Surface Pro 4 type cover suddenly not working.

Anonymous
2018-07-12T03:26:44+00:00

I don't know what happened. I turned my Surface Pro 4 on the other day and the type cover is dead. No lights. No response. No indication that it's working at all.  I rarely take my surface anywhere. 

This started on July 9th 2018. My system information is below. I've gone through all of the steps in the "Troubleshoot your Surface Type Cover or keyboard" page. I've tried to manually download and install the latest firmware and drivers from the "Download firmware and drivers for surface" page. I picked SurfacePro4_Win10_16299_1801701_1.msi. My device manager does not show the "Surface Touch Cover Filter Device" under keyboards or anywhere. It only shows the HID keyboard and cannot detect my type cover. The type cover is completely unresponsive. Also, my windows updates are completely up to date. I've provided the links to the troubleshooting pages I used below.

AGAIN, WTH

Troubleshoot your Surface Type Cover or keyboard

Download drivers and firmware for Surface 

Edition

Windows 10 Professional

Version

1803

OS Build

10.0.17134.165

Serial #

035060755053

Processor

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz

Graphics card

Intel(R) HD Graphics 520

System

OSType64BitX64

RAM

8 GB

Surface | Surface Pro | Install and update

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-11-02T08:21:52+00:00

    Has anyone managed to resolve this issue through re-imaging their surface device?

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-10-29T01:26:34+00:00

    Didn't work for me 

    It seems to be a conflict with the Rotation detection.

    The keyboard gets detected and disconnected with the rotation sensor locking and unlocking itself.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-10-28T09:23:44+00:00

    I went through the same trouble with my Surface Pro 4 (i5, 8gb). I tried everything people say on all the forums like power cycling, turning typcover port off/on in bios, reattaching, reinstalling windows, reinstalling the whole surface from scratch with the shipped firmware etc etc. The problem always came back till the point when it seemed just like it was dead forever. 

    MY SOLUTION:

    This has worked for me and I cannot guarantee this will work for others but you can try.

    Detach TypeCover.

    Open up Windows Disk Cleaner. Go to "Clean up System Files" --> Tick the box "Upgrade log files" , "Windows error reports...", "Driver packages", "Old upgrade files", and whatever else you feel is necessary.  --> Click OK en wait.  --> reboot --> attach TypeCover. --> trusty FN key light should come on and its working again.

    There is also a "Windows error reports...", in the standard menu of the Disk Cleanup tool but I'm not sure if that is the same.

    SIDENOTE:

    This goes without saying but removing windows log files and old updates is not completely without danger so make a backup first.

    Also, at the same time I was trying this I also uninstalled almost all HID drivers in the Device Manager (because what the heck), but I don't think this helped because other people have already tried that as well. Your Surface will probably go through an update as soon as you reboot again but that is Ok. It should also install the HID drivers again automatically if you uninstalled them before.

               Surface Pro 4 (2015), i5 Skylake 6300U, 8gb, with the 2017 Type Cover

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-10-25T10:09:53+00:00

    This ALMOST fix it for me.

    The first time i tried it the system crashed with a kernel error and rebooted.

    Same thing the second and the third time until suddenly the type cover started to appear in the devices menu (it wasnt shiwn at all before that). Then Windows update downloaded a surface type cover driver and in the next boot the cursor appeared and i could move it a little before it crashed again.

    Apparently there is a driver conflict.

    I only i could get the propper working one i could force install it when the device shows up for a few seconds

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-10-24T15:15:56+00:00

    This is really weird... but yes, I followed the directives given by @michael_is_cool, and I found it working.

    So this is what I did.

    My Surface Pro-3 with Touch Type Keyboard (From SP-4) is not working with the keyboard attached after waking up from hibernation.

    I removed the SP from the dock that I have...

    while having the keyboard attached, turned my surface pro up-right like a book. when the screen flipped, i removed the attached keyboard.

    waited for about 3-4 seconds, then i re-connected the keyboard.

    Boom! the keyboard started working.

    I don't know if this will work all the time, but I am going to try this method again. I didn't go through the process of UEFI settings changes, and I also did not go through the driver reinstallation process etc.

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