Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Anonymous

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.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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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1,459 additional answers

Anonymous

My SP3 is doing the same. Looks like it started in May 2016, the battery has gone from 7 hours of power to less than 2 minutes when unplugged. What good is a tablet if you have to keep it plugged in? Even with the latest firmware, 8-1-16, no difference.

MANUFACTURER	SIMPLO
SERIAL NUMBER	1179131396
CHEMISTRY	LION
DESIGN CAPACITY	42,157 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	1,892 mWh
CYCLE COUNT	143

2016-04-18 - 2016-04-25	41,477 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-04-25 - 2016-05-01	41,645 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-01 - 2016-05-08	38,162 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-08 - 2016-05-16	33,837 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-16 - 2016-05-22	30,310 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-22 - 2016-05-30	27,500 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-30 - 2016-06-06	22,639 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-06 - 2016-06-13	19,971 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-13 - 2016-06-20	17,399 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-20 - 2016-06-27	15,608 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-27 - 2016-07-04	12,789 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-04 - 2016-07-11	10,054 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-11 - 2016-07-18	7,567 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-18 - 2016-07-25	5,425 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-26	4,552 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-27	4,552 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-28	4,552 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-29	4,552 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-30	4,109 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-31	1,892 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-08-01	1,892 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-08-02	1,892 mWh	42,157 mWh

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Anonymous

2016-08-04T13:17:44+00:00

I spoke to a nice Lady from Microsoft Global Escalation Services yesterday, who was responding to a email I sent to Microsoft.

I think Microsoft had thought that I was a business with a lot of devices and wanted to gather more information from me.

What I had asked in my email and repeated by phone was that everyone in the UK who had already paid for an out of Warranty replacement due to the SIMPLO battery was refunded their out of warranty fee, otherwise I will pursue my case via the UK Courts for my money back. In the UK it is harder to launch a class action, but easier to lodge a small claim for up to a few thousand pounds with little work required.

So the nice lady from Microsoft was gathering information, and was not in a position to provide me with information.

However I do take a lot of comfort from having received contact from Microsoft over this.
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Anonymous

2016-08-04T13:14:38+00:00

We have 3 Surface 3 Pro here all with Simplo Batteries all bought around the same time. I have checked every one and mine is the only one having the issue. the other two show no signs off it their battery reports show their batteries are preforming a little above spec.

Could you post the battery reports please?
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Anonymous

2016-08-04T13:13:46+00:00

are these docked most of the time?
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