Surface Pro 1 on Windows 8.1 reboots when Type Cover 2 is removed

Same issue here. Had 8.1 for awhile now. Seemed to start doing this after the firmware update. Very random. Can be watching a video, working on an Excel spread sheet etc. Doesn't seem to be type cover related but could be. Again started with the latest firmware update.

Surface Pro 128 GB / Windows 8.1 / Touch cover

This is a  problem that is not related atleast for the most part... to any particular program, or even extended video HD output.  I used my surface pro 128 with NO crashes and almost no problems at all, I had never been more impressed with a PC in my life, and I work on them all the time, build them, and I'm very fond of windows 8.1.  However, the surface pro certainly is not fond of 8.1, atleast from the update.  As  soon as I finally updated it, it wasnt on more than 5 minutes before it did its first shutdown.  It got so bad I had to reinstall windows, and getting the office product key from microsoft was so easy and they were so helpful, that time.  Now same problem, it was an occasional thing, now it gets warm, it says im using almost 100gb of HDD space, but I cleaned out personal files and many programs... including the .windows.old file from the last reset.  Where is all that storage gone, and its become slow, extremely unstable, and I wont use it now because I dont want to damage it anymoe.... the random cut off even when cold, thats just not good for any PC/tablet, whatever.. I know its random because I tried many scenarios... the one that suprised me was that it rarely will crash when in remote control of another PC in my LAN.. im thinking i have no clue, its not a peripherial, idont think because it does it when im on it, it does it when its sitting running on low brightness, power saving mode on and cool... what do i need to do to fix this... ive taken apart laptops, more desktops than imaginable, but i really dont want to disect this thing.... Please Microsoft help me out here.. or anybody, im about to reset it back to windows 8 and take everything off it.... i don't like regular win8, but i like it better than not having a powerful little machine... Maybe i shouldnt ask this, but what about Linux maybe, or windows 7? im open for any help i can get... thank yall..

John Hawkins

admin/owner Webpcdesigns.com 

**personal information removed**

I may have found a possible solution, but it does come with a couple of drawbacks.. History: I use PhotoShop and a few other programs where it is common to hold the shift, ctrl, or alt keys and unfortunately, holding either of these keys puts the keyboard in a "sticky key" mode (even if sticky keys are disabled in settings) where they are left in a pressed state until you hit the key 2 or 3 times... There is a workaround that disables this sticky key feature, but it removes gestures (doesn't bother me) and makes it to where you can't disable the track pad (annoying)... Anyhow, after doing the trick to disable the sticky keys (see link below) it seems that my Surface hasn't had the reboot issue from moving it or disconnecting/reconnecting the type cover. And I applied this trick over a month or 2 ago. It could just be a random coincidence, but if it truly fixed the issue, then it's definitely a software issue that is fixable.

here is a link to the sticky key fix which seems to have possibly fixed the

reboot issue...

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro2-surfhardware/sticking-keys-workaround/44f96c86-d653-407a-a694-86acfa53cda0?rtAction=1401207289238:

I have the exact same problem with the SP2, this is not a recent problem, I have encountered this issue for months.

Happens to me a lot recently that the cover suddenly stops responding. I have to detach and reattach, sometimes even several times. Definitely a connection issue - what is Microsoft's solution to this?  We need some help here Microsoft.

It isn't just the Surface Pro 1 that has this problem, I'm experiencing the same with my Surface Pro 2 & Type Cover 2.

It looks to me like sometimes when you connect the cover to the tablet it doesn't connect correctly and so to speak "short circuits" the system. When this happens the device doesn't reboot in a normal way.

The screen goes black instantly and after a few seconds the Surface logo shows up and it boots up as it normally would.

Another thing I noticed is that my type cover doesn't always work, sometimes It doesn't respond even though it is connected, I have to reconnect it if I want it to respond again. I don't know if this is a related problem, but it seems to be as this looks like a connection issue.