Power Cover Not Charging 100% 0% 100% ???

Not sure if I should be annoyed or not, no real credit given on the post and trying to work out where I was inaccurate!

Pete

For those that have done the repair - and gotten it working...

I am hoping that you can get me a data point.

In another thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/4zmrtm/surface\_pro\_2\_power\_cover\_jumps\_from\_0\_to\_100/

I saw mention of a tool:  HWmonitor 

This appears to measure the voltage across the battery within the power cover keyboard.In his thread, it was 11.793v - and he was having issues getting his to charge.

I picked up a used one, but am in the same boat as others.  Mine seems ot have a *much lower* (11.2v in the same tool)...

But over the course of ~300 replugs of the keyboard, it has slowly climbed to 11.4v

I can also see the voltage momentarily jump to 11.5v after I reseat it while it appears a charge (or handshake of sorts) happens.

This seems to give credance to the folks that say "unplug and replug it a ton of times and it *might* charge".

So far as my question:

For one that is taking a charge - what is the "Current Voltage" that this tool measures for the Power Cover battery?

Seems like I've got long ways to go to get this one working (unless I decide to open it)

Here are some hints for that repair job coming from a perspective of someone with less experience. I have never used a Multimeter before (I got one specifically for this and some cheap cables and tape to connect a battery) and worked with batteries only so far as to put them into things.

Some things that nobody has mentioned about fixing this yourself is that the plastic covering the metal is really tough and annoying to deal with. (and it's best to get rid off all of it)

Someone said to use a razor blade, which I did. I probably should have switched sooner to maybe a paper knife, which in hindsight might have been better, as the plastic and even the outer leather skin took me ages (it was a leisurely project, where I didn't really insist on using my brain much and being terribly efficient is my only excuse).

I also used a 9V battery for adding (?) the voltage, and found that the first tenth of a volt go really quick and it really hits diminishing returns fast.

I started at about 1.6 V on each battery.

In order to get every battery up to about 2.7 V (2.3 V wasn't sufficient), I actually had to let it sit for an hour or for each battery (9V is probably not the best Voltage to use, but I only had 1.5V lying around, which is probably too low, if I had to do it again I'd try 5V).

Also take care of not mixing up the connectors or you'll actually substract some Voltage (which I did, but that can be reversed).

Another thing is that when you open the back and the connector is facing away from you and you look at the four batteries in front of you, that the first battery will always have the same Voltage as the third one, and the second one will always have the same voltage as the fourth one (maybe that is something super obvious for someone who knows things about electricity). So you only need two charge two of the outer ones and don't have to bother with the others.

When putting the thing back together adding the metal plate back, screwing all the two dozens little screws back in is a waste of time, but 3-5 of them are bit shorter and wider than the others (it's subtle), it's probably best to mark their position and have them in.

So I hope this encourages people to try this, if they find themselves out of warranty, like I did.

I imported mine from the US to Germany and got a full refund and got to keep the thing, so I'm

fairly happy, that I did the repair. Just having a needlessly thick, non-glowy type cover would have

been lame.

I took my power cover and laid it on the table bottom up with connector facing away.

I took a ruler and a razor blade.

I cut the rear cover 6mm in from where the edge starts to bevel down.

Along the left, right, and bottom.

Peeled rear suede up towards connector edge away from me.

Then took off the plastic covering the screws.

Three upper middle screws are bigger than the rest.

Set these aside and remove all screws.

Lift metal cover.  Remove tape isolating batteries from touching metal cover.

These keyboards are several years old.  They sit on shelves and die.

I took a test meter.  Less than one volt in all four batteries.

I took the 18650 battery out of my Vape Mod.  It is 3.7 volts.

I taped a small wire to each end of my E-Cig battery.

With connector end of keyboard away from you.

The battery terminals are up.  Don't worry about the center terminal.

The right one is positive.  The left is negative.

I touched the wires from my E-Cig battery to positive and negative and waited 20 seconds on each of the four keyboard batteries.

Then used the test meter and my .8 or .9 of a volt was now up to 3.04 to 3.2 volts.  Wow in just 20 seconds.

Taped the battery terminals again to keep them insulated from touching the metal cover.

Then put the metal cover back on and replaced the screws.

Then I flipped it over and connected my Surface Pro 1.  Right away it said battery 1.  0% and charging.  Works great now.

I used double sided scotch tape to stick the suede back in place.

Not very pretty now.  But battery is working fine.

Well if anyone wants to try opening their battery, dont do what I did and start cutting the cover open from the top.  I ended up cutting the ribbon cable and ended up throwing it, as well as my Surface Pro with a shot battery, in the garbage.

Going to get a MacBook Pro, with it's dated hardware and all, to replace it.  My original Surface gave me many years, but it was time to hit the recycle bin.