Surface 3 charging issues

Anonymous
2015-05-06T14:21:00+00:00

I'm sure the Surface 2 and other models suffered from this problem...

After getting my Surface 3 yesterday, I plugged it in as it was delivered with about 24% batter life.  The little white light on the micro-USB charger than comes with the Surface lit up.  I assumed all was well, and started the Windows Updates.  It was taking a while so I left it and went to bed.

The next morning the Surface was off, and when I tried to switch it on the battery symbol appeared that indicates it had no juice.  It was still plugged in to the charger and the plug was still lit.

I removed it a couple of times and eventually it must have started to charge as it allowed me to boot, and I could see it was charging.

However, whenever I plug it into any other USB port to charge it (such as on my PC), I get the "Plugged in, not charging" message).

I suspect a faulty micro-USB connector (a poor replacement for the old magnetic ones), but wanted to see if anyone elese was having trouble with either the supplied charger or charging from other USB ports.

Surface | Other

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Anonymous
2015-12-17T00:35:26+00:00

MA_905,

Thanks for the update and sorry for the delay in following up.

I am reaching out to find out if your issue is now resolved and if not, I would like for you to please give the two button shutdown a try.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Press and hold the power button on your Surface for 30 seconds and then release it.
Step 2: Press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time for at least 15 seconds and then release both.        <br> <br><br>The screen may flash the Surface logo, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds.
Step 3: After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds.
Step 4: Press and release the power button to turn your Surface back on.

 Once done, please proceed to fully charge the device and let us know your outcome.

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Anonymous
2015-05-06T16:58:56+00:00

what's more likely is that the USB ports that you've used can't provide enough power to charge the device.

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Barb Bowman 80,810 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2015-07-22T16:55:03+00:00

On Wed, 22 Jul 2015 16:31:18 +0000, quadtek wrote:

>> This is a surface 3, not a pro3

take a look at

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/surface-wont-turn-on#shutdown

  • this applies to your Surface 3

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barb

Windows Experience MVP

My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

Please mark as answered if this answers your question

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Barb Bowman 80,810 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2016-03-05T11:51:47+00:00

did you try the solutions at https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/surface-wont-turn-on-battery-wont-charge?os=windows-10 ?

If yes, your best option is to go to a physical retail Microsoft Store if you are near one in the US, and if not near a store https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/contact-us

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Anonymous
2015-12-17T00:48:32+00:00

I contacted MS and they helped me in this one. I had to do a current update. when this did not fix it I had to a a factory reset. then do the update battery life is now as expected.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-10T07:06:11+00:00

    Symptoms

    Here are the various charging behaviors that happen as I plug my Surface 3 to the charger when the battery is not full:

    • It shows “Plugged in, not charging”. The battery continues to drop.
    • It starts to charge. However, charging stopped after a while showing “Plugged in, not charging”.
    • Only in a few cases, my Surface 3 was charging without problem.

    This issue drove me up the wall, especially when the battery is low but my Surface 3 still refuses to eat. Solutions I found on the web are:

    • Restart your Surface
    • Keep your Surface shut down during charging
    • Set the low battery limit to 96% in Windows
    • Send your Surface 3 back to Microsoft for a new one.

    Unfortunately, none of the solutions are guaranteed to work. Luckily, I stumbled upon an article that talks about a light bulb issue in a family where the light is not stable, sometimes the light went dim, and sometimes it turned very strong. This connected me to the charging problem I encountered on my Surface 3. After some tests, I finally concluded the cause and the solution.

    Cause

    The power the charger offers is not enough to start the charge when you plug in your Surface 3. The fact is that he charger that comes with Surface 3 provides a charging capability at 5.2V|2.5A which looks powerful enough. My opinion is that the problem is with the Surface 3 charger (as well as the charger I use for my tests below).

    The reasons could be:

    • Voltage loss when the power goes through the charging cable, resulting insufficient charging voltage at Surface 3.
    • For some reason the charger doesn't respond correctly to what Surface 3 needs.

    I used a USB Power Meter to test this. It couldn't detect the charging power at Surface 3 but could detect that at the charger. Please note that the charger I used was not the one that comes with Surface 3 but the one for my Lenovo pad.

    Test 1

    The battery was at 71% and the charging issue occurs. The USB Power Meter showed the output power is at 5V|0.5A. You see the problem?

    Test 2

    In test 1, I unplugged and re-plugged in several times until the charge worked. The battery was at 72%, the meter showed 4.92V|1.63A.

    Conclusion of the cause

    The charger doesn’t respond/provide the charging power that Surface 3 needs. The gap causes the charging issue. Even in Test 2, the charging was not at full capacity of the charger.

    Solution

    • Use a charger that can respond correctly to the charging power that Surface 3 needs. As far as I know, the charger that comes with Samsung Galaxy Note 3 or S5 is a good candidate.
    • Use a tool that helps the charger to respond correctly to the charging power that Surface 3 needs.

    I used the second solution. The tool I used was a USB voltage booster.

    The result was that the charging issue never comes back. Additionally, the charging power was stronger, at 5.2V|2.18A, than before, resulting a speedy charge. The golden rule is the stronger the safe charging current is, the faster the charging is.

    Is the solution safe?

    The electric circuit design of Surface 3 provides good protection during charge. A good charger won’t output more than what the target device needs. It is expected that the charging current will start to decrease until 0 when the battery is close to full. By the time I finished this article, the battery was at 86% full. The output from the charger had dropped to 5.2V|1.96A, and will continue to drop.

    Additional information

    The charging process is pretty much like how water comes out of the faucet. The higher the water pressure is, the faster the water flows so you get more water in a given time period.

    Side note: Today (Nov 3, 2015) I purchased the wall charger for Samsung S5, it works perfectly with Surface 3. Please be sure to use the original cord that comes with Surface 3 or a cord that can take the current of 2.5A or above.

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