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
    2016-08-25T18:01:21+00:00

    Thanks for the reply and for the many threads in this post.

    My SP3 will not boot on the power supply, nor on the dock.

    I have seen comments that it may boot on a SP4 power supply so possibly if I can find a colleague with one that's a possibility.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-25T16:56:12+00:00

    Why? Its a real issue that hasn't been fixed. If you don't like it then don't open the thread.

    Relax, he said that because many of us are following the thread, expecting a notification about the firmware update, instead of receiving new-comers stories that we all experienced. I have to admit that it is annoying, each times we click on a new comment message in our mailboxes, we hope it is because somebody applied a fresh patch that solve it all, but all we get is new dude's desolation or panic instead.

    However Microsoft are reporting this as a very small minority of users. It may be annoying to find a "Me too" post, but it does acknowledge more people with the issue and the more that log their device, the less of a minority we become and more of an issue it becomes for Microsoft to fix.

    If it is indeed a firmware fix for a bug in a prior firmware release, this would not be a minority, but would affect every single SIMPLO battery owner that allowed Microsoft to update their firmware with a bug.

    True that. We are in a tricky hammer-anvil situation. Despite our annoyance, this is the only way to warn MS about the number of impacted setups.

    You have another good point, there is "small number" and "small number", maybe MS is considering all SP3 with SIMPLO, a small number for them. I don't have any idea about the real number of units dispatched, but the problem looks pretty world-wide from what we see in this thread (Australia, France, Thailand, etc..).

    So yeah, those infos are precious, new-comers must keep posting here.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-25T16:23:27+00:00

    Why? Its a real issue that hasn't been fixed. If you don't like it then don't open the thread.

    Relax, he said that because many of us are following the thread, expecting a notification about the firmware update, instead of receiving new-comers stories that we all experienced. I have to admit that it is annoying, each times we click on a new comment message in our mailboxes, we hope it is because somebody applied a fresh patch that solve it all, but all we get is new dude's desolation or panic instead.

    However Microsoft are reporting this as a very small minority of users. It may be annoying to find a "Me too" post, but it does acknowledge more people with the issue and the more that log their device, the less of a minority we become and more of an issue it becomes for Microsoft to fix.

    If it is indeed a firmware fix for a bug in a prior firmware release, this would not be a minority, but would affect every single SIMPLO battery owner that allowed Microsoft to update their firmware with a bug.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-25T16:15:03+00:00

    This happens to mine, too.  Under heavy load, with a terminal battery, the SP3 will randomly shut down.  Had not considered that this was because the power supply was over loaded without the battery there to augment.  How. Bloody. Lame.  MSFT!!!

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