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My Surface Book i7... Some keys stopped working

enag50

New Member
Few days ago, all of a sudden my surface book i7 key's U, H, N, S and 8 stopped working. I have tried factory reset and I have tried installing the drivers and I have also turn on and off filter keys... and I still can't figure it out.

Please I would be grateful if someone can help me out on what to do.

Thanks
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Few days ago, all of a sudden my surface book i7 key's U, H, N, S and 8 stopped working. I have tried factory reset and I have tried installing the drivers and I have also turn on and off filter keys... and I still can't figure it out.

Please I would be grateful if someone can help me out on what to do.

Thanks
Look for dust or debris where the connections connect. Anything spill on it?
 
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enag50

New Member
Look for dust or debris where the connections connect. Anything spill on it?

Not at all.. nothing spill on it and I have tried several times cleaned it up same issue. I'm currently trying to download update and see if that will stop it. I'm really glad for your respond.. thanks alot.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Not at all.. nothing spill on it and I have tried several times cleaned it up same issue. I'm currently trying to download update and see if that will stop it. I'm really glad for your respond.. thanks alot.
It is possible that the base is damaged....If it is salvageable one way to check is power the device completely off, hold the volume rocker up and power on the machine while holding the volume rocker until the Surface Logo appears, that will kick you into the UEFI screen, exit and reboot without changing any settings.
 
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enag50

New Member
It is possible that the base is damaged....If it is salvageable one way to check is power the device completely off, hold the volume rocker up and power on the machine while holding the volume rocker until the Surface Logo appears, that will kick you into the UEFI screen, exit and reboot without changing any settings.


I have done that over and over and it did't work... Every other thing are working fine apart from these particular keys, U,J,N,S,8 [
I'm currently downloading updates and trying to download drivers from Microsoft.
 

pol128

New Member
Same here...I thought I got Windex on base when wiping the keyboard down, but none of the keys are came back a couple of hours later a using a drying (figure at least one would come back). Ones out are S, D, U, O, 8, 9 , [, ], -, =, N, M and others. Using a USB keyboard to type this. I checked Windows updates and I haven't seen anything recent.
 
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enag50

New Member
Same here...I thought I got Windex on base when wiping the keyboard down, but none of the keys are came back a couple of hours later a using a drying (figure at least one would come back). Ones out are S, D, U, O, 8, 9 , [, ], -, =, N, M and others. Using a USB keyboard to type this. I checked Windows updates and I haven't seen anything recent.

I'm still battling with mine... I even went to the length of formating the whole C drive and installing a fresh windows 10... It still have same issues and I have checked online it seems like microsoft do not sale the keyboard separately which is very annoying for an expensive computer.
 

pol128

New Member
I'm still battling with mine... I even went to the length of formating the whole C drive and installing a fresh windows 10... It still have same issues and I have checked online it seems like microsoft do not sale the keyboard separately which is very annoying for an expensive computer.

I love my Surface, but I just hate that if the base is toast, I can't get a reliable replacement from Microsoft. It is Ebay or nothing if the keys don't just fix themselves. Just wish MS would think about the pro consumer and sell the base separately! I just hate that now I might have a gimped base keyboard, with a perfectly working tablet. I guess I can use the Surface Book with an external keyboard and mouse as a "desktop", but what a waste. I was wanting to wait for the "Surface Book 3" for possible Thunderbolt, but this disappointment makes me wonder. The lack of support or ability to fix anything is just disappointing (and, no, Apple doesn't do it any better). I think Pros would give up "thinness" for ports/maintainability/upgradabillity.
 

pol128

New Member
I love my Surface, but I just hate that if the base is toast, I can't get a reliable replacement from Microsoft. It is Ebay or nothing if the keys don't just fix themselves. Just wish MS would think about the pro consumer and sell the base separately! I just hate that now I might have a gimped base keyboard, with a perfectly working tablet. I guess I can use the Surface Book with an external keyboard and mouse as a "desktop", but what a waste. I was wanting to wait for the "Surface Book 3" for possible Thunderbolt, but this disappointment makes me wonder. The lack of support or ability to fix anything is just disappointing (and, no, Apple doesn't do it any better). I think Pros would give up "thinness" for ports/maintainability/upgradabillity.
 

pol128

New Member
Ok...it has been 24 hours and none of the affected keys have come back. Unless it is some type of issue with a connector, I doubt this is a liquid/dust issue as I figure at least a couple will have come back. Being the case, I've taken it as a machine failure and planning on doing an out-of-warranty for $600 (plus tax). Only annoyances, besides having to restore from an image on the replacement machine, is that I am getting a refirbrished machine with only a 90 day warranty. Rolling the dice on that with only 90 days (I've watched enough Youtube on the horrors of refirbs), but not ready to do a full upgrade either.
 

sharpuser

Administrator
Staff member
I had very small metal shavings interfering with my Surface Book 15 inch 1TB about six months ago. The connector has magnetic assist, which has the downside of also attracting metallic debris.

I did a very careful swipe with a magnetic rubber strip from the hardware store. Some tiny slivers must have been shorting or interfering with a contact.

That is the second time I had problems with debris in a Surface connector. My SP3 would not recognize that the keyboard was connected. After a week of frustration, I realized that a tiny piece of the vinyl skin I applied to protect my Surface Pro 3 was hanging into the slot. Simple fix to pull it out, and clip it off.
 

Xavyer

New Member
I have the exact same problem, no warranty available, what did you do? i'm trying to fix it by my self but I don't know where to begin. So frustrating!!
 
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