What you see
A garbled and distorted screen shows as jumbled and unclear, making the content difficult to read or interpret. The images or text may overlap, be stretched or compressed, or appear in a fragmented or scrambled manner.
Note: If this isn't what you're seeing, you can find assistance with other display-related problems by visiting What to try if your Surface screen is flickering, distorted, or has other display issues.
What you can do
There are things you can do to troubleshoot your screen and try to get it working again.
Make sure the device is plugged into an appropriate power supply or Surface Dock to reduce issues that can occur when you're on battery power.
UEFI settings aren't in Windows, so display issues in UEFI suggest a problem with hardware, rather than with a Windows driver. Here's how to check if the screen issues only happen when you're using Windows:
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Turn off your Surface and wait 10 seconds.
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Press and hold the volume up button on your Surface, and at the same time, press and release the power button . The logo screen will appear.
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Continue to hold the volume up button . Release the button when the UEFI screen appears.
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View the screen and see if the problem is still present. If the screen is working correctly within UEFI, the problem is likely with the software installed on the Surface. Proceed with the reinstall the display adapter and OEM panel driver section.
You can quickly check the health of your Surface drivers and firmware using the Surface app.
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In the Surface app, expand Help & support to check if the update status is "You're up to date" or something else.
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If needed, select the option to update the devices.
Note: If you don't have the Surface app installed, you can download the Surface app from the Microsoft Store. When it has downloaded, select Start, search for Surface, then select the app from the list of results.
Windows 11
Make sure you're optimizing Energy recommendations
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Select Start > Settings > System > Power & battery > Energy recommendations.
Open Energy recommendations -
Apply all settings changes that may be marked with an "!" requiring attention.
Adjust the Power Mode setting
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Select Start > Settings > System > Power & battery .
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Set the Power mode setting to Better performance or Best performance.
Windows 10
Try running our troubleshooter
The troubleshooter can automatically determine if you have the optimal power settings for your screen and it can adjust if needed.
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Select Start > Settings > System > Troubleshoot.
Open Troubleshoot settings -
Select Other troubleshooters , and next to Power , select Run.
Adjust the Power Mode setting
Newer devices have an adjustable power mode that allows you to balance your preference between best battery life and best performance.
To view this setting, select the battery icon on the task bar. If your device supports it, move the Power Mode slider to the Better performance or the Best performance setting.
Windows 11
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Select Start > Settings > System > Display.
Open Display settings -
Expand the Brightness section, then clear Change brightness automatically when lighting changes and also clear Help improve battery by optimizing the content shown and brightness.
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In Display settings, set the toggle to Off for Adaptive color. This setting isn't available on all Surface devices.
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Select Advanced display, then under Choose a refresh rate, try changing the setting to 60 Hz, 120 Hz or Dynamic. This setting isn't available on all Surface devices.
Windows 10
Try adjusting adaptive brightness to see if that will resolve the issue.
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Select Start > Settings > System > Display.
Open Display settings -
Adjust the brightness under Brightness and color, then clear Change brightness automatically when lighting changes.
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Set the toggle to Off for Adaptive color. This setting isn't available on all Surface devices.
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Select Advanced display settings and under Refresh rate, try changing the setting to 60 Hz, 120 Hz or Dynamic. This setting isn't available on all Surface devices.
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Make Intel Graphics Command center app adjustments (if these app setting options are available on your Surface device).
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Download and open the Intel Graphics Command Center app, available from Microsoft Store.
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Select System from the left menu, then, if available on your Surface device, select Power from the top menu.
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First try sliding the Power Efficiency setting to the right to improve graphics quality—this adjustment may impact battery life.
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If available on your Surface device, you can also set the Panel Self Refresh setting to Off and the Display Power Savings setting to Off.
Note: To maximize battery life, we recommend that you keep this feature enabled and keep power efficiency set to level 6 for Surface Go, Surface Laptop 3, Surface Laptop Go, Surface Laptop Go 2, and Surface Pro 7—and to level 4 for other devices.
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Important: The following steps shouldn't be performed on Surface Devices running on Microsoft SQ processors such as Surface Pro X and Surface Pro 9 with 5G. The only way to restore uninstalled drivers is by a full system restore.
Some drivers may create display issues. To update your display driver and panel driver, you'll need to uninstall the current drivers and then check for driver updates.
Windows 11
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Select and hold (or right-click) Start and select Device Manager.
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Expand the Monitor section, select and hold (or right-click) the Surface panel driver(s), then select Uninstall device. Read the warning, then select Uninstall and restart your PC.
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Expand the Display adapters section, select and hold (or right-click) the listed adapter (Intel and NVIDIA graphics drivers), then select Uninstall device. Confirm by selecting Attempt to remove the driver for this device, then select Uninstall and restart your PC.
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After your PC restarts, select Start > Settings .
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From Settings , select Windows Update > Check for updates, and install any available updates.
Check for Windows updates
Windows 10
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In the Search box on the task bar, type Device Manager, then select it in the results.
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Expand the Monitor section, select and hold (or right-click) the Surface panel driver(s), then select Uninstall device. Read the warning, then select Uninstall and restart your PC.
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Expand the Display adapters section, select and hold (or right-click) the listed adapter, then select Uninstall device. Confirm by selecting Delete the driver software for this device, then select Uninstall and restart your PC.
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After your PC restarts, select Start > Settings .
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From Settings , select Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for updates , and install any available updates.
Check for Windows updates
You can try to force a shutdown and then restart. To do this:
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Select Start > Power > Shut down , and wait a moment for your Surface to shut down.
If you have any apps open, you may be prompted to close them prior to shut down. -
Press and hold the power button for 20 seconds. If you see the logo screen appear after a few seconds, continue to hold for the full 20 seconds until you see the logo screen again.
See Force a shut down and restart your Surface for more info.
If you’re still having a problem with your display, try resetting your Surface. To learn how, see Restore or reset Surface for Windows and follow the recommended steps, or see create and use a USB recovery drive to reset your device to factory settings and drivers.
If you've reset your Surface and you're still experiencing a display issue, you'll need to submit a service order.
There's one last step you can take. If these steps don't resolve the problem, service and support options may be available to assist you.
Send to Microsoft
To prepare your device for shipping to Microsoft, you can print a shipping label, check your Microsoft warranty, and create service orders.
Find in-person support
Currently China, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom have in-person support available—which can include professional hardware inspection, troubleshooting, and system recovery.
Self-repair
If you're technically experienced and have the right tools, Microsoft has a select range of replaceable components and service guides that enable you to perform the repairs.
Note: Availability may be limited for some countries or products.
To learn more, go to How to get service or repair for Surface.
Related topics
What to try if your Surface touchscreen doesn't work
Adaptive brightness and contrast on Surface devices
