Surface Pro not recognizing keyboard

Question

I am trying to fix a Surface Pro 3/Windows 10 machine that will not detect the MS Keyboard (magnet). I have performed the Volume Up buttom and Power Button 'fix' and it fixed nothing. I have borrowed another keyboard from another system and it doesn't see it either. I have performed Windows Update and it didn't fix. Any ideas?

Answer 1

you can try the following suggestions:

1. Restart Surface

Restart (don't shut down) your Surface. Select the Start button, then select Power > Restart.

2. If you have a Type Cover, detach and reattach it

a. Unplug your Surface and detach the Cover.

b. Wet a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol. (Use 95% or stronger isopropyl alcohol if possible.) Rub the cotton swab back and forth over the six circular magnets on the Type Cover's connector. After you're done, make sure the pins are dry and that no cotton fibers remain on the connector. Then clean the connector on your Surface.

c. Reattach the Cover, making sure that all the magnets touch the bottom edge of your Surface.

3. Reinstall the Surface Cover driver If shutting down doesn't fix the problem, try reinstalling the driver for your Surface Cover.

a. Select the search box in the taskbar, enter device manager, and select Device Manager in the results.

b. Expand Keyboards.

c. Right-click Surface Type Cover Filter Device.

d. Select Uninstall > OK.

e. Restart your Surface. It'll automatically download and install the Surface Cover driver the next time you connect to the Internet.

Answer 2

Preface: I've tried many googled terms to figure out this problem.

• I've done the 2-button hard-reset.
• Looked for Type Cover in the UEFI Bios settings (Which for Surface Pro 3 didn't exist).
• I've tried disabling Bootable Dock
• I've tried draining the battery
• I've tried regediting Connected Standby
• I've tried disabling Sleep and Fast Start.
• I've tried to uninstalling just the Type Cover drivers (deleting them too). Repeated attempts and none of these worked.

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So with all that said, here's my method:

First, be sure to have a valid internet connection as this method will download drivers from Microsoft.

1. Go to Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Devices and Printers
2. Open the Properties of "Surface Type Cover" and select the Hardware tab.
3. From this tab, open the properties of each associated device. Uninstall each device, deleting drivers when the option is available.
4. After all items have been uninstalled (The Surface Type Cover Properties Hardware tab will NOT update as you do this), You can close the open windows.

Next, Open Device Manager:

1. "Scan for Hardware CHanges"
2. Expand the following groups: Firmware & Keyboards.
3. Under Firmware, update all drivers using "Search Automatically for updated driver software"
4. Under Keyboards, you should see several "HID Keyboard Device". There's no quick way to identify which is the Surface Type Cover. I performed driver updates as noted before in Firmware for each Keyboard until the Surface Type Cover was installed. That's it. No reboot was necessary. Keyboard started working right away.

Good luck!!!