charger light flashes and surface wont charge

Disconnect power cord, then press power button for 30 secs. Connect power cord back. It should work.

Just had this happen with Windows 8.1 Surface Pro 3:

1. Symptoms:

Power Adapter. Pay close attention to power adapter connection on SP3. When you press the power button it flashes for a second, every time This is the key symptom that separates it from the typical black screen.

Black screen.

Resolution: None of the typical combination button fixes worked Hold the power and up volume etc... Here is the fix that worked. Connect the power charger as normal, connect an external USB power charger to the USB Port, hit the power button and it started up. The key fix combination of the SP3 power supply and an external power source started the system after five hours Troubleshooting and trying every fix on the internet.

I do agree with some of the blogs it has to involve a protective circuit in the SP3, the user mentioned the system stopped responding, here are two key clues: When I got the system to turn on the battery was fully charged and the time was stopped at the time of the shutdown three days prior to my getting the system to turn on

Solution 1: Check for conditions that might prevent charging

Is the electrical outlet you’re using to charge your Surface working properly?

Try plugging something else into the outlet and see if it works.

Are conditions right for recharging?

It’s best to charge your battery near room temperature. Surface is designed to work between 32° and 95°Fahrenheit (0° and 35° Celsius).

If these things are OK, continue with Solution 2.

*

Solution 2: Disconnect cords, remove accessories, and check connections

Step 1: Unplug the Surface power cord from the electrical outlet. If you have any of the following, remove or disconnect them from Surface:

Power supply

Surface Cover

microSD card

USB devices such as printers, keyboards, or mice

Video or audio cables or adapters

Step 2: Check the magnetic connectors on the power supply's connector tip and on the charging port (on the side of Surface itself). With the power cord unplugged from the outlet, clean the magnets on the Surface connector tip and the charging port with a soft cloth and a small amount of rubbing alcohol.

Surface RT charging port and connector

Step 3: Reconnect the power supply to Surface and plug the power supply into a working electrical outlet.

Charging connector on Surface RT

Charging connector on Surface 2

Step 4: Look at the connector to see if the light is on.

If the light does not turn on, your power supply may need to be replaced.

If the light does turn on, try to turn on Surface.

Step 5:

Press and release the power button on your Surface. The Surface logo should display within a few seconds.

If your Surface turns on, the battery on your Surface is likely still very low. You will need to let it continue to charge for a while. When the battery has a 40 percent charge, install the latest updates to help prevent the problem from occurring again. For more info, see Install Surface and Windows updates.

If your Surface still won’t turn on, try Solution 3.

Solution 3: Force restart

Step 1: Press and release the power button on your Surface, and allow up to 30 seconds for the Surface logo to appear.

If your Surface turns on, the battery on your Surface is likely still very low. You will need to let it continue to charge for a while. When the battery has a 40 percent charge, install the latest updates to help prevent the problem from occurring again. For more info, see Install Surface and Windows updates.

If your Surface still won’t turn on, continue to Step 2.

Step 2: Press and hold the power button on your Surface for 30 seconds. The screen will flash during this process, but continue to hold down the power button for the full 30 seconds.

Step 3: Press and release the power button on your Surface to turn it back on.

If your Surface turns on, the battery on your Surface is likely still very low. Let it continue to charge for a while. When the battery has a 40 percent charge, install the latest updates to help prevent the problem from occurring again

Please accept answer if this solves your issue.

I have exactly the same problem with my charger (regular, weak flashing light and no charge going to the Surface (the 12V cable from the black box), even though the USB charging (5V cable from the black box works fine).

I did all of the above fixes and nothing worked.

I have a second power cable which all works fine.

I suggest it's a problem somewhere either in the box that supplies the 12V or in the cable that leads to the surface, but that's probably no help to John. Maybe the MS people will read this though?

My surface does this a lot all I do is hold the charger were its flashing then hold down the power and volume up buttons for 30 seconds, it then updates and continues to work like normal

I had the same problem .

I disconnected the half of the charger connected to the outlet and reconnected it and it worked.

Hope this helps :)

Hi all,

I wanted to weigh in here as I had the same issue. None of the steps I found here or anywhere else on the internet worked. What did work for me was to use the non-dock type surface pro charger that plugs directly into the wall socket. I plugged it in and saw a solid white light on the connector straight away, turned the Surface Pro on 10 minutes later without issue. I suspect the charging dock could not provide sufficient charge for the Surface Pro with a completely dead battery. Anyway, hope that helps someone out there.

If mine is unplugged from power, then plugged up after a while, the light will blink on for about 1 sec, then go out, and not charge it. Last night it was shut down, and the charger was working, and it had power. This morning it is showing low battery when turned on, and the problem with the charger not charging is here.

If it had power when turned off, why is this happening?

Try this: http://www.lovemysurface.net/surface-pro...

Uninstall the battery driver and reboot.

I have a windows RT 8.1 and experienced the same issue most of us are having. My tablet stopped charging after the recent update and unfortunately shut down before I could uninstall. I left it charging for 2 days and it still wouldn't turn on. The light on the cord would turn on, but the tablet wasn't accept the charge; I unplugged it, cleaned both ports with alcohol and switched it to a different outlet. It finally turned on and I then proceeded to follow solution 3 from the link below. It has turned on and is accepting the charge now, I just have to wait until it has some battery to check if it works on other outlets. http://www.lovemysurface.net/surface-pro...

Same issue. It randomly started working again when i had it open and wasn't touching it for about 5 mins then shut down and won't turn back on.

I discovered today, with a SP3, that it seems to be overloading the power supply. When overloaded, the power supply shuts itself off. Then if I turn the SP off, I can unplug and plug the power supply back in to 110v and the light will come back on and it will be charging. But if I then try to turn the SP back on before it is fully charged, it overloads the charger and it shuts itself off again. Soooo IIIFFF the SP is fully charged to begin with, and IF you do not have stuff plugged into the USB port, MAYBE there will be enough power in the power supply to keep your SP running and for the power supply to stay on. But once you start pulling too much power from the power supply, it will shut itself off again. I can repeat this and get the same result every time, so I am pretty sure that is what is going on...

Now to solve the issue, ... uh ... is there a solution? Does someone make an adequate power supply that will keep the SP and whatever is attached to it going without the Power Supply shutting itself off? What is the power limit of the stock SP charger? Must be pretty low...

I just waited 10-15 min and then plugged it back in. I had a surface pro 4, Australia.

Hey.

I had the issue when my surface book battery died. I plugged in the charger wire and all i got was a flashing light. When i pressed the power button all i got was a black screen with a battery symbol in the middle.

After trying a few things. Like checking the plug socket and cleaning the points. I pressed the screen release button. It flashed green then immediately red. The book then started charging.

Hope this helps anyone having the same issue.

Here's my problem to add to the pile. My SP4 stopped charging off the official power supply. I purchased another MS power supply and still get the blinking light and no charging. I have verified that both power supplies are good. The interesting thing is, I have a Ravpower, Model RP-PB14, 23000mAh /85Wh battery pack with charging cable and it charges my SP4 perfectly fine. I've tried every power combo I can think of short of a full factory reset as well as removing and reinstalling the power drivers with no change. I even contacted MS tech support and after they updated the drivers the same as I did, there was no change and tech support gave up on me. Any ideas would be appreciated.

have you tried a higher wattage power supply, such as the surface book one (102w) in case the power supply is turning itself off like jmbutler_1 suggested

I added the hibernation mode to the start menu then put the surface into hibernate. I the plugged the charger to a wall outlet and connected the power supply to the surface and viola charging. But it does not continue charging if you wake it from hibernate. $1450 down the drain. I will try running windows updates.

Mine was related to the docking station and has happened to me twice. What solved it for me was to connect the Surface to my mains charger. It started fine and when booted, re-connected to my docking station and all good.

I have the same problem my SP2 doesn't want to turn on I forget to use it for about 20 days and now he is on mood sleep of death don't want to turn on and the charger connector light flashes constantly. The battery does not charge.

Then Try the steps for reset. Hold power button 30 sec. Hold power + volume up for 30 sec. Release all buttons. Wait 10 sec. Press power. Nothing. Black screen only. The surface won't start. Then simply hold the power button for 2 minutes. Then released and hold for 3 minutes. Released and press power. Nothing. Black screen only. The surface won't start. Then Try that steps. Press and hold the volume-down button on Surface. While holding down the volume-down button, press and release the power button. Again surface won't start. Attached keyboard try again. Detached keyboard and try again. Insert power supply... Nothing. Dead surface. What to do?

i tried everything and then I just changed the direction of the charger so the light was pointing away from me and it worked.