Windows 10: Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Keyboard bluetooth constantly disconnects on sleep or inactivity

Hi Support,



I am having an issue that several people seem to have had before me. There are relevant threads at "Designer Bluetooth Desktop Keyboard bluetooth constantly disconnecting" and at "Bluetooth will not connect when the PC wakes up from sleep on Windows 10". Those threads are now both closed but without any solution being found.



I have just purchased the Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Keyboard to use with my desktop PC, running Windows 10 Home version 1903, and with my Dell work laptop. The desktop does not have inbuilt bluetooth, so I have a bluetooth USB dongle running a 4.0 version of bluetooth. The laptop has inbuilt bluetooth.



On first use, I used the pairing button on the underside of the keyboard and easily found the keyboard listed in available bluetooth devices - it has the following identifier: 4860025001F9_1.42 but once added it comes up as Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Keyboard - clicked on it, it connected automatically no pairing key required and it worked! Brilliant. I then browsed the web for a while, maybe 4-5 minutes, went to type in a box - no typing. Keyboard no longer connected. Listed under bluetooth as a paired device, but when you click on it there was no option to connect, only to Remove Device. So I removed the device, went to add bluetooth device, found it again no problem, reconnected, and it was working again.



This process repeats itself whenever the keyboard is idle for more than about 5 minutes or so, when the computer goes to sleep and when the computer restarts. It does not happen if you manually lock the screen then immediately go to enter your password again - it does however if you leave the keyboard idle for a few minutes and then attempt to log back in. You then of course cannot log in easily, as you no longer have a keyboard I had to use the ease of access on screen keyboard to log back in - this is pretty time consuming.



Options we have tried that have failed so far:

In device manager, finding every possible related device to the keyboard Human Interface Devices, Keyboards, bluetooth devices, USB controllers, even something called "Surface Ergonomic Keyboard Firmware Update" that appears under system devices and making sure that in Power Management the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option was unchecked, and for good measure checking the "Allow this device to wake the computer" was checked where this was an option.



Windows updates - all up to date and restarted.



Bluetooth connection services in Windows Services set to trigger automatically rather than manually.



Various Windows troubleshooters for bluetooth, keyboards and power settings - no problems identified it even says this when there is clearly no functional keyboard!



Power saving profile for the computer - doesn't have a bluetooth setting but wireless adapator is set for maximum performance. Generally the setting is for maximum performance.



Driver updates - ran update driver on all keyboard/bluetooth related devices - all came back and said best drivers were already installed. Uninstalled drivers manually before re-adding the keyboard via bluetooth. A search of the web has not revealed any Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Keyboard drivers available to download separately. I have noticed, as others have before me, that the drivers appear to date from 2006 - this seems a little old but is apparently standard for Microsoft bluetooth keyboards.



All of this is for my desktop PC, but the exact same problem occurred on my Dell work laptop. I do not have admin privileges for that so I could not try any of the fixes mentioned above, but as they don't work on my desktop it seems likely the issue is common to either the keyboard or Windows 10 unlikely to be an issue with the bluetooth adapter as they are different for the desktop and the laptop.



To recap - other bluetooth devices work with my laptop and stay connected. Other bluetooth devices work with my desktop and stay connected or reconnect automatically. Other keyboards that connect via USB work with both as well. I have not changed any other settings on my computer. By process of elimination the problem lies either with Windows 10 bluetooth settings or with this keyboard specifically.



I can see from a fair bit of searching that people have reported this and very similar issues with bluetooth keyboards including the Microsoft Designer keyboard going back to 2016.



I will admit I have not tried every single option previous support moderators have suggested as other users have reported they did not work and also seem wholly disproportionate for what should be a plug-and-play exercise e.g. complete reinstall of Windows 10. This issue renders the keyboard entirely useless - comfortable, very good looking, very expensive, but utterly unusable.



If anyone is aware of an update to this issue, or any way of solving it, I would be very grateful, otherwise the keyboard is going back as I note other users have already resorted to.



Thank you.



:)

 

Issues with Surface Ergonomic Keyboard

To isolate the concern, is your computer also freezing when you're not using the new keyboard? This is for us to know if the issue is being caused by the keyboard or a program on your computer.

In the meantime, kindly uninstall the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard drive, and then re-install it. To do this, follow the steps below:

• (Make sure the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard is connected) Right click the Start button.
• Click Device Manager.
• Expand Keyboards.
• Look for the driver of the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard. Right click the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard driver, and the choose,
  Uninstall.
• On the Confirm Device Removal dialog box, click the
  Delete the driver software for this device option to delete the driver package that was used for the device.
• After deleting the driver, visit this
  link and download the driver software.
• After downloading the driver software, run it to install.
• After installing the driver, restart your computer.
• After restarting, observe if your computer will freeze after waking up the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard.

After performing the steps, kindly share with us the result.

 

BLUTOOTH - Wake from Sleep & Navigate BOIS | Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Keyboard and Surface Precision Mouse

I have two problems. I've just built a new PC. The motherboard is the GIGABYTE Aorus Pro WiFi Z390, which has BT and WiFi on board. I have purchase Microsoft Surface Ergonomic Keyboard and Microsoft Surface Precision Mouse.

First Problem: I'm unable to enter the BIOS. It seems that until the OS loads the Keyboard has no connectivity. I have read that some Microsoft Keyboards connect over a different means during startup but I don't know if this is possible with their latest Surface Ergonomic Keyboard. Is it at all possible for me to get into the BIOS and navigate the BIOS?

Second Problem: Moving the mouse doesn't wake the PC from sleep. I've checked the power management options for the mouse and it already has permission to wake the PC from sleep. Why is the mouse not waking the PC from sleep?

The motherboard has ACPI 5.0 so surely these features should be working.

Am I ultimately going to need to buy an additional keyboard simply for entering the BIOS?

Many Thanks!!

 

How can I prevent bluetooth keyboard disconnect after inactivity whenever my computer is on?

I have two Microsoft Surface Ergonomic bluetooth keyboards, one at work and one at home.

With my work laptop running Windows 10 Pro, the keyboard is always 'on' and functional, ever since I did the traditional fix for this issue (turning off the setting in Device Manager that allows the computer to turn off the bluetooth radio to save power). This works great, and I've never had a problem with it.

I recently built a new PC at home (also running Windows 10 Pro), and I'm encountering an issue where after some period of inactivity (usually at some point after 5 minutes), the keyboard is not 'on', and only after 30 seconds+, sometimes longer) of hitting keys will it turn back on/reconnect However, my bluetooth mouse still works when this happens, indicating that the bluetooth radio is still on. I have tried the same traditional fix that I did on my work computer, but it does not help. This same keyboard did not have the issue on my previous home-build PC, running Windows 10, so I know it's not a hardware issue with that particular keyboard.

Are there other options to try to get the keyboard to stay on, or at least resume quicker, after a period of inactivity?