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
    2016-10-10T14:01:17+00:00

    I bought my Surface Pro 3 in April, 2015 and the battery was produced by SIMPLO. In fact, there wasn't any problem with my battery until last mouth. As you see, the capacity of the battery decreased by 1/4 in just one mouth after the 2016/8/29 update. I have reinstalled my OS but it didn't helped. And there is also a error with the "cycle count". The cycle count is unbelievably more than it could be. As my observation, the cycle count often has a irregular 8 to 10 leap after maybe actually 2 or 3 cycles. I'm afraid that the capacity of my battery would be several thousand mWh like others.![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=3b6e7cea-18af-4ed9-b883-77ed78a56107)![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=51910567-ca68-449d-b4a2-19e65449a8cf)

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-10T13:37:07+00:00

    What is Microsoft doing about the LGC not charging issues?

    I dunno why you asking me? As I said I have a SIMPLO.

    Knowing when this issue 1st cropped-up, & knowing how long it took the SIMPLO matter to resolve.

    You could be waiting a while longer yet...

    Though I'd be surprised if it's not fully resolved once we hit December 1st, hopefully well before.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-10-10T13:27:19+00:00

    I reported the SP3 with the LGC battery not charging issue to the Microsoft staff monitoring this forum and Barb a long time ago.  It appears to have been ignored.

    I have one that is so bad, that the President of the company I consult for told be to toss the SP3 in the lake, and buy him a desktop.

    What is Microsoft doing about the LGC not charging issues?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-10T13:27:06+00:00

    My SP3 just got out of warranty in August 2016... and I need to pay $99 to call support.

    Wow, that sux, IIRC I got 2yr & 3mth, so still ~7mth to go...

    Might be time to cough-up & get it sorted, then sell, these things hold their value as well as MBP's.

    Then use the cash to upgrade to the "latest & greatest" W10 Hybrid/2-in-1.

    Always good to have the new shiny, I will be before my warranty's fully up!

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