Surface Book - keyboard and mouse freeze up

Anonymous
2015-10-31T19:53:35+00:00

Today is my first day where i have worked about 6 hours on this new machine. The keyboard and mouse has locked up 4 times where i had to reboot the machine to get it working again.  Last night it froze two times and today it froze 4 times. The onscreen keyboard would work but that is worthless when you're actually working.

I did turn off Bluetooth to disable the pen and the surface mouse - and will continue to monitor BUT this is pretty disappointing.

If anyone at MSFT actually reads this, i'm happy to send logs.

Last freeze 2:45 pm CST (not to self - if i need to look it up).

Damon

Surface | Surface Book | Power and battery

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Anonymous
2016-02-05T14:29:58+00:00

Hi Pr2459.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you're experiencing.

What I would like you to try is what we call a 2-button shutdown, instructions below.

Step 1: As your Surface is powered on, press and hold the Power-button for 30 seconds.

Step 2: Press and hold the volume up-button and the power-button at the same time for atleast 15 seconds, then release both.

The Surface logotype might flash on the screen while performing this step, but just keep both buttons pressed for the 15 seconds.

Step 3: Wait for about 10 seconds after you released the buttons.

Step 4: Start your Surface again by pressing and releasing the Power-button.

Let me know if this solves your issue.

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Anonymous
2016-02-14T15:55:42+00:00

I have exactly the same issue - keyboard and trackpad stop working. When this occurs the only keyboard key that functions is the Detach key. Detaching and re-attaching the clipboard from/to the keyboard base temporarily solves the problem. I have seen this happen waking from sleep and hibernate as well as spontaneously while browsing a website. I have applied all the updates, cleaned the connectors, etc. The symptom suggests (to me) that the clipboard has lost communication with the keyboard base. It happens to me roughly 2-3 times per day.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-05T21:31:56+00:00

    I am having the same problem, keyboard hanging. When this happens to me, detaching the screen and reattaching usually gets the keyboard working. Sometimes it is in the middle of a word. Contacts are clean.

    I have a 256Gb SSD / Intel i5 / 8Gb / dGPU, got it early Nov, 2015.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-05T23:00:03+00:00

    I have cleaned the clipboard and keyboard base contacts with no effect. I am on my fourth, exchanged SB and they all exhibited this same issue. I haven't loaded any software on this latest SB. I am simply using it to browse websites with the pre-installed Edge browser. (I have returned to using my older Dell notebook for business critical work). The keyboard/trackpad "freezing" issue persists on this newest SB. Having seen it now on four units with different manufacturing lot numbers, I am reasonably convinced this is a design issue - hardware or firmware. (Hopefully correctable through firmware). I have to undock and re-dock the clipboard to return the keyboard and trackpad to normal functionality. It usually happens 3-4 times over a day of use, on average. Sometimes it happens when waking from sleep/hibernate and other times while I am doing nothing more than browsing websites like this one. The touchscreen on the clipboard continues to work even when the keyboard and trackpad stop functioning. It seems that the keyboard and trackpad have lost communication with the clipboard and/or are not being recognized by the clipboard processing system. I have not found a reliable way to recreate this random issue yet.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-06T23:56:00+00:00

    I have the same issue on a brand new surface book. It manifests itself in different ways:

    • the mousepointer will be gone and now way to get it back, not even a reboot
    • the keyboard wil stop to react, not even after a reboot

    this will render the surface book useless - no way to interact except with the touchscreen

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