Last week Microsoft released Windows 10 build 16288 which causes a problem that prevented the Surface Pro 3 from starting up after being shutdown. Today Microsoft have posted a workaround to get the Surface up and running and prevent it from happening again. Future builds (>16294) will include the fix but if you are affected by the issue follow these steps from Microsoft:

Workaround Steps:

Prepare a bootable USB image from a working PC https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

With the device powered off, boot your Surface Pro 3 device from the USB drive Boot Surface from a USB device

When the Windows setup box appears, press Shift + F10

In the Command Prompt window that appears, type: wpeutil reboot

Hit enter to execute this command and immediately remove the USB drive from the computer

The device will reboot and load the Windows OS as expected

The above steps will allow your computer to boot. To permanently fix the issue, complete the following additional steps:

Open a web browser and navigate to aka.ms/fixsp3ec

Download the file: fixsp3.zip

Open File Explorer on your PC and navigate to the Downloads folder Downloads is the default folder, it may be different if you have changed your default location

Right-click the file fixsp3.zip and select extract all

the file and select A window will open after extraction. Right-click the file fixsp3.cmd and choose R un as Administrator

the file and choose R The process will execute and implement the necessary patch to prevent this bug from recurring

Reboot your Surface Pro 3 device. It is now fully patched.

We have a permanent fix for this issue in the build pipeline already. If your device has not hit this bug, it is still possible to in the short term if you have not run the above script. We will have a permanent fix with no required workaround steps in our next flighted build that is 16294 or greater.