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
    2016-07-26T10:44:19+00:00

    This is exactly the problem I am facing.

    It happened in mid July.

    Tried everything including a reset. It went back to 8.1 and then I upgraded to 10. The problem persists

    Plugged in not charging battery status 85%

    Now I cannot use it without AC power!!!!!

    Please help.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-26T10:35:20+00:00

    clarifying this - MVP's and Community Moderators are unpaid volunteers and do

    not work for Microsoft. MVP's are able to get a support incident (but we have to

    give OUR credit card numbers) - if it is a software bug, this is how to get it

    in front of engineers. I was asked by a Microsoft Surface Supportability person

    who knows how MVP's can open cases to get a few cases opened.

    The battery issue - same person stated it was out of his hands. They obviously

    have duplicated it internally and do not need support cases. They were unable to

    duplicate the Code 45 thing.

    My personal opinion of the battery issue is that it is shameful.

    >>Just to highlight where Microsoft's priorities are we actually received a response from a Microsoft representative offering FREE support calls because of a driver issue (reporting error code 45) but a systemic hardware failure? Oh no, that requires us to get through a $99 paywall and has received ZERO response from Microsoft.

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Barb

    MVP-Windows and Devices for IT

    My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

    Please mark as answered if this answers your question

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-26T10:35:16+00:00

    Hello everyone,

    I own a SP3 and have just found out about this. Turns out my SP3 also is installed with a SIMPLO battery, but since my battery cycle is relatively low, the charge capacity is still reasonable.

    Do you think I should avoid unplugging the SP3 whenever possible? Maybe that would at least prevent faster battery degradation? I usually work at home, and rarely actually take the Surface out of the house...

    Here are my battery details:

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=3bb73198-5761-42e8-a224-33a1e34f54ae)

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=78e00569-e292-403b-bb14-fd0a6fabdd6c)

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