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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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

2016-07-28T16:04:58+00:00

It did not help. I was very hopeful but no use. All the suggested driver fixes are making it worse.

Took a nose dive from 1,211mWh to 669mWh full capacity in 5 days.

Now it ia literally a 'Desktop Replacement' as advertised, because it is literally just a desktop computer...
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Anonymous

2016-07-28T15:01:25+00:00

I also have this problem in my sp3. Looking forward for solution
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Anonymous

2016-07-28T14:58:13+00:00

Last week, I had a bit under 800 mWH capacity, now it's under 50! To coin a phrase, this is Simplo unacceptable.

I've had two people ask me about my Surface Pro 3 and I'd been recommending them to buy a Surface Pro 4 but I've now warned them that I can not endorse any Surface products and that they should look for something else.

Six months to get WiFi reliable on Surface Pro 1. More WiFi issues at launch with Surface Pro 2 and firmware that left them unable to charge over Christmas 2015. Surface Pro 3 now has these battery issues which has been handled disgracefully with customers being asked to pay $99 for support followed by $450 for replacement. Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book which went through months of silence before Microsoft finally opened up and issued firmware updates to fix power management.

I love my Surface Pro 3 and I hope that my mind can be changed and that Microsoft do something amazing to turn this around, reimbursing those out of pocket for example, and perhaps one day I can recommend the Surface brand again.

EDIT: I will probably continue to buy Surface products, I love the design and form factor too much, but recommending others to spend their own money on them is something I will not currently do.
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Anonymous

2016-07-28T14:47:14+00:00

I had my SP3 replaced under warranty when the battery would not charge. Now, it won't stay on unless plugged in, but is likely out of warranty support. I've seen wild fluctuations in the battery charge value shown in Windows - goes from 100 to 10% in seconds, plugged in and at 80% immediately. The earlier comment about how difficult it will be to change the embedded software with the battery pack does not make me hopeful that this can be addressed.

Last week, I had a bit under 800 mWH capacity, now it's under 50! To coin a phrase, this is Simplo unacceptable.

![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=130ad4d3-37e1-4f28-bcc7-4f2f12fe8c61)
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