Auto-backlit keyboard not working

[jojoe42]

I've just started to notice after the last two patch Tuesday updates (not sure if it's because of them however) that the type cover 2 connected to my Pro 2 won't turn on by itself in complete darkness. I've tried updating the drivers in device manager but to not avail. It's not something that is absolutely crucial, but I am missing the rather nifty feature of auto-backlighting. Anyone got any solutions/ideas?

 

[taymur]

they keyboard is bad on so many levels, my only good review of the keyboard is the typing keys and attachment part, other than that it doesn't meet the customer satisfaction of the surface itself.

 

[MBytes]

The keyboard turns on when your hands are close to the keyboard, not by how ambient room illumination.
You can be on a nice summer day, the backlight will turn on when your hands are close to it.

To turn it off, reduce the brightness of the back light to 0 by hitting the F1 key repeatedly.
To turn it on, and increase illumination of back light hit the F2 key repeatedly..

 

[MBytes]

they keyboard is bad on so many levels, my only good review of the keyboard is the typing keys and attachment part, other than that it doesn't meet the customer satisfaction of the surface itself.

Sounds faulty. You can return the keyboard for refund. You have 30 days from purchase with Microsoft.
You order a new one. If you pass your 30 day return period, I would contact Microsoft to place a warranty replacement.

 

[jojoe42]

The keyboard turns on when your hands are close to the keyboard, not by how ambient room illumination.
You can be on a nice summer day, the backlight will turn on when your hands are close to it.

To turn it off, reduce the brightness of the back light to 0 by hitting the F1 key repeatedly.
To turn it on, and increase illumination of back light hit the F2 key repeatedly..

Not quite mate, for example when I was in my English class and my teacher went to switch the lights off (hands away from the keyboard), as well as the display dimming a little in reaction to the darker light the backlight for the keyboard came on automatically. It's quite cool...(when it works)

 

[onlysublime]

did you make sure you didn't accidentally turn off the backlighting? that happened to me. tap the F2 button repeatedly (don't need the Fn key as you're really hitting brightness+, not F2).

 

[jojoe42]

did you make sure you didn't accidentally turn off the backlighting? that happened to me. tap the F2 button repeatedly (don't need the Fn key as you're really hitting brightness+, not F2).

I'm talking about the backlighting coming on automatically with the ambient light sensor, it used to do that. The backlight itself works just fine

 

[onlysublime]

mbytes is correct. the keyboard backlighting turns on when you hover your hands over the keyboard. the room lighting shouldn't affect that.

i just checked. turned off the lights to the room, hands away from the keyboard. after a few seconds, the backlighting turned off. hovered my hands and the backlighting turned on.

 

[jojoe42]

mbytes is correct. the keyboard backlighting turns on when you hover your hands over the keyboard. the room lighting shouldn't affect that.

i just checked. turned off the lights to the room, hands away from the keyboard. after a few seconds, the backlighting turned off. hovered my hands and the backlighting turned on.

Okay so it may be hand-activated, but the backlight turns itself on and off depending on the current light conditions. For example I never had the backlight on at all (you couldn't see the lighting close-up) but when it got dark the keyboard turned it on automatically instead of me having to. I know the backlighting works on proximity but I never have the backlighting on, I remember working in near darkness with the backlit keyboard - when I shone a lamp directly at the light sensor on the SP2 the backlighting faded away; when I turned it off and started typing it came back on

 

[MBytes]

It never did as you describe on my side. I even said to myself, how it doesn't turn off, when I was in class, and had to manually turn off, to maximize battery life (then I realize it didn't really affect battery life as it's just a few LED's, so don't really care).

 

[Dizzyl3mon]

If pressing your f1 and f2 keys is not working, you need to push f2 + function key to get it to light up.

 

[Elizabeth Rendon]

Thank you, it worked for me.

 

[Gillian2310]

Hailing from the Sunny Isle of Barbados ...great thanks that worked, thought something was wrong with my surface pro 4 keyboard. I just pressed the F2 button repeatedly and it lit up thanks a mil...:smile:

 

[cbrown123]

whenever I would press the F1 key to lower the brightness it would redirect me to a help page on google chrome

 

[GuddoggEli]

Glad I found this forum. This is the EXACT problem I had, and your answer did the trick. Makes me wish I had paid more attention to the owner's manual before losing it. Thanks, MBytes!

 

[Sadie S]

If your backlight is not working press (Fn + F2) together and your backlight should pop on. I just use this solution and it worked immediately.

 

[Unbreakable0121]

OH BY THE SWEET BABY JESUS, Thank you!!! It was making me lose my mind! :excited:

 

[RhiRhi82]

FYI - On the Pro 6 Type Cover the back-light control is now F7.

 

[asmaa ai]

FYI - On the Pro 6 Type Cover the back-light control is now F7.

This was the info I needed, thanks a million

 

[Ryujingt3]

Thanks for this. Unfortunately I then later realised that the Power Cover that I purchased for my SP2 doesn't have a backlit keyboard. So that key combination never worked.