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
    2016-07-27T12:06:40+00:00

    Why would the SIMPLO batteries have this problem and need a software fix but not the LG ones?

    My SP3 has LG batteries and is suffering from the same problem!

    Cheers

     Thomas

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-27T11:56:05+00:00

    Hi everyone,

    I have this problem too.

    Mine doesn't even get charged and I can't use my surface without power cord.

    I had 40% battery first time I faced the issue 6 months ago

    Now I have 0 percent.

    I tried reinstalling battery driver, factory resetting, and some solutions which were provided in different forums and none has worked so far.

    I live in Iran and unfortunately I don't have access to Microsoft's customer service :(

    It is really frustrating.

    I hope Microsoft releases a firmware update for this issue

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-27T11:50:47+00:00

    Its not just a simplo problem as I have an LGC battery

    Since feb this year I have only been able to use it with power supply , as soon as i unplugged it went off every time,

    it started off with 97% plugged in not charging. It is now 13% plugged in not charging

    I only  use it 2 or 3 times  a month for 3 hours

    When I contacted Microsoft after jumping through all the hoops ,I was told it was battery failure. 4 months out of warranty and they wanted £400 for a replacement with only 3 month warranty

    As someone else has said in a previous reply ,most of these problems started around early 2016,

    so hopefully it is a software problem

    Information about each currently installed battery

    NAME X883815
    MANUFACTURER LGC-LGC
    SERIAL NUMBER 1154881796
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 29,518 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 57

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-27T09:19:46+00:00

    Hi, The model of the battery is behind the stand... see below.

    Looks like the image didn't come through. Can you repost?

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