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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

1,459 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2016-08-09T10:52:03+00:00

    After my battery degraded to 30000 mWh in only 2 weeks I always manually shut it down when the battery is getting low. Then I recharge my SP3 without turning it on until I think it is fully charged. Now according to Battery Report

    the full charge capacity has been recovered.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=20f90f3e-bf27-44c7-8f0f-b2ab3a717b9f)

    What is strange though is the current full charge capacity is shown higher than the design capacity.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=c96c650e-d1df-4167-9317-8faf0a67a0c2)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-09T09:57:26+00:00

    I have LGC batteries, and I thin it's affect LGC batteries as well, although the degradation is not as serious as SIMPLO batteries. I also wanna try juanmaq's method to restore the battery but so far am still just trying. any recommendations how to restore it back to battery design capacity?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-09T09:53:37+00:00

    when you charge the surface pro 3 to full, do you have it switched on? or in sleep mode or shut down? if it's in on mode, do you have the screen turned on continuously?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-09T09:46:46+00:00

    Hi juanmaq,

    I'm really interested in using your method to restore the battery but I still not sure how you do it. you mean is that

    1. after you fully charged your surface pro 3, you turn off the surface pro 3 and let it in off state for a few hours or half a day, then after that you turn on and use it normal only up to 50% to 60% battery left, then you put it to charge again?
    2. any specific settings that you use during charging? Do you need to have it switch on with the screen turn on and brightness at the lowest during charging to full? or can turn it to sleep or turn it off and leave it to charge to full?

    Please help.... appreciate it

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments