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
    2016-08-19T09:22:22+00:00

    Unit bought in SG, but staying in Thailand since the beginning of this year. They quoted THB 4200+tax for replacement. SP3 model: i5, 8GB ram, 256GB SSD. Battery is SIMPLO, 100% wear, actual capacity is 144 mWh out of design capacity 42,000.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-19T08:50:49+00:00

    Looking at the currency, it seems like you are from Singapore. Can I know what model battery are you using and what have the battery degraded to?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-19T08:32:23+00:00

    Ok, today's been my second attempt at MS support. The first one was before it became such a long thread here. First chat concluded that my settings/software are fine and it was indeed a battery problem (no word of software fix back then) and servicing would be around 7-800 SGD. Out of warranty. Let me not quote my thoughts from back then.

    Second chat with support happened today and I referenced to this forum right away. A series of mandatory checklist items via remote assistance concluded that my unit is indeed affected and they said that a replacement can be issued. At a charge of about SGD 160 to which I said no again as it is clear that MS is at fault. By right they should issue a recall and fix those units free of charge regardless of warranty status. Especially if it's a software issue as they say. And that problem was not present until the 12th month of warranty. They caused the issue and not the user for many of whom battery degradation goes unnoticed until it's too late. My waiver request has been forwarded to some internal team and will hear back from them on Monday. A lot more professional way of handling the issue, but I guess that has to do with much bigger publicity of the problem by now. Can share my chat log on request.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-19T07:41:37+00:00

    Hear hear.

    I was thinking about replacing my SP3 with a surface book in a couple of years time. Seems I will be replacing it sooner with something not made by Microsoft. I 'replaced' my iPad 2 with a sp3 and so far, the iPad 2 is looking like it will outlive it's replacement. I will most likely be going down the multiple device route, I cant say the sp3 does tablet or pc as well as it should. I left apple because I was tired of their new kiddy style simple route. I'm going to go back because I want something that works. Seems apples old line ' it Just works' sort of fits now, because compared to microsoft devices, a 2e would be better right about now.

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