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
    2016-08-10T21:25:24+00:00

    Add me to the list. 15 months used surface pro3 with SIMPLO battery. My current battery capacity is 13500mWh. Ironically I feel lucky(seeing other cases here) even though 70% of my battery has degraded in the period of 16 months. Bought it in Finland and the retailer had warranty of 2 years, but they are refusing to take it back since battery is not covered in the warranty after a year.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-10T18:48:57+00:00

    Plus 1 more on the SIMPLO battery issue. I don't have a battery report to share as I had already installed the Anniversary Update, and used USB recovery (After the SP3 shut off during the built in recovery option) but my issues started with "Not Charging" in May. In the past week, my Surface began powering off, even when docked.

    I currently have a cycle count of 173 with Full Charge Capacity of 144 mWh. The dock is basically a paper weight and my SP3 is not far behind.

    I am trying patiently to wait for an answer on this, but it seems to be dragging on quite a bit with no updates from Microsoft. I get the CYA aspect, but give us something!

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-10T18:36:30+00:00

    Has anybody tried reaching to their friends/relatives in MSFT? Not to see if there's a solution, but rather to see whether this issue is also with all their dogfooded SP3s? Or did they already replace all SP3s with SP4s?

    I reached out to someone in IT, and according to them the issue was resolved in Anniversary update which clearly isn't the case.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-10T18:16:50+00:00

    My review on the Microsoft store was also 'moderated' but I will re-post a modified version.

    My surface died yesterday afternoon. I can't keep it on long enough to boot fully, even when plugged into dock or mains. I've tried disabling components to no avail. I even tried a SP4 power supply since it uses 64w instead of the 36w. It worked for a little bit longer but ultimately failed.

    I'm going to go down to the local MS store tomorrow and give them an opportunity to do the right thing. I'll let everyone know what the results are. I think the 'elite corps of support personal' on the phones are too detached from the situation to get any real results.

    Comment on twitter #batterygate

    Don't forget to click 'Me Too' at the top of this thread.

    Post your review on the surface at the store.

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