Surface Pro: Simple Device Orientation Sensor Not Work or Disconnected. Screen cannot rotate anymore.

Question

Hi, everyone.

I got a very strange problem. My device is Surface Pro. Today my screen cannot rotate anymore. It is not about a problem of locking rotation since the lock option actually disappear - there are only brightness option left just like a normal laptop. I check the device manager and found that there are some problem with the Simple Device Orientation Sensor. It says that this device is currently not connected to the computer, please unplug it and try again. I try reboot my machine many times, not work; I try restore Windows, not work; I even try delete all partitions on my harddrive, including EFI and restore partition and reinstall Windows, still not work. I have no idea how to fix it anymore. Please help me!!

This happened I try live Android-ia (an Android x86 developed specific for Intel and UEFI computer). After I live the Android and reboot, the sensor does not work anymore. This is the most strange part: After I found the sensor does not work in Windows, I live the Android again and found that the sensor still work in Android...

Please, please, please, I need help with this problem!

Answer 1

For everyone's future reference:  There IS a fix for this that doesn't involve sending your Surface back to MS.

Step #1 - Boot your Surface into Windows 8.

Step #2 - Hold the volume rocker in the up position and hold down on the power button until the Surface shuts down.  Continue holding down both the volume up and power buttons until the Surface turns back on and show's it's "Surface" splash screen.  Continue holding down both bopouttons until the Surface turns off a second time.  Release both buttons.

Step #3 - Turn your Surface on once again.  If you've done everything right, you should see "Updating Your System" appear on the splash screen along with a percentage counter.  Don't touch the Surface until it completes this process and you find yourself at the lock screen.

EDIT: Since this is now marked as the answer - while I saw the "Updating Your System" message the first time I performed this reset, I have not seen it in subsequent repetitions of the procedure.  Not sure if something changed, or if perhaps I just had an update I didn't catch queued up before I did the reset.  In any case, DO NOT assume that your reset was not successful just because you do not see the "Updating Your System" message.

Step #4 - Login and confirm you have rotation and tilt again!

I spent far too many hours fighting this before a Surface tech support agent finally suggested the procedure above, likely prompted by someone higher up the chain monitoring the call (he told me that a "colleague" suggested the procedure).  He explained the effect of this procedure to me as telling the Surface to "forget everything it knows about the hardware and start from scratch"  - my guess is that it did some kind of firmware reset and overwrote whatever nastiness Android-IA originally caused.  He also said this procedure is a good thing to try if you find that the cover or windows key stops working. 

Hope this helps someone avoid the hours of frustration I experienced!

Answer 2

Have you tried restoring your system from a prevous recover point before the issue started happening?

Answer 3

Greetings HuangTommy_megahjt,

Sorry to hear about your Surface. Are you using your own copy of Windows on the Surface, or are you still using the factory image?

Answer 4

I try both. Both not work.

Answer 5

Hello Jinho93HuangTommy_megahjt,

Sorry to hear you are having issues with the orientation sensor.

Since you have done a reset and the issue persists, please contact support here.

Hope this helps.

Best regards.