Surface Pro 4 type cover suddenly not working.

Well, I'm not having those problems with my Pro 4.  Just the type cover.  When I remove the new Type Cover and put the old one back on, the old one doesn't work.  Then I put the new one, and it works again.

I'm not having any battery problems with mine.  It doesn't last as long as it did 3 years ago when I bought it...but it's definitely more than an hour.

Problem is, most of us long ago tried our Type Covers on other Surfaces, and they work fine. So generally, this can't be considered a hardware problem. My three-year-old Surface Pro 4 is now junk, since the battery life has fallen to about one hour, and the Type Cover (which works on any other Surface) can't be induced to function on mine. The Surface Pro line is seriously flawed, folks. I'd never recommend it to anyone.

Yeah, I'd already tried the Q-tip and rubbing alcohol and it didn't appear to make a difference.

The problem is still happening, so I just went to Best Buy and purchased a new type cover, since they didn't have any already opened that I could test out.  I connected it and it's worked every time so far.

The type cover I'm having problems with is about 3 years old in another month.  I'm wondering if maybe a wire or connector inside it is becoming worn, and if that could be causing the problem. 

I'm going to test it out and keep comparing the two for the next few days, and see if the new one continues to work more reliably than the old one.  If it keeps working, and I swap the old one back onto it and keep having problems, then it'll be pretty clear that the old keyboard has something physically wrong with it.

I'm no expert but 30+ years of playing around and your description makes me consider a physical problem like grease or oil on your finger tips being transferred to the contacts between the keyboard and the screen unit.  If it were a software problem, it wouldn't come and go as easily.  Denatured alcohol on a Q-Tip on those contacts might help.  Try the cheap and easy first, still, no promises.

I have the same problem.  It just started happening yesterday.  I've been removing the keyboard, reconnecting it, removing it, reconnecting it, over and over.

Sometimes it starts working, but then if I remove it, or let my Surface Pro 4 go to sleep, when I turn it on, the keyboard isn't lighting up again.

I've been reading up on this problem since yesterday, and have tried several fixes.

1. I rolled back the November feature update, then reinstalled it
2. I tried rolling back the other update that came out...on...tuesday?  But Windows refuses to let me roll that one back...it keeps giving me an error.
3. I've turned it off then turned it back on.
4. I turned it off, then used PWR+VOLUP to go into the UEFI menu, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for in there.
5. I've also turned it off, disconnected the touch cover, then put rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip and rubbed the contacts
6. I ran a function to check if my OS files are corrupted, and it says they are not.
7. At the moment, I've gone to the Download Drivers and Firmware for Surface page and I've downloaded the most recent driver and am installing it to see if that makes a difference.

The problem is still happening.  The fact that if I keep disconnecting and reconnecting the keyboard eventually it sometimes starts working again makes me wonder if this is a driver issue?

PLROAD