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
    2016-12-13T18:18:41+00:00

    All right, so I posted a question related to Surface Pro 3 battery drainage on another thread, but have received completely useless/unhelpful answers:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro3-surfperf/surface-pro-3-battery-drains-within-30-seconds-of/7e429a60-61e3-4eb2-b3d7-748eaa4355f3

    I've done about all I can and what almost everyone on these forums has suggested, short of dealing with firmware or operating system backups (i.e. all updates have been applied, including the so-called battery fix from MS in August 2016, and I try let let my battery drain to 7% or below at least once a month as was recommended ever since I bought my device two years ago).

    But my battery drainage is just getting worse. Today, I had about 18% battery remaining -- supposedly, at least, that's what my computer was telling me. That should've been about 30-45 min. of battery left. I went to take a shower, as my screen shuts off after 3 minutes and the device sleeps at 5, so I figured I'd have some time to come back downstairs, finish some work, and then plug it in to charge. Nope. Came downstairs to my device COMPLETELY shut down due to lack of battery power.

    How does this device go from 18% to dead within the five minutes it's allotted before sleeping?

    I still have a warranty on this device through Best Buy until May 2017. I'm tempted to just bring it in to the Microsoft Store, show them the crappy battery reports as of late, and see what they have to say. If they are as unhelpful as the rest of you have claimed they've been with you, I'll probably demand a new device before my warranty goes bad.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-30T02:12:09+00:00

    I did a system reset yesterday.

    The device went back to 8.1 and then upgraded to Windows 10 anniversary edition. I was hoping that the firmware update will be packaged in to the anniversary edition, but to my disappointment, it wasn't.

    Hence, no luck as of yet.

    It won't run without AC power.

    Battery Status : Battery Not Detected.

    If I disable the battery in device manager and enable it back, the status changes to : Plugged in not charging.

    After a restart the status goes back to Battery Not Detected.

    Waiting for the day when the firmware will be packaged with the Windows major update so that another reset of the OS will load the firmware automatically which may eventually correct the battery status.

    Obviously all of this is not needed if the 40% battery check can be bypassed by setting some option.

    Instead, MS can just add a disclaimer in the update putting the onus on the user to ensure there is enough battery in case of a power failure. Additionally creating a restore point before update will take care of unfinished update and unstable OS state.

    Hope MS is listening !!!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-29T23:54:11+00:00

    How did you do a full system repair/restore?

    Also did this move you back to windows 8 or is it still at Windows 10?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-11-29T23:02:11+00:00

    i'm getting about 8 hours now with on and off usage since the firmware boot.  I have saved these roll back instructions for a later date.  U never know, it may help down the road.  And thanks for it.  Hope it helps others not as lucky as those who have their Surface & battery working well again-

    m

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