Surface Pro Type Cover Keyboard Problems With Humidity?

Question

I travelled to a Northeast US costal area on vacation last week.  After a day there, all of my Type Cover keyboard's keys stopped working, but its built-in mousepad continued to work fine.  I tried all the troubleshooting options offered by Microsoft (run all updates, clean the connetions, reinstall the driver, the 30 second / 15 second button-pressing restart,  check accessibility settings, etc.) but nothing worked to fix the keys.  I spent 2-3 days working on it with the on-screen keyboard.  When I came back home and arrived in my office, I immediately tried the keyboard... and both the keyobard and its mousepad wouldn't work.  Then about 2 hours later, I tried it again, and both the keyboard and mousepad worked fine, even though I had made no changes to the computer.

This got me thinking about humidity: When I was away, I was in a very high humidity (it was foggy and near 100% humidity one day) and I was not in an air conditioned space.  Back home in my office, I have commercial air conditioning.

Anyone else experience these symptoms?

So, was it the humidity or something else...?

Answer 1

I experienced exactly the same phenomenon, hair-rending frustration and attempted similar useless remedies. I found no suggestion related to humid conditions.

I was on Cape Cod during the first part of August, by the ocean, rain, 95%+ humidity, high heat, no AC. After a day back home in conditioned space, keyboard and mouse worked perfectly. I came to the same conclusion that humidity was the culprit. I have not experienced this malfunction with other tablets or laptops in similar high humidity environments.

I did not have a hair dryer available but it might be a solution to drive out humidity; taking care not to get components too hot. I will try it next time.