⟐ Answered March 20, 2025 at 7:45 MST

Long story short: She has lived on 3rd-7th generation Microsoft Surface devices because the one true painless keyboard for her is the one on the Surface 3 Pro Type Cover. She has used this keyboard and not anything made more recently. All was fine until...The release of the Surface 8 line. As of the Surface 8, the connector design has changed. With that, she has not been able to upgrade her machine since.

My mission (or yours if you choose to accept it) is to find/construct an adapter such that an older Surface Keyboard can be connected to a recent model Microsoft Surface.

Difficulty? Expense? Pointers?

ADVThanksANCE

⟐ Edited by author December 03, 2024 at 2:15 MST

thank you

⟐ Answered April 11, 2024 at 22:35 MST

I've just replaced an SP3 screen. I've done a number before without issues.

Prior to replacement the screen was cracked and the display froze on the surface boot logo. Sort of as if the bios were engaging but couldn't find the drive to load up the OS.

prior to removing the screen I waited until the battery was dead and then went ahead. the screen came off relatively easily, no trauma to any cables apart from the digitiser, which was dead anyway. in cleaning the edges of adhesive I tore the copper strip on top of the USB port - but that's replaced now and certainly no damage to the physical port underneath.

I now get no response from the hardware at all. no screen light, but also nothing hardwareish like the fan going or the processor warming etc.

I've tried hard resets and i've tried booting to UEFI and to a usb image. all without any noticeable change. this is not a DOA screen as the old screen is exhibiting the same behaviour.

the charge port works fine. I've measured the voltage of the battery before (7.4v) and after (8.7v) charging and the top right of the tablet gets warm after a chunk of time on charge. the keyboard lights up as well; and is responsive to the caps and Fn keys (the light turns on and off).

any clues about where to search for issues? Anyone know where I can find the circuit schematics to trace the power lines?

⟐ Commented February 03, 2024 at 8:28 MST

Anyone with experience with this please help. Thanks!

⟐ Commented December 30, 2023 at 12:28 MST

⟐ Commented September 11, 2023 at 7:33 MST

Every time I touch my touchpad (which usually acts as a mouse) on my Surface Pro 3, my screen turns off. It doesn't shut down the whole tablet, it basically just locks it. The mouse icon might move slightly with my finger, but after about a second my screen goes black. I can touch a key on the keyboard to turn the screen back on, and log back in, but if I use my touchpad again the same error happens. So my keys work fine, but my touchpad does not.

I tried to toubleshoot this and held the Power and Up volume buttons for 10 seconds, when I saw a factory re-set type of screen the touchpad worked fine, so I know that it does still work.

Can anyone help me with this? I know I can just touch the screen instead of the pad, but I'm so used to using the touchpad, I'd love to be able to use it again!

Thanks!

⟐ Commented May 20, 2023 at 10:20 MST

I recently bought a new computer as the pro was getting old, and my concern is not the device, but the data. I last backed up the pro about a month ago. There is data on there I need access to. Is there a way of getting it?

Thank you very much.

⟐ Commented March 05, 2023 at 20:28 MST

⟐ Answered February 03, 2023 at 2:05 MST

He did a dumb and did not isolate the battery before connecting the new display and fried the backlight on the device. We tried multiple confirmed working displays and all yielded the same result: no backlight. It would seem that the problem is board-level. I am attempting repair, but since there seem to be no available boardview or schematic files available for this device, I am at a loss for where to start troubleshooting.

Has anyone attempted this repair or have insight into this problem?

⟐ Commented December 16, 2022 at 19:32 MST

I get .85V at the battery connection with the charger plugged in. The battery is completely dead.

Update - I replaced the motherboard today with a supposed good motherboard. Still no reaction when pressing the power button or +volume and powerbutton together.

Could a faulty powerbutton cause this? Anyone know what I could short on the motherboard to simulate the power button being pressed?

⟐ Answered November 21, 2022 at 7:30 MST

⟐ Answered June 27, 2022 at 22:31 MST

⟐ Commented May 03, 2022 at 9:49 MST

hope if anyone could help

i have an idea that i think that could possible wake up a dead SP3 if the problem is related to battery issue

the last state for battery after several tries to open it was indicate 0% then i connect it to charge and shut it down while i don't know that i must let it charge before shut down so now it doesn't turn on again

my SP3 now is totally dead and Microsoft confirm that the only way to repair it is to replace. so i would try if i could solve it without teardown the tablet

by try and error approach

so is there one have a clue or have an open SP3 tablet could help me to find a way

My idea is to check if i could wake my lithium ion battery from outside ,as i read something about boost a sleep battery from this article:

(http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/artic...)

• Some Li-ion chargers (Cadex) include a wake-up feature, or “boost,”
• Boost applies a small charge current to raise the voltage to between 2.2V/cell and 2.9V/cell to activate the protection circuit, at which point a normal charge commences.

so in the video link below i think that what get happen to this battery for example:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFd1CXbR...)

as the USB charge is a low current than the normal one

(and there is more than one example for this problem can be checked on youtube)

so if someone could tell me his experiments to check and analyze what happen for every pin that is connect to battery and what happen when change the volt or amber to its corresponding on battery side

all what i believe that it is 4 cell(the 6 charger pin on each side.)

and that the polarity is opposite as it could be connected in either way

wonder why the number of the charger socket is more than the pin of charger

so then i would try if i could signal the battery to wake it up so i wont replace it through Microsoft for new one

thank you everyone

⟐ Commented December 20, 2021 at 7:51 MST

The device powers up, fans running, surface logo shows up and just stays there for minutes. Sometimes for no reason at all it will boot eventually and sometimes not. As there is no post screen I cannot tell why.

Things I have tried so far:

• Reinstalling Windows 10 and all updates
• Installing Ubuntu just to make sure
• Wiping the surface by MS Surface Data Eraser (https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/surface...)
• Resetting UEFI settings
• Reboots with volume up/down
• with keyboard attached / unattached with external display and so on…
• biting nails, raindances, voodoo, screaming…

I do not think that the BIOS or UEFI for that matters is fubar OR the SSD is dead as the system generelly does boot but takes ages to do so.

Any hints on how to make sure without disassambling it?

⟐ Answered May 29, 2021 at 2:28 MST

⟐ Answered May 29, 2021 at 2:26 MST

The charger LED is white, which according to the Microsoft website indicates a charge.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

⟐ Answered May 29, 2021 at 2:17 MST

any other suggestions?

⟐ Commented March 15, 2021 at 12:22 MST

After going crazy for a while, I noticed how warped the case was, as well as a bit warmer than typical. It was not super hot, but warmer. Playing with it a bit I found that straightening the case manually, caused the light on the cord or the dock to relight and the system functions to work fine. Alternatively, I can press the screen in just over the power cord connector area and cause the power to reconnect, as well.

The repair of this condition seems to indicate a repositioning of the power connector in the SP 3, itself, due to the extra heat warping the case further than usual. I tried filing down the power cord connector so I could reposition it a bit, but that approach did not seem to reconnect the power like straightening the case or pressing on the power connector area accomplished. Also, if I leave the unit in the dock with power connected to it, and the SP 3 off for a period, it will reconnect to the dock and the charge light will go on again. To me, it seems to point at the connection of the power connector to the board or, possibly a missing spacer piece at that junction. However, that should keep the power from connecting at all, by all accounts I’ve read.

I am loath to take another SP 3 screen off as I broke the last on after taking 2/3rds of it off with no problem. Then, I ran into similar problems another adventurer your list had in not getting the replacement screen working after removal of his. I bought a used on one that costs about the same as a new screen, and now I have a power problem to deal with. :(

Any suggestions from iFixit or other adventurous owners??

Thanks!