Surface Pro 4 Type Cover Stopped Working

Anonymous
2017-09-20T12:40:04+00:00

The type cover on my Surface Pro 4 suddenly stopped working.  There are several similar issues on this forum, but none quite fit what I am experiencing.

I tried cleaning the contacts, doing the 2-button reset, using system refresh, and finally I "restored" windows from a USB drive.  And then it worked again! Until the next day, when the type cover no longer worked.  

So, I tried 2-button reset again, didn't help.  I did a little more research, looked at the device manager and noticed only the HID keyboard driver showed up.  I saw online that upgrading Windows 10 to version 1703 seemed to fix things for some folks experiencing this issue, so I tried that, and it worked again! Until the next day.  I tried 2-button reset again, didn't help. So I tried downloading the latest firmware and drivers from Microsoft; no help. I ran the SFC utility, it didn't find any issues.  I created a new USB restore drive, and restored from it, but that didn't help this time!  I have not tried restoring from my "old" USB restore drive, because I think that may be a temporary fix, but wouldn't help permanently. I have taken the type cover off and  put it back on, giggled it like crazy, etc, but I really don't think this is a hardware problem.

So, as a final step, I am going to re-image my machine.  In the meantime, any suggestions?  I'd be willing to buy a new type cover if I thought it would help (my type cover is a #QC7-00001). I'm tired of spending 3 hours a day trying to get my keyboard to work!

Moved from: Surface / Surface Pro 4 / Install, update, and repair

Surface | Accessories | Surface Type Cover

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Barb Bowman 80,810 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2017-10-02T17:05:46+00:00

Ruth,

My contact gave me the following for you to try (this is only for non US typecovers for  SP4). Please let me know if you try these and results either way:

Workaround #1

  1. Power+volume up to boot into UEFI settings.
  2. Choose Devices.
  3. Toggle Type Cover Port off and then on.

Workaround #2

  1. Check Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard and ensure that Filter Keys is disabled.
  2. Check BIOS and make sure Type Cover is enabled in Devices.
  3. In Device Manager, click on the View menu > Show Hidden.
  4. Under HID (Human Interface Devices), scroll down and find Surface Pro 4 Typecover Integration > right-click - Uninstall. (chose option to delete driver/software.)
  5. In Device Manager, under Keyboard, if you do not see the type cover, no need to do anything else. I; if you do see it, right-click, uninstall (check to remove software).
  6. Shut down (hold shift for a clean shutdown).
  7. Hold power and volume up for 30 seconds. The device will flash to EFI and back until it eventually powers off fully.
  8. Power on the device. Now the keyboard should work, and all the drivers should be re-installed that we removed earlier.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-09-26T13:38:20+00:00

    Is this a US type cover?

    Barb, thanks for asking, my Type Cover is UK English.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-25T17:47:41+00:00

    Thank you Barb. I am in the US and will try that :).

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  3. Barb Bowman 80,810 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-09-25T14:36:10+00:00

    first, return that extra type cover to Best Buy while you still can get a full

    refund

    second, yes, you can run the SurfacePro4_Win10_10586_1702001_0.msi msi file from

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49498 but THAT has not

    helped anyone else.

    If it were me, and you seem to be in the US, I would go to the closest physical

    retail Microsoft Store and ask to speak to the manager and get swapped out at no

    cost if you are no longer covered by warranty. Show them the threads here in

    Answers. The engineering folks are not apparently spending much time

    investigating this (and I am not getting answers to emails I send to an internal

    contact on this specific subject).

    >> Can you manually just add the cover drivers directly?

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-09-25T13:28:09+00:00

    Hi Barb,

    No fingerprint reader. I just tried putting Windows 8.1 on there last night too (took another hour or so) as this was wahat came with the Surface initially. Still no luck. I took it to Best Buy and purchased another type cover and it still doesn’t recognize it. When I look in the Device manager it doesn’t show the correct Type cover. Instead it only shows “HID Keyboard”. Any ideas? Can you manually just add the cover drivers directly?

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