Keyboard stopped working on Surface pro 8. Why?

Anonymous
2023-03-12T21:37:29+00:00

So I take my surface pro 8 and the keyboard doesnt work or charge the pen, though it did an hour ago. I tried going to uefi but the keyboard still work. I updated it and it still wont work. My microsoft virtual keyboard also stopped popping up when I click on typable fields, so i had to go to settings and change it from "when keyboard is disconnected" to "always" to be able tp type anything.

Surface | Surface Pro | Performance and maintenance

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2023-03-13T16:05:13+00:00

Hi AaronKilo,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. We're sorry to hear that the keyboard on your Surface device stopped working.

There could be several reasons why your Surface Pro 8 keyboard is not working, the keyboard may not be properly connected to the Surface Pro 8. Or Outdated or Faulty Drivers: The drivers for the keyboard might be outdated or faulty. Here are some troubleshooting steps you can try:

Detach the Type Cover or Keyboard

  1. Unplug your Surface and detach the Cover.
  2. Make sure there's no debris, damage or anything that may inhibit a connection.

Force your Surface to restart

  1. Select Start> Power> Shut downand wait for your Surface to shut down.
  2. Now, press and hold the power button for 20 seconds. If you see the logo screen appear after a few seconds, continue to hold for the full 20 seconds until you see it again.

Reattach the Type Cover or Keyboard

  • Re-attach the Cover, making sure that all the magnets touch the bottom edge of your Surface.

Confirm functionality

  1. To confirm connectivity, press the Caps and Fn keys on your Surface Type Cover or Keyboard a couple of times to check whether the LED lights turn on and off.
  2. If the LED lights don't turn on, there might be a hardware issue and the next option is tosubmit a service order.
  3. IF the LED lights turn on, please see Troubleshoot Surface Type Cover or Keyboard - Microsoft Support for more troubleshooting steps.

Let us know how it goes.

Kind regards,

Lavenia

Was this answer helpful?

6 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

50 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2024-09-21T21:38:03+00:00

    Same here :(

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-09-21T21:37:13+00:00

    Hi

    My keyboard of the surface pro 8 is not working neither the pen is charging, this happened all of a sudden . I made factory reset twice and nothing happened

    Is there anything to be done please , it is diabling me from working appropriately and giving me hard time to work on it as only a pad

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2024-09-21T20:53:09+00:00

    Forcing a Restart finally worked for me when none of the usual things did like a regular reboot. I had a spare type cover keyboard and confirmed that that one wouldn't work on my SP6 either (both keyboards worked on my other SP). The key to a forced restart is to continue holding down the power button (when restarting from a normal shutdown) until you get the 2nd logo appearing (15 to 20 seconds). This apparently completely clears memory including a corrupted keyboard driver. Then restart evidently reloads drivers and other firmware whereas a regular reboot must not do that. Try this method before resetting/reloading your Windows OS or reinstalling drivers (which would accomplish the same thing as a forced restart in this case - reloading the driver that has become corrupted in memory).

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2024-09-21T20:40:32+00:00

    THIS FIXED MY TYPE COVER KEYBOARD ON MY SP6:

    I have a SP6 and suddenly the type cover keyboard stopped working - it was not getting power at all (no LEDs would come on, eg. for Caps Lock On). I tried many things I found in Microsoft Community Forum here like shutting down the SP6, waiting a while, starting it up again; going into UEFI (BIOS) to check Type Cover (under Devices) was enabled & rebooting from there; tried another known good type cover keyboard from another SP I own (that keyboard also was receiving no power on this SP6 but both type cover keyboards worked on the other SP - so the problem was with this SP6, not the keyboard).

    Eventually I found a Microsoft article (below) that recommended trying a "Forced Reboot" before resetting the PC or reinstalling drivers. Below is a link to this article - scroll down to Force Reboot section. Basically you shut down the SP and leave it down; remove type cover keyboard from the SP; restart by holding down power button for 20 seconds - when you see the SP logo (right away on my SP6) continue holding down the power button for 20 seconds; after 10 - 15 seconds the first logo disappears briefly and then the same logo reappears again (you need to wait for this 2nd logo to appear to complete the Forced Restart!). Once the SP6 comes all the way back up, reattach the type cover keyboard (don't do it before this point!). It took a couple of seconds and then power was restored to the keyboard (LEDs started working), the pointer reappeared on the screen, and the PC went back from pad mode to PC/keyboard mode.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/troubleshoot-surface-type-cover-or-keyboard-c106b37d-f55a-4640-8cb2-8f1b2b0207ea 

    I didn't think this would work since none of the other things did but apparently this method must more thoroughly clear the PC's memory (including whatever had become corrupted in the keyboard driver or something along those lines). And it saved doing a PC reset and having to reconfigure everything back to the way I like my PC, which takes a long time!! A reset probably achieves the same clearing of memory, drivers and all, as this does. Try this method first!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments