Chosen Solution
I had a Surface Pro 4 with a cracked screen. It lost it display capability but I could power it on. I removed the display. I connected through the display port to a VGA monitor. This worked with another Surface Pro 4 that was already booted so I know the adapter works. There is no display installed in the tablet. I connected to the VGA adapter to see if it would boot up to the monitor. The tablet is dead. I looked for blown resisters and could find none. Question: Does the Surface Pro 4 need the display (screen and digitizer) installed for the computer to boot. Installing the old display that failed temporarily did another. Is it possible with a new screen plugged in this would boot? Or, would there be signs that the tablet would boot without the display installed. It is dead now. I replaced the on/off and volume up/down ribbon cable switches. Phil
OK. There has not been an answer to this question so I will try to answer it myself from a bit of searching I did. Apparently, the Surface Pro 4 has been reported with some screen changes OR just does spontaneously in some cases but rare, to blow a resister that acts as a fuse on the motherboard. I emailed a tech who repairs screens who mentioned this and there will be some techs soon that will be available to solder a new resister in though this type of repair is hard to find. The tech repair company said there are complaints on the Internet about this but I could not find much of anything. There is also a YouTube video about this: a person soldering in a replacement resister that brought his Surface Pro 4 back to life. This resister is hard to find as the resister shows itself as good or partially good, but however, it appears it is usually the same resister (non confirmed). There is little information about this problem. It is hard to find information because there are so many posts about Surfaces going into sleep mode and hard to get out (minor issue but all over the place) that you have to wade through these. When that resister blows there is no fix except to solder in a new one. The Surface Pro 4 is completely and permanently dead until this is done. Resisters are very cheap though I might add. The trick is to absolutely confirm that the resister in question (that seems to be the same one like I said - that is my impression) IS, indeed, the problem before one starts de-soldering parts off the motherboard, Phil
I know this is an old post, but: the resistor in question is a 0 ohm part. Usually found on ebay for $2 or so for 100 pcs. But, it is also safe to just put a blob of solder to jump the connection since a 0 ohm resistor being used as a fuse is purely for assembly line machines to be able to bridge the connection automatically since they’re compatible with SMD parts but cannot solder a “wire” onto the board. I will attempt that and report back here. I too have an SP4, no screen, completely dead.
I did a battery replacement for my SP 4 and an earphone connector replacement. I had to remove the LEFT speaker, and there are speaker wires and also a ribbon connector which connects to a tiny ZIF connector on the motherboard. The ribbon connects the ON-OFF button, and the volume UP-DOWN buttons. I killed the ZIF connector lever, so I glued it back on and it looked a little crooked but not much, and now I can not turn my unit on, although the battery charges. I am in the process of ordering a ten dollar left speaker which looks like it has the buttons and ribbon cable. There is a similar UNUSED ZIF connector on the board a few cm to the right that is supposed to connect to some kind of camera that doesn’t exist on my SP 4. Mine doesn’t have a fan, either. I am planning to remove the entire old, glued ZIF connector and speaker, and replacing it with the new spkr/button assy, and unused ZIF connector. Have to get out my operating microscope and SMT soldering tools to do it. Should be fun. I don’t see any fried fuse resistors on the board, and they check ok with the VOM.
