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.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

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.

0 comments

1,459 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-07-22T09:14:19+00:00

Just adding another voice; another SIMPLO battery whose capacity has fallen off a cliff about a year into warranty. It maintained near peak until about 11 months. By 14 months, it was down to about 25% and is now (15 months) at about 8% (~3,450 mWh). The reality is rather worse than this suggests however, since below about 40%, the surface can just shut down at any time.

NAME X898289

MANUFACTURER             SIMPLO

DESIGN CAPACITY             14,156 mWh

FULL CHARGE CAPACITY   3,443 mWh

CYCLE COUNT                    196

I don't have the time or patience to sit on tech support getting told to turn the computer on and off and check spurious and unrelated things in System. I just hope enough voices here will pull Microsoft out of the 'head in the sand' reaction, although if the arc touch mouse problems are anything to go by, I doubt it.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2016-07-22T08:14:48+00:00

there is a firmware update for the Surface Pro 3, anybody see any difference after applying it?

Nothing so far and mine has still stopped charging at 95% -- waiting for release notes to be updated here:

Surface Pro 3 update history
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2016-07-22T08:07:23+00:00

there is a firmware update for the Surface Pro 3, anybody see any difference after applying it?
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2016-07-22T07:31:25+00:00

I posted my battery results earlier. When I go to try and contact Microsoft about the problem they say it will cost $99 for them to talk about my SP3.

So Microsoft have requested people contact support so that they can gather more information and then they put a barrier of $99 to prevent us from doing so. That is disgraceful.

I've been going through all the Surface Pro 3 battery related items in the Feedback Hub directing people to this topic so that they can post their battery reports.

I also noticed today that there is new firmware dated 21/07 (or 07/21 for those in the US) but so far the support page hasn't been updated: https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-gb/support/install-update-activate/pro-3-update-history?os=windows-10&=undefined

After installing it the battery driver hasn't changed & my SP3 still stops charging at 95%.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments