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
    2016-07-23T07:12:35+00:00

    The battery capacity drops quicker the more it's discharged. Looking at that report it looks like you are mostly on AC power but if you look at the period early on where it's on battery the capacity drops.

    I'm not saying you should do this but I bet if you started using the battery more, letting it discharge down to about 50% or less, you'd see it degrade faster.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-23T06:55:55+00:00

    Installed batteries    

    Information about each currently installed battery

    NAME X910528
    MANUFACTURER DYN
    SERIAL NUMBER 42339
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 38 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 30 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 172

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-23T05:50:37+00:00

    I have the Simplo battery too, at a cycle count of 139, with hardly any degradation, but my SP3 is only about 9 months old now. I hope they fix or recall the devices before my warranty runs out.

    Installed batteries

    Information about each currently installed battery

    NAME X898289
    MANUFACTURER SIMPLO
    SERIAL NUMBER XXXXXXXXXXX
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 41,184 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 139

    Recent usage

    Power states over the last 3 days

    2016-07-20 19:03:56 Connected standby Battery 100 % 41,276 mWh
    19:03:56 Active Battery 100 % 41,276 mWh
    19:36:45 Connected standby Battery 76 % 31,555 mWh
    19:42:20 Active Battery 75 % 31,145 mWh
    19:43:51 Connected standby Battery 75 % 30,757 mWh
    19:54:08 Active Battery 73 % 30,005 mWh
    20:09:16 Active AC 63 % 25,840 mWh
    20:16:24 Active Battery 63 % 25,802 mWh
    20:47:02 Connected standby Battery 38 % 15,595 mWh
    20:47:03 Suspended 38 % 15,595 mWh
    2016-07-21 08:26:15 Connected standby Battery 100 % 41,192 mWh
    08:26:15 Suspended 100 % 41,192 mWh
    08:26:50 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    08:26:50 Active AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    08:34:39 Active Battery 100 % 41,192 mWh
    08:34:39 Connected standby Battery 100 % 41,192 mWh
    08:34:39 Suspended 100 % 41,192 mWh
    23:48:06 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    23:48:06 Active AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    23:52:56 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    23:52:56 Suspended 100 % 41,192 mWh
    2016-07-22 20:20:31 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    20:20:31 Active AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    20:22:24 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    20:22:25 Suspended 100 % 41,192 mWh
    21:58:50 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    21:58:50 Active AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    22:15:00 Suspended 100 % 41,192 mWh
    22:21:27 Active AC 100 % 41,192 mWh
    22:22:28 Connected standby AC 94 % 38,874 mWh
    22:38:08 Active AC 98 % 40,295 mWh
    22:38:34 Connected standby AC 98 % 40,318 mWh
    22:38:35 Suspended 98 % 40,318 mWh
    2016-07-23 09:45:19 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:12:27 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:13:13 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:13:14 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:19:43 Suspended 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:44:15 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:44:15 Suspended 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:46:17 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:46:17 Suspended 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:48:28 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:48:28 Suspended 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:52:37 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:53:41 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:55:42 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:59:45 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    10:59:46 Suspended 100 % 41,184 mWh
    11:13:00 Connected standby AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    11:13:00 Active AC 100 % 41,184 mWh
    11:13:00 Report generated AC 100 % 41,184 mWh

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-23T02:27:54+00:00

    This evening I ran the battery down until I got the battery symbol when powering on (the one that appears before the Surface logo). I then plugged in using the supplied charger and powered on holding down Volume up to go into the UEFI bios screen & then left it charging.

    After over 6 hours later I turned it off and on then let Windows start up. Battery shows 100% charged but capacity has dropped again. I think running these batteries down is a bad idea, as each time the capacity drops, and I'm left feeling that this isn't a firmware/driver issue after all.

    How much longer can Microsoft carry on ignoring this?

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