My Surface Book i7... Some keys stopped working

[MikemanSP4]

I found out the there is no need to drill the keyboard.
There are small pins, but they are difficult to remove. And there are many.
I removed all of them and take out the keyboard. It is glued to the metal frame.
Once you take it off the metal frame you can see the circuits.

They are small and you need a Magnifying glass to follow them.
All my not working keys are on the same line. But on the same line there are also other keys. I'm almost sure some welding is broken. But I need more time.

WOW! Thank you for the pictures and robust response! Have you thought of (and I am sure you have) using a multi-meter to test the connectivity (pin-out) of the welds you mentioned? Understood that your dealing with micro-circuitry and often times a multi-meters leads are often times too big unless you use a pin-out adapter. I have used this method many times when testing some sort of electronic device that has gone dead or malfunctioned some manner.

You more than likely already have a long list of browser bookmarks pertaining to the tear-down of the Surface Book 2 - here is one I stumbled into that might/might not help you in your endeavor. ( Microsoft Surface Book 2 Teardown ).....What would REALLY help would be an actual circuit diagram - this would help in testing out the embedded wires. I would really like to upgrade my Surface Pro 4 SSD, but I am unable to find a complete part listing/reassembly guide. I can find a 1TB SSD for around $250 on Ebay, but full circle back to the reassembly conundrum. Yayy.

Question - IN your pictures above, the third picture from the top shows a part bin with small rivets or something like that - Are these the "PINS" you are referring to? Do they 'Snap!' back into place? Just curious if they are a "one-way" use once part. OR, perhaps can they simply snap back into place providing a "good-as-new" repair? (I just depleted the world supply of quotation marks).

Thanks for listening to me ramble - Things like this really wind me up. Again - thanks for your reply.

Mike H

 

[Luca]

Hello, I cannot use a multimeter. The circuits you see in the last photo are on the inside. The outside part is only plastic.
I know Ifixit.com, it helped me a lot to disassemble my surface keyboard. But i went further, since no one on the web disassembled it to this point.

If you want to replace your hdd you should by samsung evo 970. on ifixit you can find a guide.
to reassemble it is not difficult. but you have to glue the screen. you need to remove all the residue double side tape, than use a glue like B7000 and clamp it with at least 8 clamps.
you can find some videos on youtube.

in the third picture you can see the rivets I was referring to. I don't think they are disposable. I think you can reuse them. I'll try. Anyway if they don't snap back into place, i'll use some glue to fix them.

 

[Luca]

The new keyboard has arrived!
20 dollars

I'll tell you if it works...

 

[Luca]

 

[Luca]

Done!
It works! So we now know the problem is the keyboard circuit.

The only problem is that the keyboard is Chinese, nor great quality and they inverted the keys "del" and the key to detach the screen (as you can see in the photo) and this key has some problems It doesn't always detach the display and it also doesn't have any led light.

There are also some function keys in the wrong position. F3 f4 f5 and f6 are wrong. I replaced them with the original keys. I actually replaced all the keys...

 

[Luca]

I forgot to say that you need to use some glue to secure the small rivets that hold the keyboard otherways they come off easily

 

[Tomas]

Hi Luca,
Could you please share with us the link or website you bought the replacement keyboard from? Ive been searching online with no luck.
Thanks.

Tomas

 

[Luca]

NEW for Microsoft Surface Book Keyboard 1705 for Surface Book (First Generation) 663591132897 | eBay

 

[Wayne Orwig]

I forgot to say that you need to use some glue to secure the small rivets that hold the keyboard otherways they come off easily

Great work.

Did the base come unglued with heat?

If you used a super glue on the rivets, those outgas. Hope it doesn't damage the keyboard contacts.

 

[Luca]

To unglue the base was really difficult without deforming it. But yes you need to heat it. I used iFixit heater, but I thing a heat gun works better. Be careful not to heat too much because under the cover panel there are the batteries.

I started with a very small screwdriver to lift the panel. The glue is very strong. Than I continued with a plastic tool.



I used a very small quantity of glue on the rivets. I put a drop of glue on a toothpick to dose it. You can see it in my photos. It is impossible the that the glue damages the contacts because it doesn't touch them. Anyway the contacts are enclosed between two plastic sheets.

Than to punt the rivers in place I used a small cylindrical tool (you can see in the photos) and a small hammer.

Be careful when you lay the keyboard on the table and press the rivets in, because if the hinge (with the display contacts) is on the table you can break it. So when you lay the keyboard on a table be sure the hinge is outside the table.

 

[Luca]

Update!

If you don't glue the rivets they will come off and you will have to disassemble you surface again...

 

[harveym]

Hello,
I have the same problem. Most of the keys are suddenly not working, ie. all of them except for B,N,M,comma, G,H. The Fn key light works and the detach screen key works.
This has never happened before for any key (had it for over a year) but just before I first noticed it , I noticed the Fn key light was always on, would not go off. Also there had been some repeating notices about an unrecognised USB device, even though there was no device attached (I shut down /restarted).
Really not sure what could have caused this . the only thing is I did make a very small splash (and only near a few of the keys, I thought it would not be enough to do any harm) recently.
Have tried uninstalling/reinstalling keyboard devices from device manager, and cleaning the contacts.
Very glad to have found this forum, I must say not looking forward to trying replacing the keyboard though! I would also be worried whether the detach key might stop working. Hope everyone keeps posting any ideas/experiences.