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
    2016-08-15T15:14:10+00:00

    Would Arnulfo Avi please comment on why Greg's comment was marked as an answer when it doesn't a) offer any actions to take to reduce damage, or prolong device life. b) any time frame for remediation of affected units?

    Further to this, if the solution is truly able to be resolved via software update, this still poses a problem for many people where who are subject to issues where by the devices do not remain powered on even while connected to mains power with the original power-brick (not a surface dock), or the devices do not complete boot at all?

    Further again, can someone at Microsoft commit to notifying your official support tracts to this issue? Continued reports of experiences with Microsoft Store employees and Phone support workers being ignorant to the issue is troubling.

    PS: My own experience with the phone support occurred when I tried calling the local Microsoft Store. I was routed to the general Microsoft Support line. Conversation here degraded with me asking to talk to someone, anyone who could actually talk about this issue without requiring a $99 fee paid. Eventually the tech routed my call to a line which repeated "Please wait" or similar until eventually disconnecting.  I presume this is a method of getting off the call gracefully when the caller is insistent on talking with someone who isn't "on-script."

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-15T14:48:51+00:00

    Just bought surface pro 3 on July 2015. Almost a year ago. Now my battery suck. People should stop buying surfaces. Invest 500+ dollars to lose it in 1 year? No thanks.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-15T14:12:40+00:00

    I start to notice this problem when i try to unplug my SP3 from the AC plug for a movie. It's gone to dead IMMEDIATELY. 

    Thanks to this forum, I then start to generate my own battery report. It seem the battery start to die out in April 2016. 

    It doesn't seem to be isolated case for many of us here. 

    I purchased this SP3 in Nov 2014, with extended warranty. Hopefully the shop will bare the replacement cause if not Microsoft.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-15T14:03:08+00:00

    Hello Greg,

    can you please respond, or if you have been gagged by your management, escalate the issue so someone responds with an update?

    Greg now loads grocery carts at the end of the register conveyor belt. He tried to provide some customer service and help those who are suffering from this device defect, which is not company policy. Instead of waiting for the lawyers to determine whether attempting to fix or just paying damages from a lawsuit would be cheaper, he offered the potential for a fix, which the marketing team considered detrimental to their $450 refurb purchase program, boosted by this defect.

    As a correction to this, Microsoft has deployed the marketing team to encourage "Microsoft MVPs" and "Windows Insider" subscribers to hit the forums with pro Microsoft responses to play down the issues and undo Greg's mistake.

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