Surface Pro "5" (2017) - black screen when test starts

[HugoLeeOboe]

Hi,

This has been posted in the past but it seems to not have been fixed?

I am on a Surface Pro "5" (2017) and I can boot into memtest86, however when I start the test the screen goes blank.

I don't see any config that would help fix this problem...

Do I have any options?

[David (PassMark)]

Shouldn't be a problem. What version of Memtest86 are you using?

[HugoLeeOboe]

Latest, straight from the website. Downloaded tonight, tried three times

[David (PassMark)]

Can you EMail us the debug log.

[HugoLeeOboe]

Emailed to info at passmark. is this the correct address?

thanks

[HugoLeeOboe]

Problem has been solved (had the wrong email, it's help at passmark)

I'm writing the solution here for those who stumble on this thread from Google. This is on Version 8.4

To reiterate, the specific problem was: memtest86 would be usable during the start screen, but would get a black screen when the test begins.


This was the reply I received:

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial][SIZE=13px]There is a file blacklist.cfg located under EFI\BOOT\ of the USB flash drive. Can you add the following line:[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial][SIZE=13px]"Surface Pro",ALL,EXACT,FIXED_SCREENRES[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial][SIZE=13px]This will prevent MemTest86 from changing the screen resolution (which appears to be causing the black screen issue). The side effect would be the display may look a bit small.

---

We have made the change to our blacklist file for future releases.[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

PassMark was quite quick to fixing this. Thanks guys

[ChuckWheat]

I had the same problem on my Surface Book Performance Base. I changed the blacklist.cfg to have:
"Surface Book",ALL,EXACT,FIXED_SCREENRES
Works now, thanks for the tip!

[David (PassMark)]

Looks like a resolution change bug in the UEFI firmware for the Surface line. We'll add the black list change to the next public release.

[vicapaso]

Hi David,

I'm experiencing the exact same issue on a Surface Pro 7. Changing blacklist.cfg as noted above changes nothing; the screen is still black as soon as the test begins.

Is there an updated or different solution for the SP7?

Thanks!

[David (PassMark)]

Can you EMail us or Post the debug log in the forum.

[vicapaso]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was able to solve it on my end by looking at the debug log. This line in particular (near the top, line 17 for me):

2020-06-02 19:13:36 - SMBIOS BASEBOARD INFO Manufacturer: "Microsoft Corporation", Product: "Surface Pro 7", Version: "", S/N: "[snip]", AssetTag: "", LocationInChassis: ""

I took a hint and replaced "Surface Pro" in blacklist.cfg with the Product string from that line, "Surface Pro 7":

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Arial][SIZE=13px]"Surface Pro 7",ALL,EXACT,FIXED_SCREENRES[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

And that worked. It's a tiny display as mentioned elsewhere, not fullscreen, but it gets the job done just fine.

Thanks again David, I know it's tough to keep on top of every new device out there. Your/Passmark's work on this software is very much appreciated.