Surface Pro 4 type cover suddenly not working.

Hi,

Like a lot of people on here, my type cover stopped working randomly back towards the end of July.

Went through all the troubleshooting steps - no joy at all.  Tried a brand new type cover (didn't work), but my type cover worked on another Pro 4.

It's definitely related to the screen orientation as that stopped working for me as well.

However, I've been trying various things today and have managed to get it working again!  Not sure if it's a fluke/temporary fix etc, but it still works after reboots and full shutdowns.

This is what I've done.

1. Updated the registry entries on this page under the section titled "Fixing screen auto-rotation grayed out"

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-screen-rotation-problems-windows-10

2. Rebooted the device
3. Downloaded and installed the Surface Pro 4 firmware for the version of Windows I have installed (1803 so downloaded SurfacePro4_Win10_16299_1803301_1.msi, but download the file based on the version you have)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=49498

4. Reboot when prompted
5. In Device Manager, under Firmware, uninstall the following items making sure that you select "Delete the driver software for this device" when prompted for each

• Surface Embedded Controller Firmware
• Surface System Aggregator
• Surface UEFI

6. Reboot the device
7. Test type cover

I did check for updates after I'd done the above and it downloaded and installed the latest versions of the 3 items mentioned above - didn't break anything it seems.

I can't get mine to stop working now and screen orientation is back working as well.

Not particularly confident it won't stop working again, but so far so good.

Hope it helps someone else.

Hi All,

I guess i am not alone after all about the type cover, similarly to everyone here; My type cover just stop working about 10min ago. I was using the surface up until 30mins ago where i had to turn off the surface as i was moving around for meetings and the type cover just failed on me.

Is the type cover broken? NO!, I have even pass my type cover to a colleague of mine to check if my type cover is faulty, guess what; it is working perfectly. My encounter for the type cover is pretty much random after my 1st time claiming the for warranty of the screen flicker issue where the entire unit was replaced. 

As most of the users here, I am also disappointed for the premium price paid; but the quality is not much better than any non-premium machines. Good Job Microsoft. Great work, now i longer can use the surface to carry out my work.

Ken,

I believe you are on to something. When my problem first happened with my type cover not working my rotate woukd not work either. 

Today i went through the fixes for auto rotate including running the tool you can download. After running it would detect an error and told me Windows Location Service is off. It then took me to a selection box where i never found anything close to location. 

Next I went to device manager and saw “senson” (not sure what else it was. I then went to update driver and it said up to date drivers were installed. Then i chose to roll back drivers and now the sensor can no longer be found in device manager and now the tab for orientation lock is gone as well.  Not sure what i have done. 

If you have any suggestions please share them and have a great day!

i am afraid that i have all but given up.

my wifes sp4 is working nicely with a moko bt keyboard ( the type that mechanically locks into the slots where the type cover should go )

i will have a go after the holiday when i can transfer her system back to her old laptop then go through the process of contacting msf support and see if i can raise a case against the retailers warranty.

for all its loveliness, i wouldnt touch win10 with a barge pole now, for myself.  all my engineering stuff is running under win7 on old thinkpads and in a parallels vm on my macbook pro.  i have disabled all updating on win7 - since it is working.

i will keep watching this forum thread and will post anything that might be useful however unlikely this is.

i guess msf are well aware of the problem that we all have and are just adopting a 'sod you - cant be bothered ' position.

its a shame - i actually like the surface pro's - apple really hasnt anything that comes close to competing with them

Beside that i didn't ask for compensation.

this is what I want :

Desired Outcome/Settlement

Desired Settlement: Repair

We want our old firmware back, if microsoft couldn't fix the new firmware issue.