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
    2016-08-09T19:27:50+00:00

    I am having this exact issue. I have had the overheating issue in the top right corner since i bought the thing, but now the battery on a FULL CHARGE only lasts about 2.5 hours total. This is unacceptable. I couldn't send it in during warranty since I NEEDED it for school. Now that I don't need it all the time, my warranty is up.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-09T18:52:38+00:00

    Hello,

    my surface pro 3 also doesn't hold any battery charge. Plugging to the power it charges the battery(100%) in 20 seconds, but as soon as I unplug the power cable the surface goes off.

    It's impossible a battery doesn't accept any charge in such short time, so I really believe it should be a driver/software issue.

    Any news from when the new update will come out to sort out this issue?

    Jorge

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-09T16:43:00+00:00

    NOTICE* * *  The Windows Update 1607 will delete your battery power history in   powercfg /batteryreport.  It also changes the set point where the system shuts down due to low battery.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-09T15:50:00+00:00

    I also find it very interesting that it seems a lot of different folks had the capacity degradation start dropping around april/may of this year just as I did. If it were purely driven by battery degradation, you would expect it to happen at much more varied times, and maybe be more tied to total cycle count.

    Also I am finding it so annoying that a single MSFT rep can not get on here to offer even a shred of information regarding what is going on with the fix for this. Their expensive flagship device basically turns into a useless brick for many many users, and we hear nothing?

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