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

Hi all,

So after reading all the posts on here and given the fact that these power covers I ordered off the internet were basically paper weights, I decided to brave it and follow the process described by Pete.  I know very little about lithium/ion batteries but thanks to Pete's posts I was able to open up my defective power cover, uncover the +/- terminals, bought a TENERGY TN211 smart charger and able to raise the voltage from 1.14 (really really discharged) up to about 3.55 volts per cell.  I then plugged it into my official charger (i.e. connect it to my surface pro 2) and at least it appears to be charging for the first time since I have bought it.  It is at 8% right now and going up.

Hats off to Pete for providing the useful tips and information.  Thanks for taking the time to share your information with the rest of us and giving us hope for as I said, paperweights.

Thanks

Kris

This is BS.  Anyone know if the Microsoft store will do a swap?  I bought mine from Microcenter and am out of the return period by a few days.  I don't want to open it up and risk it looking ugly on the bottom.

I went to the store, they verified the problem for me, but they don't have any in the stores anymore. Support has swapped them for me, but I am on my third one and they are all the same. Microsoft needs to have an engineer look into a real solution to add just a few volts to these so they will take a normal charge again.

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.

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.