When you power on your Surface device and it’s stuck on and won’t pass the black screen showing American Megatrends, then this post will help you. In this post, we provide the possible solutions you can try to help remediate this issue.
What does American Megatrends screen mean on Surface?
When you see the black screen with American Megatrends on your Surface device at the top. The screen contains configuration options for the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) settings. It comes with the following message.
Press <DEL> or <ESC> to enter setup.
A configuration change was requested to Clear this computer’s TPM (Trusted Platform Module)
WARNING: Clearing erases information stored on the TPM. You will lose all created keys and access to data encrypted by these keys.
Press F12 to Clear the TPM
Press ESC to reject this change request and continue
It’s worth noting that this screen may appear after a recovery or reset of your Surface, let’s see how to fix it.
Surface stuck on black screen showing American Megatrends
If you face the Surface black screen showing American Megatrends issue, follow the instructions below to resolve the issue.
Note: You’ll need a Surface Typing Cover or another USB keyboard to complete this solution.
- Press F12. (If you’re using a Surface Typing Cover, press Fn+F12.)
This will keep your current TPM settings, and your Surface will continue to Windows.
- If Windows starts successfully, proceed to install the latest Surface and Windows updates to help prevent future problems.
- If Windows fails to start and the American Megatrends TPM black screen appears again, contact Microsoft Support.
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology is designed to provide hardware-based, security-related functions. A TPM chip is a secure crypto-processor that is designed to carry out cryptographic operations. The chip includes multiple physical security mechanisms to make it tamper-resistant, and malicious software is unable to tamper with the security functions of the TPM.
Some of the key advantages of using TPM technology are that you can:
- Generate, store, and limit the use of cryptographic keys.
- Use TPM technology for platform device authentication by using the TPM’s unique RSA key, which is burned into itself.
- Help ensure platform integrity by taking and storing security measurements.
The most common TPM functions are used for system integrity measurements and for key creation and use.
Related read: Windows 10 doesn’t Start or Stops responding on Surface
Why is my Surface stuck on a black screen?
When your Surface device is stuck on the black screen with American Megatrends or just normally, you can fix it easily. In the case of the American Megatrends black screen issue, you just have to press F12 to clear the TPM and resolve the issue. If your Surface device is stuck on the black screen normally, power cycle your Surface device, charge the battery, disconnect all the accessories, and do a forced reset if nothing works.
Related read: How to Force Shutdown or Restart Surface device.
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