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
    2016-08-02T11:35:36+00:00

    I am unfortunately able to add myself to the list of affected users. Surface Pro 3 purchased end of December 2014. Battery started degrading in May 2016 and is now giving less than 1 hour of screen time.

    Given that a computer which is purchased for a UK business is expected to have a 3 year write-off period for tax purposes I find it wholly unreasonable that Microsoft would expect a computer battery to fail within half that period if the battery is not replaceable. Mine only has 260 charge cycles on it.

    Microsoft - you need to communicate with your users on this forum and provide an anticipated date when this problem will be resolved. The issue is now being widely reported in the press, with threats of a class action being commenced. That sort of bad publicity is likely to far outweigh the cost of whatever solution is required to resolve this issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T11:35:27+00:00

    My Surface Pro3 won't charge anymore.  It works fine on the plug, but when you unplug it turns off immediately and, on restart, has about 30 sec of battery life.

    It looks like this is a pretty common problem.  Will Microsoft do anything to fix it?  They want $99 just to provide an answer (Why am I surprised?)

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T11:09:46+00:00

    Not fixed yet apparently... https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/760430652600750080

    These guys really need a lesson in customer service.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T10:27:16+00:00

    I just want to add that my issue began showing up as early as February, and by late March my battery was completely dead. I purchased a replacement in device in early April. Just so we know that this isn't an entirely recent occurrence.

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