Yet another report of problems with the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. This time the symptoms involve a suddenly dead Type Cover, a missing driver — and no help from Microsoft. There are tantalizing hints that the bug arrived with a recent pushed software update, and it may affect some Surface Pro 3 machines as well.
- Hid Keyboard Device Driver Surface Pro 3
- Hid Keyboard Device Driver Surface 10
- Hid Keyboard Device Driver Error
Poster kzh91 on the Microsoft Answers forum describes the problem:
Dec 07, 2015 Type Cover Driver for Surface Pro 4. Hi, I accidently deleted the software driver for the type cover and now it only appears as an HID keyboard device in my device manager. I tried googling around for the driver for the type cover but I couldn't find it. Any ideas on how to fix? Oct 17, 2015 Surface Pro 3 Type Cover Not Working. Discussion in 'Tech-to-Tech Computer Help' started by Mainstay. Just generic HID keyboard Device (x2) appear in Keyboards. I dont have a surface pro 3 but I have a surface pro 1 and its a little pita sometimes. The in-box driver cannot service a button that is not wired to an interrupt line. For such buttons, you need to write a driver that exposes the button as a HID button and reports state changes to the HID class driver (Microsoft-provided). Your driver could be a HID source driver or a HID transport driver. Guidance for supporting HID buttons.
After a recent surface pro 4 firmware update, my 'surface type cover filter device' driver disappeared, and my type cover no longer works. … I have tried doing a restart, hard restart, uninstalling the existing keyboard drivers and clicking on scan for hardware changes, but the surface type cover filter device doesn't come back. My type cover was attached throughout this process. I do not wish to refresh windows as i don't want to have to reinstall everything, and i can't roll back the surface firmware updates.
HID is a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) for 'Human Interface Device'. Microsoft uses this term for most input devices (keyboard and mice typically). In the device manager, it just refers to keyboard that uses the standard microsoft driver. You may have two if you have used a docking port or have installed other speciality keyboard drivers. Apr 20, 2017 The in-box driver cannot service a button that is not wired to an interrupt line. For such buttons, you need to write a driver that exposes the button as a HID button and reports state changes to the HID class driver (Microsoft-provided). Your driver could be a HID source driver or a HID transport driver. Guidance for supporting HID buttons.
Looking at the other complaints on that thread, it appears as if refreshing Windows doesn’t help at all. For some subset of Surface Pro 4 users (no doubt a “small number” of customers), the keyboard doesn’t work, and Microsoft isn’t answering questions.
I'm not sure if this will fix your problem but a few weeks ago my surface stopped recognising the keyboard existed (after a windows update). I tried all sorts including cleaning contacts and a reset of the surface nothing worked. In my case the 'Surface type cover filter device' did not appear in device manager but HID keyboard did.
On the Surfaceforums blog there’s a distressingly similar complaint about the Surface Pro 3. From poster rodmartinelli:
I have experiencing some trouble to setup my surface cover keyboard. Imazing 2 license key. It is a new device and has never worked. It appears in device manager as HID Keyboard but not Surface Cover. Tried to uninstall drivers and reinstall but still unsucessful. Tried to 'reset' drivers by holding Volume up + Power button for 10 seconds but it has just took me to bios menu. Does anyone knows if there is a different way to reset drivers or to change HID Keyboard driver to Surface proper driver?
There are similar reports from Singapore, on Windows Central, and many, many more on the Microsoft Answers forum. This report from JasonCliche seems particularly apropos:
Recently the keyboard cover stopped working. I can see it in the 'devices' section of the settings app but no keyboard light nor does any key-press work. When closing or opening the cover I can see it hide and show on the setting screen. So the OS see's the cover. It's just not registering any action on the keyboard. In the Devices portion of the Control Panel no errors show up. I tried alcohol swabs on magnets, two button reboot, normal reboot, reinstalling driver from keyboard section control panel, crying softly into my hands.. so I took it into the Microsoft store.
At the MS store, they plugged in a USB diagnostics drive and found that it was a driver issue (wish I took a screen shot). Hindi stories for kids panchatantra. We tried another keyboard and it didn't work. He said it was a recent failed MS update that probably caused the problem.
Hid Keyboard Device Driver Surface Pro 3
There’s been one report that upgrading from Windows 10 1607 to 1703 (Anniversary Update to Creators Update) solved the problem.
Hid Keyboard Device Driver Surface 10
I have no idea what's happening, but the ongoing complaints about bad Surface drivers and woeful support certainly strike a chord.
Hid Keyboard Device Driver Error
Have a problem with your Type Cover? Tell us about it on the AskWoody Lounge.