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
    2016-08-07T21:54:55+00:00

    Make sure you all take a minute and go to the Microsoft store to post your review of the product and the support you've received so far on this issue.

    https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en\_US/pdp/Surface-Pro-3/productID.300190600

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-07T14:18:46+00:00

    I've just returned mine for a partial refund at PC world in the UK. (Approx 50% of the purchase price, which seems fair given that I've had 19 months use out of something that is realistically only going to have a 3 year life)

    A long process and a lot of persistence required to get the refund, but I can appreciate why PC World are resistant to accepting returns at this stage. They have been heavily dropped in the firing line by Microsoft's faulty product and by Microsoft's silence on the matter. Kudos to PC World for finally offering the refund and I hope the cost of this is passed on to Microsoft.

    Interestingly they ran a diagnostic test in the store, and within 2 minutes they stopped the test and declared the battery was 'faulty'. That doesn't necessarily mean it is the physical battery that is faulty, but it does mean there is a simple way of quickly checking if it is performing properly.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-07T12:53:54+00:00

    I live in the UK and bought my Surface Pro 3 in the UK. I had no idea there were battery issues until my Surface suddenly died stone cold dead and nothing will revive it. The very negative, disinterested written response I received from Microsoft (posted earlier in this thread) has prompted me to send my details to the US law firm gathering names and details of everyone with the problem.

    I also bought 2 Windows Nokia Lumia 820 mobile phones a few years ago. Checking the mobile phone settings mine was very clearly made by a different manufacturer to my son's. Mine was a nightmare from the start with power/processing/software updating issues

    • freezing/jamming/dying. I had to send it in for repairs several times, they refused to ever tell me what was wrong with it or to replace it and the "repairs" made no difference! It died just out of warranty. I then resorted to using my son's identical phone (made by a different manufacturer and runs/handles totally differently). I am still using it. I am now wondering if my Windows Nokia Lumia mobile problems are a similar issue to the Surface Pro 3 problems.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-07T12:04:00+00:00

    I'm in the UK and also experiencing degradation as well as rapid discharging.

    My Stats today:

    NAME X898289
    MANUFACTURER SIMPLO
    SERIAL NUMBER
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 29,321 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 400

    Today's usage:

    2016-08-07 09:47:13 Active Battery 100 % 29,321 mWh
    10:17:06 Connected standby Battery 78 % 22,884 mWh
    10:17:07 Active Battery 78 % 22,884 mWh
    10:21:12 Connected standby Battery 76 % 22,230 mWh
    10:30:34 Active Battery 73 % 21,386 mWh
    10:31:36 Connected standby Battery 72 % 21,189 mWh
    10:38:14 Active Battery 70 % 20,657 mWh
    11:40:51 Connected standby Battery 25 % 7,364 mWh
    12:01:42 Active Battery 16 % 4,750 mWh
    12:11:00 Report generated Battery 7 % 2,196 mWh

    When it gets to 6%, it turns off. I managed to get this report done just before it died.

    So that's (with only web usage) from 100% to off in 2 hours, 24 minutes. Bluetooth off, Location off, WiFi on and for some reason, flight mode also on. Yes, wifi works with flight mode on.

    I've now got 69.5% of the designed battery capacity. Looking through my history, I have had times where the capacity has gone up again.

    I'm wanting to try the 'run it always on battery' thing as much as I can however I do NEED my surface pro 3 for work, in places where I won't have AC power to connect to. There's also the fact that it's on standby a lot of the time and not fully off, so it will drain in my bag when taking it places. You can't turn it fully off.

    I'm doing the update now, strange that it doesn't auto-install, and will see what that does to the issue.

    I am lucky enough to have an extended warranty as I bought mine from John Lewis who do a 2 year warranty as default on all electrical goods and occasionally a third year of cover on some items. However, due to me NEEDING this for work, I haven't taken it back yet even though there are other issues. 90% of the time, I turn my surface on and it has no idea what time or date it is. The type cover will occasionally completely refuse to work and I have to perform a chained volume button/power button reset and reset the system. Occasionally it will also not turn on and I have to do several chained resets to get it to start up. 

    If all of this does not get better, I may be forced to return it and go back to dual-booting on apple equipment.

    I have a W10 phone (Nokia 930) which also suffers extremely badly from battery life going through the floor. Could it actually be true that MS just can't program an OS that doesn't consume the souls of it's battery?

    Their suggestions for that were to turn everything off and not use any smartphone feature whatsoever. One step away from putting it in the bin and going back to the days of landline only communication.

    I'll be back if I discover anything, I've subscribed to this thread as I want to see what everyone else's experiences are. It is clear I do not have the insane degradation other people have, I would love to know their battery cycle numbers to go with such insane battery failures, and to read of anyone else's troubles or suggestions of what to do in the UK. I've read about the class action lawsuit brought against MS in the US, I am keen to see what happens there and if it can have any bearing or effect in other countries where the SP3 is sold.

    What is certain however, I won't be buying another MS product until something big is done to address their hardware issues.

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