Venue 11 pro keyboard keeps disconnecting

To others - please don't try this if you are not comfortable with the risks described in the previous emails.   This will negatively impact your battery life.

1) Run regedit

2) Browse to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\

3) Locate each entry labeled VID_06CB&PID_2819xxxxx (I have four on my machine, one that ended in 2819 only and three others with 2819&MI_0x where x is 0, 1 and 2)

4) Expand each tree until you get to the "Device Parameters" and click on it

5) On the right side of the editor, you'll see an entry for "SelectiveSuspendEnabled".   Change the value from 1 to 0.

6) Repeat for each VID_06CB&PID_2819xxxxx entry.

7) Close regedit, shut down and restart.

8) Check if this has resolved the issue or not.

I did the regedit yesterday, and for the last 24 hours I've had no problems.  they keyboard seems very responsive now and no need to turn off & on.  from the regedit description I'm concerned about battery life, but thus far I don't see any real battery life changes.

For those who are not comfortable with going into the registry settings, here is a walk through of how to do the same thing using the regular menus:

*These steps will only work while the keyboard dock is connected and functional at the time of execution*

-#Please forgive any upcoming typos, as there probably are going to be a few#-

Step 1: Navigate your way to This PC (formally known as "My Computer") & click System properties.  If you don't see this option, make sure you are in the leftmost Computer tab (not View)

Step 2: Click Device Manager to enter it (affirmatively confirm any user prompts that may pop up in between, if needed)

Step 3: Click on the little triangle next to Human Interface Devices to expand its list of devices downward

Step 4: You should notice 3 "USB Input Device" items toward the bottom of this expanded list and they should represent the keyboard dock hardware in the same 3 instances DELL-BRIAN B references in the registry tweaks.  We will be going into these one at a time and making ONE simple change inside (do NOT deviate from the single change to come unless you are an advanced user).

To start on the first of these 3 items, double-click the top item of the trio to open its Properties box.

Step 5a: To confirm that you are in the right place, we will check in the Details tab for the Hardware Ids property values to ensure they match what we are looking for.

Step 5b: The same identifiers will prevail with "2819&MI_0x where x is 0, 1 and 2" properly identifying the items we seek to alter.

*Note: we have NOT changed anything in Steps 5a & 5b...merely confirming the generic "USB Input Device" item that was double-clicked to enter this Properties box.  It is POSSIBLE to have more than of set of these generic items (depending on what else you may have connected to your system at the time of executing this fix).

Step 6 (ALMOST DONE): Click on the Power Management tab to show the checked "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" box.  This is the culprit that shuts down the keyboard dock on us (the GUI representation of Selective Suspend).

Step 7:  UNCHECK THE BOX and then click OK. 

DO THIS FOR EACH OF THE 3 ITEMS DISPLAYED FROM STEP 4.

Step 8: After completing the unchecking of each of the 3 items' boxes, close all open programs and restart Windows.  This should do the trick.  You do NOT have to do this each boot or anything or at all again. One time deal.

If you are reading this as a novice, you can now disregard the rest of this post, lol.

//beginning of geek stuff

So, yeah, I am noticing that Selective Suspend was built into the driver that the dock(s) utilize (I'm guessing, as an inherited property) and it is not only utilized, but ENABLED by default.  A specialized driver may be in order or simply a maintenance fix by way of a .reg file that just adds "SelectiveSuspendOn"=dword:00000000 to Device Parameters for each of the 3 2819&MI_0x entries (would be the same as unchecking each of the 3 boxes in the Device Manager properties for each).  I think that is all that is needed.  The manual registry method Brian suggests removes the option of Selective Suspend away from the system for the device (as not to accidentally enable it again later), but simply disengaging it is sufficient and would probably work out easier for its implementation in a maintenance fix.

I am really liking my DV11P and hope for great things to come.  geek out//