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
    2016-07-22T22:40:50+00:00

    I did the update this morning as well and I will say that mine does seem a bit better. I also followed the other instructions posted here about running the battery down every day and it seems to be helping.

    Before the update, when I was at 100% the most I would see is just over remaining. Today I updated and the battery was at 80% and it said I have 4 hrs 6 min remaining.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-22T22:40:25+00:00

    I noticed that, too, going through the postings. Seems like the significant drops started March, April, and May for most people. And then the batteries plummeted down from there. Weird.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-22T22:30:32+00:00

    I believe it is time for us all to consider a class action lawsuit about battery degradation. Spending any monies to replace something MS knew or should have known was defective is unfair to consumers.

    They should offer us a replacement battery at cost.

    ******@gmail.com

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-22T22:22:19+00:00

    This update did nothing for the battery. still at 144 mWh capacity. c'mon Microsoft please make this right.

    Exactly! Perhaps this update will prevent the new batteries that MS should issue at no cost, but did nothing for my current dead battery. Like a fool, after the update, restarting, etc. I unplugged the charger and of course it shut down. Sucks!

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