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

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?

Well, boo to that!  

If it's under warranty, they should replace it for free, since it's a hardware (firmware) issue that a reset can't fix.

If it's not under warranty, and you can convince them the issue is due to the update, they might let you replace it for $450 (the cost to replace a covered device that has been damaged by the user).  Of course, try for a free replacement, but don't get your hopes up.  Greed isn't about to let all that nonsense go down ;)

Good Luck!

Thanks, but my issue unfortunately falls in the 2 that do not seem like they will get fixed.

My surface shuts off instantly when unplugged

Yes, this fixed all Surfaces with the battery issue, except two that would shut off when unplugged

Otherwise, it's kind of a "where there's a will, there's a way" approach.

Go to this link (it's for 8.1, so mind the OS):

https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/warranty-service-and-recovery/surface-wont-turn-on-battery-wont-charge?os=windows-8.1-update-1&=undefined

and it will help you really narrow down the issue.

If you go thru all those steps, and all the correct updates are installed... try a reset.  (plugged in, not charging needed a reset half the time, the other half was resolved by un/reinstalling driver and updates.

If it still says plugged in and not charging, they should replace it if you can convince them it's really is due to their updates.

I honestly don't remember.  I wasn't kidding about the nightmares.

I do know it wasn't a Microsoft page (their email had a link to a Microsoft help page, but it was very basic.  Run updates and you're good to go)

I gathered different things from different forums over the course of months.

Basically:

As long as your Surface doesn't have any weird "System Hardware Update - 11/7/2016" or two instances of installed (not failed) "System Firmware Update 11/7/2016", you should be able to run updates until you get the System Firmware Update - 11/7/2016.

I am seeing a newer System Firmware Update, dated 1/30/17 on the update history page, but haven't heard anything on it, so i can't comment.

Once you have your updates sorted out (if you do have the weird updates listed above, you will need to reset the device, then update), you need to calibrate the battery.  This is more of a problem than the update, because the battery icon will scare the crap out of you, but you have to follow direction, or it will never calibrate properly.

Power cycle the battery three times:

Let the battery die completely, then charge to a full 100%

Let it die completely a second time, then charge to the full 100%

Let it die completely a third time, charge to the full 100%

DO NOT UNPLUG AT 95% thinking you're okay to use for an hour, then you will charge fully when you can... you HAVE to fully drain/fully charge the battery.

After the update and calibration, the battery reporting will be different.  It will seem to stay fully charged longer than normal, then drop dramatically, then hang around at that percent before dropping dramatically, then it will stay charged all day, even though it says it's at 18%.

It's unsettling, but it's just getting used to the new reporting procedure.

I read (during research on Lithium Ion batteries in general) that we should only plug in when our device tells you to (you can set this percentage in power options advanced settings), and once or twice a month, let it totally die. 

You can track your progress from your battery report:

Open CMD as an admin

Type powercfg /battery report

This will save a file (it tells you where in the command prompt) that may need to be copied to the desktop to open.

Give it a few days to get some data compiled (the updates clears out previous battery activity), but I check the Charge Capacity History.  

You should see a pattern of good to bad to better to good.

After all is said and done, even if the battery percentage is scary, if you're getting an average of 7 hours use out of it (brand new is 9), it's fixed.  Not 7 hours before it drops to 50%, but 7 hours out of a full charge.

Bad memories of clients that refused to let it fully charge are flooding in...... 

I'll be in the corner sucking my thumb.

So did this actually fix the plugged in, not charging issue? My SP3 has been sitting on a shelf collecting dust since about October. I turned it on the other day and now my battery is at 0% so I can't even install any FW updates.

If MS would simply allow us to flash the bios like every other off the shelf mobo we could try troubleshooting the FW issue ourselves.