EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human-Machine Interface
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft
During the initial vector climb westbound (HDG 260 / ALT 4000 feet and climbing) on the KRISTA7 departure; the Jeppesen Navigation application failed. Pilot monitor did not have SID information. After making a determination that the application was stuck in processing phase; an attempt to re-start the EFB was attempted. The Microsoft Surface provided the option to 'update and shut down' or 'update and re-start'. The latter was selected and by the time the update; restart; and selection of navigation app was complete; the aircraft was past the last fix of the SID/DP and climbing through FL240.Event occurred while switching from check list page (After Take-off Checklist) to navigation application.The Microsoft Surface has been a very unstable platform; often freezing; and is painstakingly slow in processing user commands. This is the third time this has happened to me. In this case (and previous two incidents); I was forced to update the EFB before it allowed for a reset during a critical phase of flight. This particular brand works well about 40% of the time and is problematic approximately 60% of the time.  Switching to a more stable EFB such as the Apple iPad would be better. My experience with the latter product allowed for reliable use approximately 90% of the time (also 'on' means on; and 'off' means off). This would have been more problematic if we were departing from RNO and we lost the engine past V1. There would have been heavy reliance on the Pilot Monitoring's EFB for the complex departure procedure around terrain during IMC.
ERJ-175 Captain reported the tablet provided; the Microsoft Surface; is an unreliable platform and could pose a safety hazard if it failed at the wrong time.