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
    2016-08-01T15:40:23+00:00

    Hello everyone,

    We are aware of some customers reporting a scenario with their Surface Pro 3 batteries in which the system is reporting lower battery capacity than expected. We’ve isolated this to a limited number of customers experiencing this issue.

    Based on our investigations we can confirm that it is not an issue with the battery cells, and we believe this is something that can be addressed via software.

    We’re working through the details of how we deliver that.

    Thank you all for the details you've shared here,

    Greg

    Greg,

    Any update regarding the software update for the Surface Pro 3 battery issue?

    Thank you,

    Robert

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T14:20:35+00:00

    Just adding my stats to the thread. Battery was fine until April 2016. With only 144mWh capacity as of July 29, my SP3 Pro is now unusable unless it is plugged directly into the AC. I can't even use my docking station, so that investment was wasted too.

    Installed batteries

    Information about each currently installed battery

    NAME X898289
    MANUFACTURER SIMPLO
    SERIAL NUMBER 1161370116
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 144 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 108

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T13:57:49+00:00

    As per Barb, I contacted support and they waived the $99 fee (thanks Barb!).  However, after spending 2 hours on the phone with support, I have no improvement in my battery life.  They've escalated the issue to a higher support level and are supposed to get back to me in 2-5 days.  Will post again if I get any relief.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T10:55:00+00:00

    Let us all hope that what appears to be a software problem did not cook all our batteries to the point they have failed and this is now a hardware issue.

    With the information from the people rebooting into Windows 8.1, it sure seems to be hardware.

    Yeah, it could be firmware.  Let's hope so.

    Maybe they are waiting on a boat that is to bring over enough replacements so that they can do a recall.

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