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
    2016-08-18T23:22:25+00:00

    First off, let me report that I have had to replace my bricked SP3 with a Samsung Notebook 9. But ...

    I bought one of the 15 volt Surface 4 power supplies mentioned and was able to unbrick my Surface long enough to change the registry allowing for adjusting the processor state to 65% as stated by the INCREDIBLY helpful poster above. I can now operate my SP3 docked and get my lost material off the otherwise useless machine.

    Recommended.

    I'm not sure I want to leave my Surface on the 15 volt supply (rather than the SP3's 12 volt) and will probably not do that. But a BRAVO!!! to the persons here who recommended the 15 volt SP4 supply and a BRAVO!!! to the person giving the registry key to allow throttling the processor. Thank you both.

    There are some pretty smart people contributing here!

    Steve

    Those 2 tips were really helpful.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T23:20:09+00:00

    LGC batteries are also affected although far fewer reports than for SIMPLO so you might be ok.

    Yep, and I've heard some LGC complaints but I wasn't sure what to make of it at this point. I don't think MS has excluded LGC in any of their statements so it's possible LGC's were just manufactured later and therefore will be impacted later.

    My LGC capacity has already declined (goes up and down actually). My only saving grace is that they extended my warranty another year+2mo (Oct 2017). So I'll be running my powercfg frequently.. Still kinda sad that you'd have to.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=40c7798d-8eda-486e-b560-2389817fed97)

    My LGC battery have 28,000mWh of capacity from 42,000mWh. That was a high jump in just a few weeks. If you want to check your battery degradation without running powercfg i suggest you download the FREE version of BatteryBar. It will show your battery status next to your clock in the taskbar.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T23:17:00+00:00

    My first replacement had an LG battery with zero charges, but a deffective fan.  I returned that for another with the LG battery and zero charge cycles.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T22:52:02+00:00

    First off, let me report that I have had to replace my bricked SP3 with a Samsung Notebook 9. But ...

    I bought one of the 15 volt Surface 4 power supplies mentioned and was able to unbrick my Surface long enough to change the registry allowing for adjusting the processor state to 65% as stated by the INCREDIBLY helpful poster above. I can now operate my SP3 docked and get my lost material off the otherwise useless machine.

    Recommended.

    I'm not sure I want to leave my Surface on the 15 volt supply (rather than the SP3's 12 volt) and will probably not do that. But a BRAVO!!! to the persons here who recommended the 15 volt SP4 supply and a BRAVO!!! to the person giving the registry key to allow throttling the processor. Thank you both.

    There are some pretty smart people contributing here!

    Steve

    Was this answer helpful?

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