Venue 11 Pro 7140 travel keyboard problem

Hi. I have a Venue 11 pro 7140 and have recently added the travel keyboard. I've found a problem though which I'm hoping for some help with. When I plug the tablet into the keyboard the power light flashes white once then 4 short amber flashes then repeats indefinitely. Checking the power meter app also shows battery 2 as not present. I can use the mouse and keyboard but nothing I do seems to help with the flashing problem. When I connect the tablet to the ac charger with the keyboard attached the light just flashes amber. I've also attempted to separately charge the keyboard using the power adapter directly connected to it's micro USB port for about 6 hours and it has made no difference. Any help on what could be the problem and what the flashing means is appreciated. Darren.

This most likely means that the travel keyboard battery is dead.   Because it is dead, the tablet can't identify it and thus won't charge it.   To resolve this, undock your tablet and then plug the AC adapter directly into the charge port on the dock (in the hinge area where the bottom of the tablet would normally be).   Charge it up for 20-30 minutes.   After this, it should have enough charge that the tablet can identify it and thus charge it through the tablet.   To avoid this, don't allow the dock battery to completely deplete.

Hi Brian. Thanks for the response.

As mentioned I have attempted to separately charge the keyboard with the power adapter directly connected to it's micro USB port. I have allowed it to charge overnight before again docking it to the tablet.

This made no change to the battery presence in the power meter or the flashing lights.

I haven' been able to find any information on what the single white flash followed by 4 quick amber flashes mean. Do you have any info on this?

Thanks

Darren

I have a similar issue.  I just received the keyboard with battery and it will not show up in windows and Dell battery manager says it's not detected.  I have attempted to charge the keyboard using it's micro usb port.  When I first plug it in after about 20 seconds the white light on the side of the keyboard lights for 30 seconds then goes out.  I left it over night and I can't tell if it's charged (it's still not showing up in windows).

I have the i3 model with A15 BIOS.  The keyboard is A02

Hi Brian

I am having the exact issue as the rest of the people in this forum. Really not impressed by this. Hopefully you will have some solution to this as I am sure this information will be of help to other people.

thanks

+1 to that.  I picked up an ex-demo unit that is also showing these symptoms.  Tried lots of charging, but it always flashes white once and amber 4 times forever.

Hi Brian,

I just received a replacement keyboard from support. What I noticed with my initial keyboard battery is that I have no control over keeping a token charge in the keyboard. I start the day with a full charge, and the keyboard discharges first until it hits 0%, then the tablet battery kicks in.

I understand in principle that discharging the battery leads to its degradation over time. Is there a way to prevent it from discharging? Or is it a sign of a faulty keyboard that it discharges completely?

Thank you.

Be well,

Daniel A Gutstein

I have the same problem with my keyboard. It is so annoying

OK, further to my post above, some more details:

- 7140 is now on latest Bios & Drivers, ditto 7130: mobile keyboards have firmware updated

- 7130 on Win 8.1, 7140 on Win 10;

- 2 mobile keyboards are both OK on the 7130 & charge/discharge correctly, both show problems on the 7140 (battery not recognised) as described above. But, in some cases, the 7140 does recognise some part of the battery attached as part of the mobile keyboard since the battery time remaining more than doubles when it is attached.

- Both mobile keyboard batteries were charged as full before attaching to the 7140.

So, to me it would seem that mobile keyboard battery is not recognised on the 7140 on Window 10, but it is fine on Win 8.1 on the 7130.

My guess is that this is a Win10 driver problem but I don't want to update my 7130 to Win10 & lose functionality on that as well. Can anyone verify if their mobile keyboard battery is working on Win10, and if so on what model VenuePro 11 ?

NB - I do not see ANY lights on my mobile tablet keyboard.........

thx

Dave

I've got the same issue on windows 10 with a venue 7140, battery indicator shows 1st battery not present and 2nd battery as whatever % of charge, the things outlined in the thread already have not gotten a successful detection.

BEWARE ... after only a year and a half, my keyboard died. Of course it's out of warranty. Dell products are the worst!!! I will never buy a Dell product again!!!!