Venue 11 Pro Mobile Keyboard not working

I just bought the mobile keyboard for my Atom Venue 11 running Windows 8.1. It was working fine at first then suddenly on resuming from suspended mode, the keyboard and trackpad no longer works. However, the battery is still partially charged and can be detected on connection. Only the keyboard and trackpad stopped working. Please advise if this is a problem with the keyboard itself?

I am assuming this is not resolved by reseating the dock?    Do you have another dock or tablet to try to see if the problem follows one or the other?

I already tried to reseat the tablet as much as I could many times to see if it will work but to no avail. The battery seems fine but the keyboard and trackpad are non-functional. However, it seems that the tablet thinks that a keyboard is connected and refuses to bring up the on screen keyboard when it is docked into the keyboard. I also tried the Regedit settings in the forum but no effect. And right now I don't have another dock or tablet to test it on. 

Hi Brian, any other suggestion?

I'm on my 4th keyboard/battery combo. These things are not made correctly. I've had one go completely dead on me, keyboard and touchpad wouldn't work, and the rest.. the touchpads all malfunctioned with the clicking. Contact dell and get a replacement

My travel keyboard has seemingly suffered the same fate: was working fine since I bought it a few weeks ago apart from one glitch when it exhibited this same behaviour (not detected) following charging separately (i.e., not docked). On that occasion allowing the battery to fully discharge seemed to fix it and since then have only charged while docked.

Allowing both batteries to fully discharge and then re-charge hasn't rectified the problem this time.

I then updated the BIOS (from A10 to A12) and applied all other updates & fixes, patches, etc including a keyboard fix but still no good.

Unfortunately no other tablet available to test it and have tried re-seating ...

Any help would be appreciated.

Venue Pro 11 7130 i5

I should add that the tablet recognises the battery in the keyboard and continues to draw power from it (and charge it)

Having seen variations of this issue posted numerous times (see also: zingongle.wordpress.com ) it appears that the mobile keyboard suffers from a fundamental defect in that charging externally can instigate the slow beginning of mobile keyboard death.

If you're willing to invalidate your warranty - try the fix, otherwise send it back to Dell for a replacement and don't charge it externally again.

Having seen variations of this issue posted numerous times (see also: zingongle.wordpress.com ) it appears that the mobile keyboard suffers from a fundamental defect in that charging externally can instigate the slow beginning of mobile keyboard death. If you're willing to invalidate your warranty - try the fix, otherwise send it back to Dell for a replacement and don't charge it externally again.

How do you mean "don't charge it externally again"? The only way I can charge the keyboard is to plug the power to the micro USB port on the keyboard. 

Which fix are you referring to? Do you have a direct link? Appreciate your help.

Sounds like you are experiencing the same problem I am having with my keyboard. I also tried the full discharge and recharge to no avail. 

Btw, I logged a support call with Dell to ask for a RMA or replacement. No reply yet.

see: http://zingongle.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/dell-venue-11-pro-mobile-keyboard-touchpad-problems/ - this is the fix. "charging externally" = charging the keyboard directly via the USB connector (even when this is exclusively with the Dell charger & cable), as opposed to charging while connected to the tablet.

Yes, it is a joke that you are unable to charge directly without risk of issues. A perfect use case being the tablet living on the dock through the working day and you charge the keyboard directly so that you're fully charged when traveling. Well, this is no longer an option unless you wish to either keep getting them RMAd or invalidate your warranty with the fix. I suspect the reason this hasn't impacted more users is that only a minority charge their keyboards directly.

Good look with the RMAs - be prepared to wait for weeks (and weeks..) :(

Not quite sure what TPKB is saying here: I have no issue with charging (but do agree with the advice not to charge the keyboard separately) and I don't think LOBANG has a charging problem either. Our problem is the keyboard has stopped working!

The so-called fix [by Hendrickson NZ] appears to involve taking the keyboard apart and glueing all the connections, which may void any warranty, but if my keyboard was out of warranty I would quite happily try this fix. 

But I doubt that my problem is loose connections: these would surely manifest themselves quite early on ?  I have been using it daily for almost 4 weeks...

Looks like it will have to go back

one glitch when it exhibited this same behaviour (not detected) following charging separately (i.e., not docked).

I am suggesting that the root cause of all of your keyboard problems are that you've charged it separately, and that despite:

On that occasion allowing the battery to fully discharge seemed to fix it

it hasn't been resolved and the underlying USB-charging-keyboard-battery-related problem had not gone away, although the symptoms had temporarily been alleviated.

Even before taking apart my keyboard the touchpad functionality did eventually return by itself (no patches/updates applied for this to occur). Although at the same time as the touchpad functionality magically returned the battery in the keyboard was no longer being detected by the tablet. Prior to this point I had continued to charge externally as at the time I wasn't aware that the two things may have been related.

Having pulled the keyboard apart myself - I didn't move, wiggle, re-seat, or glue any of the other internal keyboard cables - just carefully disconnecting and reconnecting the battery inside the keyboard (as documented above). I can't say I noticed the battery cable feeling loose/disconnected - it appeared fine.

It was then ok until I foolishly charged it via USB again.

Merely re-connecting the battery did not bring back the touchpad (only the keyboard) - the battery needed to be reconnected whilst the tablet was connected to the keyboard and, in my case, in sleep mode. Others have had success restoring touchpad functionality by reconnecting the keyboard battery whilst the tablet was on.

[quote user="lord-flint"] one glitch when it exhibited this same behaviour (not detected) following charging separately (i.e., not docked).

I am suggesting that the root cause of all of your keyboard problems are that you've charged it separately, and that despite:

[/quote]

Ok I see what you mean by charging directly / externally by plugging the usb cable direct into the keyboard. I never did that as I did not even notice it can be done. I always charged via the tablet. So the failure of my keyboard is not caused by the direct / external charging. That I am sure.

I also connected and reconnected the connectors inside the keyboard so it is definitely not because of a loose connection. Maybe the loose connection is inside the docking connectors because I cannot get at that at all. 

I also connected and reconnected the connectors inside the keyboard so it is definitely not because of a loose connection.

Given you've already dismantled the keyboard - have you tried disconnecting/re-connecting the battery (in the keyboard) whilst the keyboard is attached to tablet and the tablet is in sleep mode (or even, awake/on)?