It’s not just you, the Surface Pro X is experiencing a major issue with its cameras right now.
It’s been some time since we’ve seen the Surface Pro X in the headlines. The original and refreshed models offered an excellent design that came in a compact size, that also offered fantastic battery life. However, what really limited the Surface Pro X was that it only supported the installation of 32-bit (x86) apps and 64-bit (Arm64) apps. With all that said, it looks like the Surface Pro X has popped resurfaced in the news, and this time, it’s because the cameras on the device have stopped working. The reports of the issue are fairly fresh, and it looks like Microsoft is aware of the problem. Thankfully, if you need to use your cameras ASAP, there is a temporary workaround that should get you up and running.
What’s going on with the Surface Pro X?
The news was picked up by The Verge, but the complaints about the issue can be found all across the internet, with many chiming in on Reddit, and Microsoft’s own Feedback portal. While Microsoft hasn’t issued a direct statement about the problem, the portal does show that the company is tracking it and “looking into it.” Those that own a Surface Pro X are seeing error message “0xA00F4271 (0x80004005)”, when starting up the cameras. As there isn’t any official comment, it’s unclear what is causing this issue, but luckily, there is a workaround if you need to get your cameras working.
This is how you fix the problem for now
Thankfully, it’s a rather simple fix, only requiring the user to manually change the system date back to May 22, 2023. It also seems to work if you go further back. Of course, while this will make the cameras work, it could cause other problems, like if you navigate to a website or use a service that requires authentication. But if you’re in a pinch, it seems like the only solution available right now, so hopefully Microsoft will act quick to release something more official.
If you’re not quite clear on how to manually set your date and time, you’ll need to go into the Settings menu, head to Time & Language, then Date & Time. Once there, toggle the Set Time Automatically option off, then you should see a setting to manually set the date and time. From here, just change the date, and you should see the cameras magically revive.
There wasn’t a direct affect but talk about bad timing, as Microsoft began its annual Build 2023 developer conference on the same day the issue with the Surface Pro X started to surface online. The Redmond giant showcased plenty of its software and services, but with so much announced, you’ll probably want to watch the keynote above, and also dive into the top five announcements from Build and five cool announcements from Build that flew under the radar.