow a little, and also the back of the (full-body) docking station acts as an insulator to keep the Surface Pro hotter than it might otherwise be when using it on its own stand. The open stand allows greater heat transfer out through the back. The stand itself if closed would keep in more of the heat whereas when the stand is open for use it allows air movement and natural convection to help take the heat away.

Given this overheating symptom, I can guess that your or my Surface Pro might get stuck in Flight mode whenever anything causes too much heat build-up, like when the air flow is somehow restricted (for example using it on the bed or other soft surface into which it can sink so that the air flow vents on the side become restricted), or when the ambient temperature or room temperature is high, or whenever the Surface Pro can get very warm for some reason. Based on my observations I think the problem is caused by the temperature of the WiFi Network Controller overheating, but that is just my assessment. The great thing is I know this solution works as I have used in a number of times! I hope it helps you too.

Symptoms: Windows 10 Stuck in Airplane Mode Won’t Turn off

One or more of the following symptoms can indicate this type of problem:

You can click on the image of the airplane on the task bar. Normally it brings up several icons to show you status of the network settings like WiFi and Flight Mode. However sometimes the WiFi icon does not show, and when you click on flight mode icon to turn it off, it ‘blinks’ (disappears for a moment) but doesn’t turn off.

Also if you go to the Network Settings, it shows the flight mode as on, and if you try to slide the toggle/slider to off, it moves but just ‘slips back’ to remain in flight mode. This can be very frustrating because you know this is a software interface, and it ‘knows’ or at least gives visual indication that it does sense you are trying to turn off flight mode, but it can’t for some reason, and so it returns the indication back to flight mode On. It is unable to tell you why it is stuck in flight mode, or it has not been programmed to identify the problem and explain or give feedback to you why it is stuck in flight mode.

At the same time when this happens, the option to turn WiFi on (which normally appears in the Network Settings Options) may not appear in the network settings list at all!

See the screen shot below for what it should look like when operating normally:

Sometimes when you want to turn on the WiFi, it is not even visible as an option, it might look like the screen image below:

Windows Stuck in airplane mode and missing button to turn on WiFi

So the symptoms are typically that your Surface Pro senses you are trying to turn off flight mode but it won’t let you! Here is the step by step guide to your solution:

How to turn off airplane mode on Windows 10:

Step 1 Allow your Surface Pro to Cool Down

This might not be essential, but it makes good sense, as this is probably related to the cause.

Feel the body of your Surface Pro – if it is hot this could be a symptom of this problem. Put your surface pro somewhere cooler (but not freezing!).

If your Surface Pro is in the docking station (if you have one) then remove it and open the stand and ensure you have good air circulation around the air vents on the side to help it cool down.

Step 2 Give your Surface Pro a rest

In line with helping it recover back down to a normal operating temperature, I suggest you stop using it for a while too. It might only take a minute or two (or five) to allow it to really come back towards room temperature, so hold off using it if you can.

Step 3 Open Device Manager

When you have let your Surface Pro cool down, then open Device Manager.

There are a few ways you can open the Device Manager. An easy way is to click on Cortana or the search interface in the Task Bar.

Then start typing the letters to spell out Device Manager. You can watch as you type because several suggested search item results will pop up, and as you type these will narrow down to the few available for the characters you have typed. See the screen capture below:

The above example shows what you may see after having typed just the first three letters of ‘Dev’. Exactly what displays may depend on your Surface Pro. Keep typing enough until you see the Device Manager option come up, and then click on it.

If you have Cortana operating with voice recognition you can click on the microphone icon (circled in the screen shot below) next to the search entry box and say “Device Manager”.

If you don’t see the Device Manager window, it might be behind some of your other open applications. Not sure why it can open behind other windows, but sometimes it does. Minimize any other open applications until you see the Device Manager window (a screen copy is shown within step 4).

Alternatively you can look for the Device Manager icon in the task bar, and click on it (the icon may look something like the one circled in the screen copy below).

Step 4 As per the screen shot look for the Network Adapters

Search down the list for Network Adapters. You might need to click on the little grey side arrow to the left of it, to expand the list to see what is inside it. Or you can just double-click on the word itself. See the screen copy below:

Step 5 Find the Network Controller

Find an item that has a name of something which indicates it is the Network Controller (under Network adapters). One is highlighted in the screen shot below to give you an example.

Step 6 Open your Network Controller and Disable it

Double click to open your network controller. It might say under the General tab something like “this device is working properly”. I have my doubts!

Then go to the Driver tab, then click “Disable” button as highlighted in the screen capture below.

Suggest you just accept the warning you might receive (but read it first and you decide!).

Step 7 Restart your Surface Pro (if you can or when you are ready to)

If you can (depending on whether you have saved all your open work) restart your surface pro (I’m assuming you can do this).

If you have anything open that you think might not be saved, make sure you do this first!

Shortcut: Try without a restart

Sometimes this can work without shutting down your computer – it is worth a try (often you can have a lot of Apps open that you don’t want to close). In other words skip Step 7 and see if you can go straight to Step 8. If unsuccessful, then you may need to start these steps again and include Step 7 (ie. restart your machine).

Step 8 Re-Open the Device Manager and Open the Network Controller

This step (or rather, steps) is the same as steps 3 to to 5 above.

Step 9 Enable the Network Controller

This time you will see the button says “Enable” in the same location that it said “Disable” before (in step 6).

Click on Enable in same location, as per screen copy below:

Normally your Surface Pro WiFi restarts itself. You will now have the option to turn off flight mode. (I don’t think I had to restart again but maybe you can try it).

You’ve done it: Hooray!

Glad to have helped. At TheTechMentor.com we like to help computer techs and the general public with computer fixes. Given you own (or are helping someone with) a Surface Pro, you might like to see this fix for when a Microsoft Surface won’t turn on. It can happen to almost anyone with a Microsoft Surface, and it is handy to know the fix.

Alternative Method if Your Surface Pro Airplane Mode Won’t Turn off Still

Note: This method should work for any Windows 10 stuck in airplane mode, not just those running on a Surface (so Laptop or desktop with Windows 10 and a Network Controller and set up that has flight mode).

You would have ‘reset’ the network controller by disabling it and enabling it again.

If you tried this and you are unable to turn off airplane mode, the next step is to update the network adapter driver.

Repeat Steps 1- 6 of the first fix for Windows stuck in airplane mode

Go to the Network Adapter as shown above in steps 1 to 6.

New Step 7

Then right-click on the adapter at the top under Network Adapters (as highlighted in the screenshot way above, but remember yours may be different to mine shown).

New Step 8

After you right click you will see options as shown in the screenshot below. The first option Update driver, will launch the wizard that will update the driver for the selected device.

Click ‘Update driver’.

As you can see bottom right – this second fix for airplane mode wont turn off is via Device Manager and using the Update Driver Wizard.

New Step 9

Select ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’ and give Windows several minutes to find and install new drivers. You can repeat this for other drivers if necessary.

I would restart again, however you probably could start it straight away if you are in a rush to turn off airplane mode!

I hope this further option helps anyone for whom their airplane mode won’t turn off after trying the first method!

Accessories

Okay, well now that is complete (and solved your problem), you can also check out our selection of the best Surface Accessories!

Related article: YOU MUST READ THIS!

Must Read Article for SURFACE PRO OWNERS – What to if your Microsoft Surface won’t turn on

How to fix a Microsoft Surface that wont turn on.

Summary of how to Disable Airplane mode in Windows 10 on your Surface Pro or Laptop

When your airplane mode wont turn off, be it on a laptop or a Microsoft Surface Pro (and normally with Windows 10) the above detailed procedure and steps are worth following to get your Wifi working and Airplane mode unstuck. It essentially resets the WiFi controller. I hope it helps. If it does or you find another trick with your Microsoft Surface Pro please leave a comment to help out others like you. I’ve added a second solution if your windows 10 stuck in airplane mode is not resolved by the first fix.

The post How to Fix Windows Surface Stuck in Airplane Mode appeared first on TheTechMentor.com.