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
    2016-08-03T13:28:22+00:00

    The good thing is that I have a warranty from the Geek Squad who will replace the battery.

    Just a word of caution that while this is excellent that you can get a warranty repair the replacement will still have this issue until Microsoft are able to provide a solution.  This is why I'm holding off returning mine under it's extended warranty since the replacement will just fail too.  This is a multi page thread so hard to read all the way through but there are people who are on their 2nd battery which is now failing.

    Please don't take this as me telling you what to do, I'm just trying to inform. :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T13:24:48+00:00

    Just a update on mine. I can no longer use the surface 3 pro in the docking station. it will power on and a few moments later just turn off. I can still run it off the charger that came with it, but this is a pain because now I have to get a usb hub, a usb network adapater and a mini display port to display port cable so I can use it with my monitor and network. The dock is now useless because of this battery issue.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T13:05:33+00:00

    I feel the same way. I just completed the Windows 10 Anniversary update which claims to improve the battery life.  I took the Surface off of the docking station and let it run off the battery and after 40 minutes the battery died.  The good thing is that I have a warranty from the Geek Squad who will replace the battery.  The downside, I will be out of pocket with a computer for two weeks which is crazy.  I love my Surface and it's a shame that MS will not issue a recall on the batteries and replace them.  Very sad...

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T12:43:38+00:00

    Panos Panay's passion for his products dies the moment he leaves the stage to work on the next generation.  That man should feel ashamed of the Surface product line as none have been problem free. Every. Single. Launch. Imagine if Dell or HP had an issue with every single device they had ever launched?

    Shocking but unfortunately to be expected after 4 generations of consistent failures.

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