Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Anonymous
2016-05-11T07:37:37+00:00

I've been using Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for a year, and shortly after the warranty expired I noticed my Surface Pro 3 can only last about 1-2 hours after a full charge. At first I thought this was a problem with background process draining the battery so I disabled everything running in the background. It didn't helped. Then I found out about the powercfg utility and run powercfg /batteryreport on it, and this was the result:

A full charge capacity has degraded by over 80% in just few weeks and continue degrading. I tried to "recalibrate" the battery by doing full charge then full drain multiple times, and it didn't helped. Talk with Microsoft via chat support and they insist this was a software problem and reinstalled the driver and asked me to wait few days to see if things improve. Not only it didn't improved, but now my Surface can only last 30 minutes.

Few days after chat (today), I called Microsoft support and they were being extremely unhelpful. Insist that this was a software problem (which the chat support person already did) and it's "perfectly normal" for battery capacity to degrade. I insist that I've already done the software "fixes" and it didn't work and tell them this is definitely hardware problem, but the person on the phone tell me there's nothing I could do except to order the out of warranty exchange (which cost about $560 in my local currency). 

Is there anything else I should do? My country has no Microsoft Store which I could take the machine for them to take a look. Phone/online support were the only option, and none of them could understand the issue.

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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Anonymous
2016-07-26T21:31:16+00:00

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience here. We have now completed our testing of the update and it has passed our quality assurance process.

The update, “System Firmware Update - 8/29/2016”, is now available to install from Windows Update.

Before installing this update, ensure that your Surface Pro 3 is plugged directly in to AC power using the standard AC power adapter (do not use the Surface Docking Station), disconnect any USB devices or external monitors, and check that Windows shows a 40% charge or greater when you hover over the icon in the taskbar before you begin.

Once you install the update, please select Restart now (do not shutdown). After your Surface restarts, please manually restart it a second time to complete the process. For more information, please see our Surface Pro 3 Battery FAQ article.

If you’re having trouble charging your Surface, you get a low-battery error, or your Surface turns off when you unplug it, the steps in our Surface battery won’t charge article can help you pinpoint the problem. Should you need any further assistance, please contact us. 

Thanks again.

Greg

Updated 8/29/16.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-07-05T07:41:53+00:00

    Microsoft sold us a defective product. At the moment I do not want to admit to mistakes. Tells us to pay for their own mistakes almost the equivalent of a new device.

    It is as if we bought a car that burns 10 liters per 100 km and suddenly after a year will burn 1,000 liters. The car and the tablet is not suitable for use.

    The last time I bought something from the company.

    Is it possible to contact Microsoft and the transfer of the problem outside support? I can not believe that Microsoft is not aware of the problem.

    For such actions and deception Microsoft should pay fines and return the money.

    I would like to publicize this case in the online media. Maybe something off the ground.

    I also have a request to other users to contact their portals technological and paid attention to this problem. Without making noise about it will be difficult to enforce any decisions on MS.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-02T21:03:36+00:00

    Just for a reference: mine was also purchased in January 2015 and also mostly plugged.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-02T20:24:59+00:00

    I started to notice the similar problem last week, as I mostly use it plugged into AC power. But the battery seemed to start degrading since April without my realization.

    My SP3 was purchased late Jan 2015. It hasn't been used much, mostly on travel.

    PERIOD FULL CHARGE

    CAPACITY DESIGN CAPACITY

    2015-07-26 - 2015-08-04 42,343 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-08-04 - 2015-08-09 42,358 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-08-09 - 2015-08-16 42,362 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-08-16 - 2015-08-23 42,374 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-08-23 - 2015-08-30 42,268 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-08-30 - 2015-09-06 42,248 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-09-06 - 2015-09-13 42,423 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-09-13 - 2015-09-20 42,431 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-09-20 - 2015-09-30 42,404 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-09-30 - 2015-10-04 42,553 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-10-04 - 2015-10-11 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-10-11 - 2015-10-18 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-10-18 - 2015-10-25 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-10-25 - 2015-11-01 41,841 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-11-01 - 2015-11-08 41,535 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-11-08 - 2015-11-15 41,100 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-11-15 - 2015-11-22 40,948 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-11-22 - 2015-12-04 41,708 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-12-04 - 2015-12-12 40,668 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-12-12 - 2015-12-13 40,592 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-12-13 - 2015-12-21 41,061 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-12-21 - 2015-12-29 41,314 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2015-12-29 - 2016-01-14 40,934 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-01-14 - 2016-01-28 40,949 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-01-28 - 2016-02-04 40,911 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-02-04 - 2016-02-11 40,326 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-02-11 - 2016-02-25 42,340 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-02-25 - 2016-03-17 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-03-17 - 2016-04-01 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-04-01 - 2016-04-04 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-04-04 - 2016-04-16 42,151 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-04-16 - 2016-04-20 41,635 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-04-20 - 2016-04-29 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-04-29 - 2016-05-13 40,751 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-05-13 - 2016-05-20 30,477 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-05-20 - 2016-05-27 28,014 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-05-27 - 2016-06-03 21,374 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-03 - 2016-06-10 18,559 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-10 - 2016-06-17 18,194 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-17 - 2016-06-24 13,025 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-25                       12,312 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-26                       10,996 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-27                         7,955 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-28                         7,752 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-29                         7,752 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-06-30                         7,301 mWh 42,157 mWh

    2016-07-01                         6,992 mWh 42,157 mWh

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-02T04:10:52+00:00

    Same problem here.  Microsoft is saying pay the $450 for an out of warranty replacement.

    So pissed

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