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
    2016-08-13T00:15:16+00:00

    So as of August 12, 2016 do we still not have an update on the issue? My surface pro 3 with SIMPLO battery reports only a 144 mWh capacity which is about enough battery for half a second. I have issues even keeping my surface on with the cable plugged in. I was very happy about my surface right up until I started having this issue last month. Nothing seems to work. I even did a hard factory reset of it and still nothing. I heard installing the old firmware (Prior to April 2016) and letting the battery run down then recharge many times nurses the capacity back to full. Is this true? Either way I'm not giving another $500 to Microsoft if they don't stand by their hardware. It's unacceptable. I know its out of warranty but we shouldn't expect widespread batteries dying a mere 3 months after the warranty expired. I expected to own this for a few years, I guess I will start looking at other hardware companies from now on.

    Yes. I too am looking at other hardware companies. I had originally planned to upgrade to a Surface Book after 3 years with my Surface Pro 3 but after finding my Surface Pro 3 battery died within 18 months and that Microsoft would not stand by their product I am re-considering my plans,

    The surface book has TWO sealed batteries, one in the base and one in the clipboard. Given Microsoft's appalling treatment of its customers over the Surface Pro 3 battery failure why on earth would I still consider purchasing a product from them which is twice as likely to suffer the same fate?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-12T20:46:29+00:00

    So as of August 12, 2016 do we still not have an update on the issue? My surface pro 3 with SIMPLO battery reports only a 144 mWh capacity which is about enough battery for half a second. I have issues even keeping my surface on with the cable plugged in. I was very happy about my surface right up until I started having this issue last month. Nothing seems to work. I even did a hard factory reset of it and still nothing. I heard installing the old firmware (Prior to April 2016) and letting the battery run down then recharge many times nurses the capacity back to full. Is this true? Either way I'm not giving another $500 to Microsoft if they don't stand by their hardware. It's unacceptable. I know its out of warranty but we shouldn't expect widespread batteries dying a mere 3 months after the warranty expired. I expected to own this for a few years, I guess I will start looking at other hardware companies from now on.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-12T18:34:27+00:00

    Now I have to be careful to not unplug the cable as the computer WILL power down and a reboot takes some time which account to unproductivity.  Said that, I have to be near ONE power plug at all times to use the tablet and can not switch to an other wall plug as the computer will reboot.

    The Stylus, which is a huge plus on the tablet, is useless because risking to unplug the computer using the stylus is very high.

    So many with the SIMPLO battery issue claim the computer will not even boot.  When MSFT releases the patch to fix this issue, will I still be able to boot and install and recover the battery to it's fullest potential or do we still have to replace the unit. 

    Will have to wait and see with what Microsoft will come up with.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-12T18:21:22+00:00

    I'm not sure if anyone else has done this but I've created a bitly link that people can use in emails/letters to refer to this topic in case they want to refer customer service people here when discussing replacements:

    http://bit.ly/SP3BatteryGate

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