Surface Pro 4 Jul 2017 Update - Type Cover not working

I went through the same trouble with my Surface Pro 4 (i5, 8gb). I tried everything people say on all the forums like power cycling, turning typcover port off/on in bios, reattaching, reinstalling windows, reinstalling the whole surface from scratch with the shipped firmware etc etc. The problem always came back till the point when it seemed just like it was dead forever. 

MY SOLUTION:

This has worked for me and I cannot guarantee this will work for others but you can try.

Detach TypeCover.

Open up Windows Disk Cleaner. Go to "Clean up System Files" --> Tick the box "Upgrade log files" , "Windows error reports...", "Driver packages", "Old upgrade files", and whatever else you feel is necessary.  --> Click OK en wait.  --> reboot --> attach TypeCover. --> trusty FN key light should come on and its working again.

There is also a "Windows error reports...", in the standard menu of the Disk Cleanup tool but I'm not sure if that is the same.

SIDENOTE:

This goes without saying but removing windows log files and old updates is not completely without danger so make a backup first.

Also, at the same time I was trying this I also uninstalled almost all HID drivers in the Device Manager (because what the heck), but I don't think this helped because other people have already tried that as well. Your Surface will probably go through an update as soon as you reboot again but that is Ok. It should also install the HID drivers again automatically if you uninstalled them before.

           Surface Pro 4 (2015), i5 Skylake 6300U, 8gb, with the 2017 Type Cover

I went to this PC fair and a company was offering repair for this issue. The staff said that its a motherboard issue and it’ll cost two hundred plus Singapore dollars to repair. 😞

If its true, what caused this motherboard failure? ☹️

My Surface Pro 4’s screen is starting to fail. It’ll pain lesser to change to a new laptop.  But still feel down over the keyboard’s failure.

>Although I see Amazon is now showing it as currently unavailable.<

Looks like most of similar keyboard devices show as currently unavailable as

well.

First, I recommend you uninstall any third party AV and stay with Windows

Defender. Second, typecovers that stop working - there are too many threads

about this to count. For most people, once this happens, there is nothing you

can do to fix. Microsoft has not acknowledged that this is a known hardware

issue and treats these as individual failures.

I uninstalled all 3rd party AV, followed with numerous attempts to update to 1903, all of which failed. A good friend with PC expertise 'cleaned' out everything suspicious, but it appears that a previous W10 update must have left the equivalent of a spanner in the works, he couldn't find what was hampering the updates. 

We reset the PC, it updated itself, and it's now operating on 1903. 

But no typecover driver...  

The cover is securely attached and the connections are ultra clean.

I'm currently using a Logitech K780 keyboard, but will investigate the option described by ColinLow1 above, i.e. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AJOX7LU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

Although I see Amazon is now showing it as currently unavailable.  Maybe it sold out while I was resolving W10 update problems!

First, I recommend you uninstall any third party AV and stay with Windows

Defender. Second, typecovers that stop working - there are too many threads

about this to count. For most people, once this happens, there is nothing you

can do to fix. Microsoft has not acknowledged that this is a known hardware

issue and treats these as individual failures.