Surface Pro 2 type cover keyboard problem is fixed with the Alt key

For the past few months, I've been using a Surface Pro 2 and like some users out there, I've experienced a strange keyboard phenomenon. Call it a bug. Call it a glitch. It's not clear whether the problem is related to hardware, software, or both. I've experienced this on both the Type Cover 2 and the Power Cover, so I doubt that both keyboards are defective. The connectors on my Surface Pro 2 are clean.

Here's what happens:

The keys stop working. The mouse usually continues to work, but pressing the keys lead to unusual behavior. Pressing a key may delete sections of my work on Microsoft Word. Pressing a key may lead to a different website. Also, when clicking on a hyperlink, the Chrome browser downloads the link file and does not open the link. They keys may work on Internet Explorer, but then they don't work on Chrome. Strange. Also, if I try the virtual on-screen keyboard, I run into similar problems. The keys don't register on certain applications and they seem to work fine in other applications. Am I just going crazy here?

There is a solution: press the Alt key. You can also reboot, sleep/wake, or do some other things, but I've found that pressing the Alt key is the fastest (and easiest) solution so far. Detaching and reattaching the keyboard usually doesn't change anything.

So, why is this happening? It's annoying. People have reported this on the Microsoft forum "Surface Pro 2 Type keyboard randomly decides to quit working properly." Some claim that despite calls to technical support and replacing keyboards, they're still running into this issue.

I don't think I've run into this problem when I've been using the Surface Pro 2 in tablet-only mode (no attached keyboard). So, there's something to attaching a keyboard to the Surface Pro 2.

When will Microsoft release a permanent fix for this bug? Is everyone experiencing it, or just certain users? At first, I remember thinking that it may have been a glitch that would eventually go away, but the problem has persisted despite my efforts to Refresh and Reset Windows 8.