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
    2016-07-21T08:51:59+00:00

    @DatabaseJase - thanks for the quick reply.  At this point, I can't get the SP3 to hard reset with this Method (2 button reset), but will give it a shot again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-21T08:37:09+00:00

    I've contacted BBC news (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10725415) about this so hopefully we can get it covered to raise awareness and embarrass Microsoft into some action.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-21T07:51:34+00:00

    At least the #BatteryGate issue is getting great coverage from well respected Microsoft bloggers although the part about someone raising this internally is very worrying...

    http://winsupersite.com/hardware/surface-pro-3-battery-gate-piecing-it-together

    @DarrellStroope - I think this is a result of the battery being completely depleted.  There was a firmware issue with SP2 and someone suggested holding down the power button and volume up (I think it was) until the Surface logo appears and then leave it charging (ideally using the direct charging cable not a docking station).  I think I posted a link to that SP2 issue further back in this topic.

    EDIT: Thought so but here is it again for ease of access: http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Fix-Surface-Pro-2-Plugged-In-Not-Charging-Error-412945.shtml

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-21T07:40:30+00:00

    Has anyone had an issue where the SP3 will not power on at all?  I have two, wife's and mine.  Mine is degrading... albeit not as fast as some of the reports in this post.  But about 1 week ago, My wife's which had been seeing significant degradation will no longer power on.  I've tried every reset possible 1 button, 2 button, and the only indication during the reset is the light on the Charger will flash occassionaly.  Usually it comes back on... sometimes it doesn't.  At this point it's a brick!

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