Dell Venue 11 keyboard turns off the tablet??

Has anyone ever resolved this issue by Resetting their tablet?   This is the latest direction I have been given by Dell's Technical support.  I really don't want to do a reset and go through all that hassle if it doesn't actually work.

Anyone?

Resetting the tablet will NOT work. I have already done this, it was probably one of the first things I tried. I also did some random settings that disables something in the keyboard Manager something-er-other... its like you have to be a wizard to know what to do. I just used it again on a flight and it shut down on me 3  times while trying to have my daughter watch something to keep her quiet, and each time it of course lead to cries and screams on the plane while I frantically rebooted to get it back. 

TERRIBLE TABLET. TERRIBLE KEYBOARD. RECALL OR REFUND OR EXCHANGE FOR DIFFERENT PRODUCT, PLEASE!!!!

I used to have the issue along with many of the other issues with this Tablet. After putting up with trying to fix with BIOS/Drivers etc I finally pushed Dell to resolve properly. They never did anything with my keyboard but attempted many fixes and component replacements on the Tablet, nothing worked. I kept pushing and in the end they took my old one back (9 months after I had purchased it) and gave me a brand new Tablet (same model) and I was sceptical but it has worked like a dream. So in my experience the Tablet is the part at fault not the keyboard and to get it resolved took many months with an open support case with Dell. It really should not be like this but I have to say I am glad I pushed as it is no longer an expensive prototype but the good all round Tablet it was meant to be in the first place.

I really think Dell should be more open about the issues with this Tablet, there have been many, and Recall/Replace/Refund for anyone experiencing these issues. I had to fight for it and put up with a lot but got there in the end. I urge anyone with these kinds of issues to just open a support case with Dell and get the Hardware sorted properly, most of the issues with it are not software/configuration related!

It was the keyboard docking station in my case The pins do not seem to all be a the same heighth and if the docking connection to the keyboard is not tight enough then the tablet shorts out. I went through 2 replacement keyboards (battery backup kind) until I got one that worked. They need to make those keyboards with pins set at the same heighth to avoid the problem and should work on tightening up the docking connection as this seems a bit on the loose side also

The pins should not all be the same height - this is by design.

If changing out the keyboard dock isn't resolving the problem then I would suspect there is an issue with the pogo (docking) board and or cables within the tablet itself.   I use these docks on multiple variants of the Venue 11 Pro daily (5130, 7130, 7140).   You can have a problem on either side that could result in various issues (depending on what is wrong) including sudden power off of the tablet, battery not charging in dock, keyboard or touchpad not working, zero functionality of dock, etc.

If you've tried another keyboard, the problem would be in the tablet itself.   

Hope this makes sense.

I can tell you that I've not had any of my personal units go bad in over a year of use, so there isn't an underlying design or software problem.   

Please contact support to get the appropriate parts replaced if you are still having issues.

Thanks.

The whole V11P and V8P fiasco was handled in a very bad way from Dell and it's still not changing.

Problems still exist, customers are handled in a different way / not consistent (e.g. Stylus and Dock issue. Some got theirs replaced without asking (just got new ones in mail), others even reporting problems were ignored. For the stylus, we have version 1,2 and 3. reported lots of times problems but never got any replacements or were told from support that there are no reported problems. We gave up even supporting any Dell tablets.

Not sure if Dell even cared or cares but we had plans to order a few hundreds as start and more to come for all our customer service employees first and following by dev. and management. 

We went with Microsoft instead and no issues at all.

Brian, 

What is the proper support number to call? I would like to reference the information from this forum to them. I have already tried calling before my warranty ran out in December, but they refused to send me a new tablet/keyboard and only suggested troubleshooting options which I have done multiple multiple times. Now that my warranty is up I hope they will still follow through if I could just have both the tablet and keyboard swapped out. I have a feeling this issue was fixed later in production and the first models were faulty according to some of the reviews. 

Mobile Devices (Phones) & Tablets
1-800-308-3355 24/7

There haven't been any significant changes to the keyboard dock since RTS - just minor firmware updates.

Arg... Since last week the tablet no longer charges the keyboard...
Now need to undock and use the micro-usb on the keyboard to charge it... the story continues...

Have I got a story for y'all!

I bought this machine with the travel keyboard, which has a supplemental battery.  The device would lose power sometimes when I closed the lid/keyboard.  I "fixed" the problem by disabling the battery, but before the warranty ran out, I reluctantly decided to try to get proper help from "tech support".  After spending many sessions and hours on the phone with tech support, they sent me a box so I could send it away to get fixed.  When it came back, it would lose power EVERY TIME when I closed the lid/keyboard.  After spending more hours on the phone with tech support, they sent me another box so I could send it away to get fixed.  It came back with a brand new keyboard, and appeared to be working fine.  Meanwhile, my warranty expired.  After a week, I emailed tech support to say that the problem appeared to be fixed.  After another week, the keyboard completely stopped working.  Keys, battery, trackpad: all of them did nothing; my situation now worse than what I had started with.  I called tech support once again.  After still yet more time wasted on the phone, they ostensibly agreed to send me a new keyboard.  About a week later, they called me to say that the order wasn't approved because the device was no-longer under warranty.  I attempted many times to explain that it was still Dell's responsibility to fix this problem, but to no avail.  Dell is the worst!

I'm having the same problem with the keyboard and my system is no longer under warranty. I'm reluctant to waste time calling Dell based on what I'm reading here. It appears it would be a waste of time. I have only purchased Dell Systems for the past 10 - 15 years because I was secure in getting a quality system and good technical support. This Venue Pro 11 has totally changed my mind. It appears that there should be a fix (driver, mechanical fix, etc) by now. I will not purchase another Dell laptop.

Sorry to say, but we have switched as an organisation to HP for our products from now on, Dell is about to lose some serious business all because they refuse to fix a keyboard for a tablet.

Brian has hit the nail on the head.  I have worked with Dell for 9 months to try to figure out why "closing the lid" caused my tablet to shut down.  In the end, it was the connector port on the tablet that was the problem.  In concert with many representatives at Dell technical support, I went through many software "fixes" over the phone(useless). My tablet took several trips to the service depot (useless!) even had a service call at my home to replace the mother board (useless). The keyboard was replaced several times. In the end, Dell finally agreed to send me a NEW (not refurbished) tablet when they were unable to secure a replacement for the connector port in a timely manner.

To their credit, all of the Dell support representatives were very polite on the phone and attempted to help me.  Unfortunately, I don't think they do a very good job of documenting what they do when you're on these support calls, because they kept trying the same software/drive updates/bios update fixes over and over and over again.  

It wasn't until I finally was able to get my problem escalated to the "Advanced Resolution Group" that one person took over and eventually got me a tablet that now works perfectly.

It took 9 months!!!

While I appreciate that Dell finally got me a machine that works, having to spend so much time and push so hard on my part is not acceptable.  Especially when you're talking about a sub $500 device.  Most people probably just give up and throw it out. I almost did.  But I really can't afford to throw out $500.

Hey Inlineclass, how did you get your situation escallated to the advanced group? I also had to deal with phone calls and *** updates to no avail, and i denied them the motherboard replacement since I've already read from multiple people that it was useless to do so. It would be great to have the tablet exchanged as you mentioned.