Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Anonymous

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.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

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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1,459 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-08-24T20:26:28+00:00

Agree with the frustration of clicking only to find another person in our collective boat. "Misery loves company" only lasts so long. And I appreciate that others will want to join in and share their disappointment etc and ask for advice from those of us who have lived with batterygate and MS's decision to walk away from us.

But there seem to be some folks on this thread with genuine IT knowledge. Perhaps one or more of them could offer some suggestions on replacement machines for the SP3. It (and the docking station) had so many features that were great for replacing my desktop, laptop and tablet. If it either had a decent battery or decent customer service, many of us would stay with it. But as it has neither, as much as I don't want to make another investment in a computer, I need to get something. Any suggestions for something similar that would be well made and/or sold by a company that would like to keep customers even if they are not buying in bulk for whole departments?

Thanks.
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Anonymous

2016-08-24T20:22:59+00:00

Legitimately couldn't have said it better myself.

;D
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Anonymous

2016-08-24T20:11:53+00:00

Legitimately couldn't have said it better myself.
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Anonymous

2016-08-24T20:03:38+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.
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