Windows 10: Laptop not recognizing when screen/keyboard folded into tent/tablet mode, rotation lock...

I have an HP Envy 360 model number 13m-bd1033dx running on Windows 11 Home, version 22H2.When I fold my laptop into "tent" mode or "tablet" mode past 180 degrees with the keyboard the keyboard and touch pad stay on and when I click on something like a search bar the on-screen keyboard doesn't pop up like my laptop doesn't register that the keyboard is folded back. I have also noticed that my screen doesn't rotate and when I open settings the rotation lock setting is on "on" and greyed out so I cannot change it.This is not something that simply restarting my laptop fixes, I have searched for

:)

 

Rotation Lock / Rotation Sensor Not Working (Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1)

I've got a Lenovo Yoga 700-11ISK that I've reformatted and reinstalled with Windows 10 Pro. I've been unable to get the rotation lock / rotation sensor working, which seems to be a very common problem. However, none of the common solutions has seemed to fix the issue. Below is a detailed list of everything I’ve learned. Note that whenever I refer to "Tent Mode," I mean the device's screen is physically rotated (‘folded back’) more than 180 degrees. Don’t confuse this with "Tablet mode," the software-based switch available in the Win10 Action Center; when I say "Tent Mode," I refer only to *physically* folding back the screen.

First, let's establish how it behaves on the factory image (i.e. the copy of Windows that comes with the system). These are the desired/expected behaviors, which I’m listing point-by-point for comparison to how it mis-behaves on my fresh Windows 10 Pro install:

1) In Tent Mode, "Rotation Lock" is available in the Action Center; otherwise, it's greyed.
2) In Tent Mode, "Lock rotation of this display" is available in System->Display settings; otherwise it's greyed.
3) In Tent Mode, the “Allow the screen to auto-rotate” checkbox in the Display control panel is available; otherwise it’s greyed.
4) In Tent Mode, the physical rotation lock button works; pressing it shows a “auto rotate on/off” OSD. Otherwise the button has no effect.
5) In Tent Mode, registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AutoRotation has Enable=1; otherwise, Enable=0. Even if you set it manually, it gets overridden to this value on reboot, etc.
6) In Device Manager, detecting changes to and from Tent Mode seems to be handled by "Human Interface Devices/GPIO Laptop or Slate Indicator Driver" & "System Devices/Intel® Serial IO GPIO Host Controller - INT344B." Removing either stops it from detecting Tent Mode changes.
7) In Device Manager, detecting actual screen rotation (when in Tent Mode) seems to be handled by "Human Interface Devices/I2C HID Device" (9D60), "Sensors/HID Sensor Collection v2," and "System devices/Intel® Serial IO I2C Host Controller - 9D60." Disabling any of these 3 disables rotation-sensing / rotation lock options (when in Tent Mode).
8) If you disable the "YMC" service, rotation lock becomes available in 1-4 above, regardless of Tent Mode (aka it's always available).
9) If you disable the "SensrSvc" service, aka "Sensor Monitoring Service," all of the rotation lock options 1-4 above become unavailable/greyed, regardless of Tent Mode (aka it’s always unavailable).

Again, it's only Tent Mode (aka physical rotation of the screen) that makes rotation lock work; toggling "Tablet Mode" in the Action Center or answering “Yes” when prompted to switch to Tablet Mode is irrelevant.

Now for direct comparison, here’s how it behaves on my fresh-installed copy of Windows 10 pro:
1-5) Regardless of Tent Mode, these options are all greyed, the button has no effect, and the registry key has Enable=0.
6-7) Each of these drivers are installed & working in the Device manager, and are of the same date & version as in the factory image.
8) With the YMC service running, moving the laptop into Tent Mode it will prompt you to change to Tablet Mode – indicating that its “Tent Mode” sensor is functioning. If you stop the “YMC” service, rotation lock remains unavailable in 1-4. NOTE the difference: on the factory image, stopping YMC makes all the rotation lock options become available; here, they always remain unavailable regardless of this service.
9) SensrSvc is set to Automatic, and running. Stopping/restarting seems to have no effect.
10) The 'Sensor List' app (installed from app store) shows the Inclinometer properly reading changes to the system orientation.

Notice in particular that stopping “SensrSvc” on the factory image essentially makes it behave like my new/problematic system: whereas all the “Rotation Lock” stuff is supposed to be available while the tablet is physically in Tent Mode, it always remains unavailable. However, all the relevant drivers seem to be installed and of the same versions; all the services in question seem to be installed and running; and all the sensors are provably “sensing.” There are 2 sensors involved: 1) The one that senses when we switch to Tent Mode and 2) The one that senses screen rotation. I know #1 is working because when YMC is running, Windows prompts to enter Tablet Mode. I know #2 is working because ‘Sensor List’ can read orientations from the Inclinometer.

I’ve spent a crazy amount of time on this and seem to be up against a wall. If anyone can tell me how to get this rotation sensor working (aka how I can get the “rotation lock” options in 1-4 not to remain greyed when I enter Tent Mode), I’d be very appreciative.

 

Rotation lock greyed out

Worked! Selecting portrait mode in settings, or turning laptop on its side didn't enable rotate unlock, but Johnny Duh's solution did the job! Thank you! Is the laptop going to revert to disabling auto lock later, on every reboot... ? You'd think this would
be fixed by now.

New insight: applying the above allowed the screen to rotate, but the lock rotation button in settings remained grayed-out and locked when the laptop was sitting in normal laptop orientation. When I turned the laptop, the screen rotated and the lock rotation
button changed to active and unlocked itself. BUT, this only happened if the screen was rotated backwards as you would do for tent or tablet mode. Further experimentation showed that the screen had to be rotated about 210° to unlock rotation, at least on
my Dell 13" Inspiron. When you bring the screen back to about 170°, it locks again and the button grays out. There must be a sensor in the hinge. That's why the tent mode solution worked.

 

Screen rotation

Hi Jill,

Many convertible laptops (laptops that can be configured both as a conventional laptop or tablet) have mechanisms to detect when they are in a laptop configuration and automatically engage rotation lock.

On your surface II, if you are seeing rotation lock unexpectedly engage (or be disabled), put your surface in a tablet configuration either by removing the keyboard or by folding it behind the screen. This should give you the ability to turn rotation lock
on or off. If it doesn't then try reattaching the keyboard, but if this still doesn't work, then try a "hard" power down by holding the power button for 20+ seconds (make sure you save any work before you do this).

I'd love to hear if my suggestions worked for you.

--Sandy