It's Back: Windows 8.1 Upgrade for Windows RT

As I reported, late last week there were growing customer reports that the Windows 8.1 upgrade for Windows RT was bricking Surface RT devices, so Microsoft took the update for Windows RT offline while they addressed the problem. The issue may have seemed larger than it really was because in a post today, Microsoft states that only 1 out of 1,000 Surface RT customers were actually affected. Per the Microsoft statement…

The update to Windows RT 8.1 is once again available as a free download in the Windows Store for users with Windows RT devices. We immediately suspended availability of the update after reports that a very small number of Surface RT customers—around 1 out of every 1,000 Surface RT 8.1 installs—had experienced an issue that left the update incomplete and their devices unbootable. This was due to a rare situation where firmware updates had not completed at the time of the update to Windows RT 8.1. In most cases, if a customer encountered this issue the result was simply an extra reboot. However, for a very small percentage, the boot configuration data was affected which prevented a successful boot. We worked to quickly resolve the issue and now encourage customers to update their Surface RT devices. Surface Pro and Windows 8.1 customers were not impacted by this issue.

So, 1 out of a 1,000. That reminds me of the scene in Dumb and Dumber where Lloyd Christmas asks Mary Swanson of his chances of getting together with her.  Mary says, "1 out of a million." Lloyd stalls to comprehend Mary's statement and finally says, "So, you're telling me there's a chance."

The Windows RT 8.1 update should now be accessible from the Windows Store once again. If you have problems locating it or installing it, definitely let us know.

If your Windows RT device is still stuck in an unusable state, Microsoft has provided instructions on how to fix it so you can continue with the Windows 8.1 update. Here's Microsoft's instructions:  Surface RT startup error 0xc000000d