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

2016-07-26T19:19:13+00:00

I also have the battery problems. My final full charge capacity is 631 which leaves me with almost enough time to gasp for breath before my tablet eats it. So much for my beloved computer.... FIX THIS MICROSOFT.
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Anonymous

2016-07-26T17:35:04+00:00

This is very disappointing and disturbing. Like the rest of you, my Surface Pro 3 battery life started to disintegrate within the past month. Over the next month or so, I will not be in a position to plug in, but use of my device will be extremely important. Not sure what the solution might be, but so very disappointed to learn Bill and Melinda Gates, who are now so enthusiastic about giving away their wealth to charity will not make good on their obligations to their customers who enabled them to accumulate wealth in the first place.
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Anonymous

I saw a steep decline in battery life over the past few months, followed by a slow partial recovery in the past week. At this point still well below battery spec, but somewhat better than at its worst. I did not log every step I took to try to recover the battery, but as near as I can reconstruct, here is what I did: applied latest firmware update, applied latest update for Windows 10, turned off most background app notifications, reduced screen brightness, began using the Surface Pro 3 unplugged to drain the battery fully prior to charging whenever possible. For reference: Surface Pro 3 i7 256 GB SIMPLO battery. Here's the recent history from powercfg /batteryreport.

2016-03-20 - 2016-03-28	41,489 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-03-28 - 2016-04-03	41,423 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-04-03 - 2016-04-11	40,724 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-04-11 - 2016-04-17	32,879 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-04-17 - 2016-04-24	29,940 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-04-24 - 2016-05-01	33,718 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-01 - 2016-05-09	31,620 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-09 - 2016-05-16	28,589 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-16 - 2016-05-22	24,927 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-22 - 2016-05-29	20,304 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-05-29 - 2016-06-05	18,425 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-05 - 2016-06-12	20,776 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-12 - 2016-06-19	25,669 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-19 - 2016-06-26	23,226 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-06-26 - 2016-07-03	18,562 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-03 - 2016-07-10	14,137 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-10 - 2016-07-17	11,021 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-18	9,794 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-19	10,461 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-20	11,458 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-21	12,143 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-22	12,967 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-23	13,592 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-24	14,014 mWh	42,157 mWh
2016-07-25	14,748 mWh	42,157 mWh

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Anonymous

2016-07-26T15:18:57+00:00

I started a thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/4up3o5/defective\_product\_out\_of\_warranty\_im\_guessing/

Please chime in if you'd like.
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