Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Battery Replacement

Instead of heating the glass directly, apply a light amount of heat to slightly soften the adhesive as you go and use a all metal xacto knife. Heat the knife blade directly and cut through the foam inside like butter. Stop every 3 inches and place some paper or spacer to keep the glass off the foam. Start at the top right or left side where there is an indent. On the bottom and side only need to go in 1/4”, top more like 1/2”.

Do we need to glue the screen back on? How do we do this? What do we use? Thanks for this tutorial. I wonder if it's necessary to completely unplug the screen when replacing just the SSD

They mention separate the top edge last to prevent antenna damage. I tried to be very careful but still ended up damaging 1 of three antennas. The antennas are directly under the glue and aren’t really that fragile. They key is heat. I was trying to be careful that the glue wasn’t hot enough anymore. If the glue is nice and soft it’ll easily separate from the antenna. Too cold and the antenna will stay with the screen…

WATCH OUT for the digitizer/LCD cables on the bottom left vertical edge, there are two flex cables that connect the digitizer to the LCD screen - make sure you don’t push the prying tool in too far or else you will rip the cables.

Does the replacement screen have the MS logo?

The trick is getting this started. I overheated the bottom of my display because the glue did not seem to soften. I found that you could not get any tool into the crack and the glass would not lift away. But in fact you don’t need that much heat. Set your heat gun to 200C (400F). Use a meat thermometer to measure it if needed. Then hold it about 2cm above the edge trying to keep the heat away from the actual screen. Go around and around slowly for a minute or so. Then apply the heat to the top right corner for about 10 seconds, moving the gun the whole time. You can get a guitar pick into the speaker hole and just lift the edge of the screen. Move the pick until you feel the glue is stiff again. Then heat another section of 5 cm for 10 seconds. Move the pick through that section. Shim the parts you have moved through with pieces of thin cardboard. Work slowly around the whole screen and you can remove it without any damage. Good example of this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egnSNnM7...

DO NOT use picks or pry tools on the top of the screen to the left and right of the webcam and microphone area to separate the adhesive. This is where the antennas are, and sticking a pick in there WILL destroy them, and you will have to order a new part, $30 on ebay. The antennas are closely integrated into the factory adhesive and extremely easily damaged.

Another good place to start is actually the hinges on the left and right sides. In addition to the narrowed adhesive, and the iSclack, a plastic or vinyl hook can be inserted, if you are very careful, into the opening for the hinge to provide some internal leverage, and that may be enough to separate the glue.

If you pull the screen away from the chassis as much as is shown in this image, you WILL break either the LCD display cable or the digitizer cable. Be extremely careful when separating the display from the body as these cables are super brittle and thin.

You can disconnect from the lcd rather than the motherboard, each cable has an EMI shield, a metal cover, over the connector, and the shield must be pried off first, then they disconnect easily by just prying up on the connectors

Don’t open the screen too much when trying to disconnect the cable, or the cable itself might break, like mine did.

Mine had metal casings over both connectors (see next step).

Be very careful, those cables tear really really easily. They’re like paper. I’d suggest putting that as a warning in red at the top of this guide.

It took 1.5 hours to do the second one.

I have to use T5 for this one.

can confirm these were T5 for me as well.

There is another screw immediately east of where the heatsink meets the copper plate that needs to be removed as well

These screws were in a different area on my Surface, Pro 4 bought at release. The fan was visible and attached to the heat sink. Remove the two torx screws on the fan housing. No need to remove the Philips head screws that secure the fan.

My Surface Pro 4 has a fan here. Remove the screws around the fan and the whole heatsink including the fan can now be lifted off. DO NOT try and remove the heatsink from the fan as it is glued on.

MInh Le Nguyen, the mm size refers to the length of the screws, not the size of the bit driver

Don’t forget to unplug the fan (if present) before yanking on the heat sink! It’s just a small grey clasp that needs to be lifted up.

The fan connector on mine was held in place by a white clamp on the side closest to the middle of the chassis. The long edge toward the middle flips up to vertical. That frees up the fan connector. Likewise for the black “wire” connector right beside it.

On mine, the black wire plugs into a connector with a locking mechanism controlled by a white strip on the side closest to the middle of the chasis. Flip the white section up to release before pulling on the “wire” (ribbon cable). Flip down to lock.

The orange cycle t4 2,0 mm screw was actually a t3 1.5 mm screw on my surface pro 4. Just noting this here so others are not confused about that.

This step is unnecessary as the metal cover was already removed to detach the screen.

You have to remove camera connectors and speakers to remove motherboard. The battery connector is kept in place by adhesive.

My battery was expanding (Screen was lifting on left hand side) and that made this step the hardest part of the whole process. It was like there was gas between the foil and the battery inside, so it would pull away when trying to lift. You can use the iOpener and place under the section of the battery you are working on, that helped loosen it for me.

If this is like the iPhone batteries, then get a piece of dental floss. Double it up to strengthen it and then loop behind the battery. Use a sawing action to cut through the glue.

Be careful as you get near to the end of this. I was pulling it away and the last section came away suddenly, snapping the connection to the body. Read the comments after the next step BEFORE you begin it. The battery is attached to the case in different ways which can complicate things. It also seems to be advisable to isolate the battery from the motherboard using a piece of paper or equiv. before removing.

Vor dem Entfernen des Akkus die Kontakte zwischen Akku und Mainboard isolieren. Dies kann mit einem Papierstreifen gemacht werden.

The battery strip is glued down. I flipped the battery over, held the case up on it’s top side. Then while holding the motherboard up I worked a plastic tool up under the connector prying it up until it released. Not easy!

These guys failed to mention that you need to put a piece of paper between the motherboard and where the battery plugs so that you don’t short circuit and mess the machine up. Of course, I did not do this and now it won’t power on. I obviously shorted the thing out. Useless instructions.

Just successfully completed this replacement, this step is missing some critical details that could apparently do your device harm, or at the least cause unnecessary headaches. Thanks to those that posted their experiences, you saved me from utter ruin.

1. Apparently the battery can short to the motherboard during removal, as some have mentioned.. A piece of card stock worked well, as it has more stiffness than “regular” paper. Make it as least as wide as the battery contact tab. I did this when installing as well.

2. Releasing the battery from the adhesive was a HUGE pain. Some tips to make it easier: floss, heat and leverage. A very long doubled up piece of dental floss actually helped a lot. Pro Glide brand would be best I think (seriously). Continued in next comment…..

2……Continued from previous comment

Once I fished the floss under the battery, I wrapped each end around the handle of my small screwdrivers to save my fingers, leaving the strand long enough to pull on the outer shell for leverage. I applied heat underneath with a heat pack, heated until it was just a bit uncomfortable to hold. Unfold the kickstand first. I worked a thick pick and plastic spudger under the edge and let them sit there for leverage while working the floss back and forth in a sawing motion. I had to replace the floss a couple of times.

3. Once the battery was loose, I checked to make sure the paper strip I had placed was still in place, then set the tablet up on its top edge, letting the battery fold over and rest on edge on the table. There is a square adhesive patch on the backside of the battery contact strip that sticks it to the rear shell of the device. This must be removed. Continued in next comment…..

3. ……..Continued from previous comment

At this point it may be helpful to wedge a thick pick or spudger under the left lower edge of the motherboard for better clearance. Using a thin guitar pick, I slowly worked at the adhesive patch under the contacts. There is also a plastic pin sticking off the rear shell that goes through a hole in the far end of the contact strip for alignment. This served as a nice backstop for the pick, so don’t be too concerned about pushing too far. You can see where this hole is placed on the replacement battery. I accidentally ripped through this hole when removing my battery and it I did not offer much resistance, but I don’t recommend this. If you break the plastic pin instead, good luck aligning the new battery.

Continued in next comment……

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4. Battery removed, I then replaced the paper strip to isolate the new battery contacts, just far enough to catch the plastic pin. I struggled here, but in retrospect I think I would have laid the tablet back down at this point and slid the contact strip over a thick pick to lift it properly in order to hook the hole on the alignment pin. I left the nonstick backing film on the adhesive patch that seats the contact strip to the shell, and here I got kind of lucky, as during the struggle it just kind of came off at the right time. However, I think after aligning the contacts, you could probably lift the battery and coax the nonstick film off the adhesive with a thin pick or a PLASTIC tweezers.

Ahhh, catharsis. Hopefully this will help some of you. Big thanks again to those who took the time to comment and warn me of some big mistakes. This is my tribute to you.

Vennic’s comments were very helpful in guiding my own attempt.

However, after reading the many posts on the internuts of shorted mainboards and other accidents while using the method described here to remove the battery, I decided to just remove the entire mainboard. This just required

1) 10 more minutes; and

2) the removal of a few more screws (holding the motherboard, right speaker, power connector and card reader), flex cables and components (only the right speaker actually needed to be removed - the power connector and card reader can stay attached to the mainboard)

And voila! I could leisurely remove the old battery and adjust the new battery’s position. This turned out to be valuable, because my new battery’s top alignment hole was a little too close to the next 2 and so needed some flexing and adjustment of the contact. I can’t imagine if I had to do this while trying to keep the motherboard clear and work with the narrow gap underneath.

Continued in next comment…

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But the motherboard goes in (and came out) of the case at an angle, so to prevent shorting accidents I did have a strip of cardboard covering the battery contacts until the motherboard was properly seated. Then I slowly withdrew the cardboard and re-installed/tightened all the motherboard screws.

I should add that the one tool that helped me the most here - but is not mentioned in this guide - is an iSesamo! Or any similar, thin spring-steel product. It’s thin enough to be slipped under the screen after heating the adhesive, and thin and hard enough to simulate a blade (albeit a dull one). So with a little sawing motion (like using a craft knife) I was able to cut through the softened adhesive and work my way around the sides.

As for softening adhesives… I didn’t have an iOpener nor a heat gun, while a hair dryer was taking way too long (plus, like a heat gun, there was no telling how hot I might accidentally heat the tablet up to). So I decided to use a steam iron (you know, the one for ironing clothes). Although that may horrify many techies, hear me out. As I said, I had none of the commonly-used tools. Meanwhile, the steam iron has a very important benefit: the temperature of steam is self-limited to 100 deg C, which means there’s absolutely no way I’d accidentally overheat the tablet/work area.

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To be sure, these conditions must be fulfilled for this to work safely:-

1) the tablet must be switched off (duh!)

2) ensure battery has been run down to flat (set the power options in Windows to do nothing when battery level is critical, then leave the tablet running until it shuts down by itself)

3) the steam iron should have a steam jet function (which delivers a more focused jet of steam instead of generally emitting steam all over the plate as steam irons normally do

4) do NOT allow the iron hotplate to contact the screen or tablet - only the steam!

Engage the steam jet and heat up one section (about half a side) of the tablet frame, then stick an iSesamo in and slice. Repeat.

I had a cracked screen so I thought I had little to lose. As it turned out, the tablet worked after replacing the battery and even the screen was still functioning (except for the cracks of course).