Analysis

This is related to the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 BIOS handling of hardware (Keyboard). The hardware is not correctly initialized/reset on BIOS/Firmware level. Such that the keyboard cannot be detected at ALL. This should be solved on the Microsoft against BIOS/Firmware. And TREND has proven that is OS/driverl level, the keyboard can work normally if BIOS/Firmware is correct.

That is the reason Trend Micro tested several BIOS updates, and does NOT see this issue being resolved.

Workaround

Currently there is one workaround with current Surface Laptop 2 behavior.

Power on the Surface Laptop 2 machine while holding the volume down key (or any key). This will allow the Keyboard to be enabled/initialized.

Technical Details

1. The Boot Order of "Surface Laptop 2" matters with:
   1. Put "PXE Network" as first, "Trend Micro FDE" as second, preboot keyboard will work.
   2. Put "USB Storage" as first, "Trend Micro FDE" as second, preboot keyboard will work.
   3. The "Trend Micro FDE" is the first, preboot does NOT WORK.
2. Trend FDE RecoveryTool alone can boot without issue if BIOS/Firmware is correct.
   1. The linux kernel with TREND's modification can boot normally with "USB Storage" order.
   2. It means that the Preboot of "Trend Micro Full Disk Encryption" works well in OS/driver level.