Plugged in, not charging and if I unplug that AC adapter, it turns off

Anonymous
2017-01-23T01:46:36+00:00

I have a Surface Pro that is a little over 2 years old. About two weeks ago, the battery now reports "Plugged in, not charging" and seems stuck at 60%. I say seemed because if I unplug that AC adapter, it dies instantly. It also will die periodically while on the charger. I have two Microsoft AC adapters and neither of them seem to charge my device.

I've tried all the Microsoft suggestions for this state, but none of them made any difference. Is there a way to diagnose if this is a hardware problem, or is this a new artifact from the latest updates? (My device reports it is up to date.) I never had any battery issues before (lucky, I suppose), and I've treated my surface pretty carefully. I'll be more than disappointed if it's crapped out already.

I'll attach a battery report, but I don't think it tells me anything in particular.

Battery report

COMPUTER NAME ORION
SYSTEM PRODUCT NAME Microsoft Corporation Surface Pro 3
BIOS 3.11.1550 06/30/2016
OS BUILD 14393.693.amd64fre.rs1_release.161220-1747
PLATFORM ROLE Slate
CONNECTED STANDBY Supported
REPORT TIME 2017-01-22 19:53:16

Installed batteries

Information about each currently installed battery

NAME X898289
MANUFACTURER SIMPLO
SERIAL NUMBER 1164122628
CHEMISTRY LION
DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 33,212 mWh
CYCLE COUNT 310

Recent usage

Power states over the last 3 days

2017-01-20 09:41:00 Active AC 60 % 19,851 mWh
09:44:00 Battery changed AC - -
09:44:00 Suspended - -
09:45:28 Battery changed AC 60 % 19,851 mWh
09:45:28 Active AC 60 % 19,851 mWh
09:45:48 Connected standby AC 60 % 19,851 mWh
09:45:49 Suspended 60 % 19,851 mWh
09:46:25 Connected standby AC 59 % 19,494 mWh
09:46:25 Active AC 59 % 19,494 mWh
2017-01-22 19:38:00 Suspended 59 % 19,494 mWh
19:38:45 Active AC 59 % 19,494 mWh
19:50:00 Report generated AC 59 % 19,494 mWh

Battery usage

Battery drains over the last 3 days

- - - - -

Usage history

History of system usage on AC and battery

2017-01-14 - - 4:18:11 -
2017-01-15 - - 23:59:59 -
2017-01-16 - - 23:59:59 -
2017-01-17 - - 23:59:59 -
2017-01-18 - - 23:59:59 -
2017-01-19 - - 23:59:59 -
2017-01-20 - - 23:57:53 -
2017-01-21 - - 23:59:59 -

Battery capacity history

Charge capacity history of the system's batteries

2017-01-14 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh
2017-01-15 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh
2017-01-16 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh
2017-01-17 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh
2017-01-18 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh
2017-01-19 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh
2017-01-20 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh
2017-01-21 33,212 mWh 42,157 mWh

Battery life estimates

Battery life estimates based on observed drains

2017-01-14 - - - -
2017-01-15 - - - -
2017-01-16 - - - -
2017-01-17 - - - -
2017-01-18 - - - -
2017-01-19 - - - -
2017-01-20 - - - -
2017-01-21 - - - -

Current estimate of battery life based on all observed drains since OS install

Since OS install - - - -
Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-04-24T13:23:02+00:00

    not solveable by them as it needs a new firmware.. you could try the $450 surface swap but you have a 50/50 you will get a li-ion (Our not charging one) or a simplo (Charges but life is deadful), this is why you see some oh it now works as they have the other half of the battery type

    As a thought if you live in the UK and have the li-ion issue... post the story to bbc watchdog.

    https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/contact

    That will get some bad marketing for microsoft and might give them a shove in the fixing direction

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-04-24T12:57:19+00:00

    Hi everyone, I really need help. My surface's battery is dead completely and everytime I plug the charger, the light is on and says plugged in but not charging. I'm stuck with this problem and the help desk are reducilously charging $38 just to get help from them. I found the instructions but it on can work if the surface is on which mine isn't at all. I'm so upset about this issue and just feel like chucking away this silly thing. 

    id appreciate if anyone can help. 

    Thanks

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-04-22T13:07:01+00:00

    Yes I have.

    In fact it's happened to me a few times.  The longest time was a few weeks and I got optimistic that everything might be resolved, but no, always back to the old ways.  I have not been able to figure out exactly what triggers this working state (or I'd trigger it on purpose) nor exactly what causes it to go back to the old ways.  I suspected it has to do with what charge state the surface is allowed to return to either on or off.  It's all speculation since we can't actually see what the machine is doing behind the scenes.  It's frustrating because it makes me wonder if the problem isn't a single line of code.

    Naturally MS isn't going to fix these or treat us the way they ought to.

    Oh the plus side there are surface knock offs that are basically just as powerful and the pro x 2 for instance has replaceable components, so when I move on from this sp3 I can never buy another surface ever.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-04-22T07:37:48+00:00

    This is my first post on this subject. Have been watching this and similar threads for at least 6 months.

    My SPro3 was fine up to approx Oct last year then suffered the LGC battery issue. Since then it would report no battery present and would only work whilst plugged in.

    Stuck it in a drawer in disgust. I have now and the new got it out, plugged in and downloaded any available updates in case Microsoft actually delivers a fix. Nothing worked. 

    Then an the other day I did this and low and behold after a few minutes plugged in it started charging and showed the normal battery icon. 

    I then hen proceeded to be able to charge it to 100% and then discharge it 3 times fully to try and 'condition' the battery. Whilst charged I was able to unplug it and use it like I did of old. 

    I was very hopeful. 

    I went to work the next day and when I got home ........ it had reverted to its old ways !  Not charging - no battery present. 

    The only thing that has changed, and may not be the cause, is that at then end of the day when it was working it installed the March 2017 firmware update. 

    Has anyone else seen this?

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