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After replacing the surface pro 4 LCD, it won’t turn on the battery mode unless i plug it with the charger After i had replaced a surface pro 4 LCD, won’t turn on battery mode unless plug it. Before taking off the broken screen the pro was working good just the screen was broken, so i turned it off then started working on it. after taking off the old broken screen. i tried to connect the new LCD on to test it but no response at all. it does only work when i plug it in the charger and it does show me that the battery is 100% full on the screen? also i did put a piece of paper between the connects part for the battery and the motherboard. it does show me an X on the battery icon on the screen when i turn it on but i couldn’t resolve the problem for 1 week now and i have been searching online but no one has had these issues before. so how can ifixit ??

We got a couple of these SP4’s in from repair shops where battery stopped working after screen replacement. Most of them had a blown diode in the charger circuit, another one a blown FET. We guessed that the display wasn’t switched off when taking it off, causing the LCD backlight power buck converter to spike, but according the repairshops who sent them this was not the case. So why this is happening, we got no clue at all. Done an SP3 as well, same sympthoms. Only way to solve it on the SP3 was to replace the battery AND the charge controller chip. Kinda rubbish, these SP’s if you ask me. Theo | Logicboard Repair Update (01/23/2018) If you encounter this problem, check the two Skottky Diodes in the picture. (40 Volts / 5A). Voltage over the diode from anode to kathode should be around 0,2V. If higher, then replace. (Needless to say you have to measure this in Diode mode, with a disconnected battery). Also we encountered problems where 1 of the FET’s on the control board of the battery itself went into a latch-up state. This can be solved by shorting drain and source shortly. (Be carefull!) Hope this helps someone.

Theo | Logicboard Repair Update (10/04/2019) We think we found out the cause of this strange fault. The capacitor in the blue circle is very big, the slightest pressure on the metal shield cover will shortcut the capacitor and cause this failure. Make sure that you do not put any pressure on this shield, remove it and place some capton tape on the inside of the shield to make sure the capacitor cannot be shorted anymore. Again, hope this helps someone!

Theo | Logicboard Repair

Sounds like a problem with the power manager. Do a hard reset by holding the volume up and power at same time until the machine turns off. Wait a few seconds and turn it on. Hopefully, it will work normal after this.

Also had the same issue. Replaced LCD and doesnt turn on. Plugged in and turns on normally. Works perfectly however as soon as remove charger, turns off. For sure, this is not battery issue, as already tried replacing the battery. Met last week with another tech, and he had couple of surface with exactly same issue.

this is my device

check diodes 1: is 1

check diodes 2: is 192

The battery needs to be replaced, if you put the device in a heater to remove the screen then the heat likely damaged the battery

I wish someone would solve this problem, which I also have.

Hey guys my SP4 started having this symptom 3 days ago, I didn’t even crack/replace the screen. It just happened on its own. It only runs on charger now and battery is fully charged. I contacted support but they were no help, they offered to replace the device for $450 as it’s out of warranty.. it’s like we have $450 laying around every time this $@$*!& device breaks.. I already replaced it for phantom touches and now this. I do iPhone/iPad maintenance and I’m good at micro-soldering too, so I’ll probably pop this open soon as I have time for it. So are there any schematics/board views out there for it? I’ll order a new battery pack too in case it was a bad battery. Also I’d love a site where I can find a genuine battery pack. Thanks!

No schematics / boardviews available, we had to figure it out on our own. Dunno about the battery packs.

Also we encountered problems where 1 of the FET’s on the control board of the battery itself went into a latch-up state. This can be solved by shorting drain and source shortly. (Be carefull!) Hope this helps someone. Can anyone elaborate or clearly explain what this means?

salut les amis, donc très simple !! quand on change d’écran en effet une diode slap et ce n’est pas pour ça … MAIS microsoft a mis sur la carte mère une diode de remplacement qui se trouve au dessus du connecteur LCD. Vous remplacez la diode défectueuse par celle-ci et la surface fonctionne sur batterie.

Actually I’ve got Microsoft Surface Pro 4 too using for nearly 5 years and experiencing shaky screen after it’s heated or becomes hot. The unit is really excellent with my work being IT System Administrator and other stuff like editing videos and photos. I want to save the laptop. So it’s well known issue now. I searched and tried all the possibilities to solve the issue but failed. The high recommendation is to replace the LCD display. I’m planning to change also the battery. Your experience after changing either LCD display or battery is discouraging cause I’m now hesitant to do it. I might experience the same “totally dead laptop”which is possible after spending. Here in the Philippines most of the repair shop won’t accept to repair and telling better to buy new than repairing. My question is “Is it worth repairing?”

@ Mike th0ms0n That’s a bit of a blanket statement which I wouldn’t agree with. As Mike suggests, I’d say if a person placed the entire tablet into an oven and heated it, then it’s possible they may end up damaging the battery. In cases of using a screen separator (heated surface with vacuum suction) the battery shouldn’t sustain any damage. Also in [the more common] cases of utilizing a heat gun to warm up the screen bezel and edges in order to remove the screen, you will not damage the battery. Most importantly, on the topics of avoiding damaging the screen (and yes, I’ve even made this painfully costly mistake before), the trick I’ve come up with is having made a custom self adhesive label in which the width is equal to the width of the two flat ribbon cables. The visual label not only reminds me but accurately depicts the precise location, so as to handle it with kid gloves around that area!

I just wanted to add some more information I found on Reddit. There is a spare diode on the board. That info combined with Theo’s post above and my Surface is working great again.