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
    2016-07-21T01:07:03+00:00

    Hello,

    I've been having this issue for a while.  What's sad is that based on my powercfg report, the battery degradation began during my warranty period, which expired 12/15.  As of Jan, i had already started to lose significant capacity.  Talked with tech support, got e-mail with instructions, followed them all. No dice.  Read about the $200 AMA quote to fix the battery, only to discover it was just untrue.  $500 for a fix is nuts - or rather, I would be nuts to sink another half-grand into this mess.  Have paid $1500 for device that turns into a paperweight within 1 minute of unplugging it.  

    Eagerly anticipating either a resolution from MS or to join the class action law suit that I imagine is right around the corner.

    244 cycle count, 144mWh capacity at full charge.  Awesome.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=c7b1faf8-cea0-4886-a2be-4538e9d3d5c9)

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=7954e854-ebb9-48c5-81a0-fb1e2e24c7e0)

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-21T01:06:20+00:00

    I have also observed the same degradation problem with my SP3 with 114 cycles and battery SIMPLO, but I'd like to share my experience in case it could help to somebody. I have recovered the battery at 100% capacity, after the apparent degradation.

    In my experience I have noticed the problem of degradation quite early when arrived to 31mWh of full charge capacity, and it was degrading consistently all days 2% to 3%, It made me aware and then confirm in forums that I was not the only one with this problem and even with cases more advanced of this problem. I used to use the SP3 almost all the time connected to the dock, I used in battery eventually when I needed mobility and at least a discharge once a month as recommended in the manual.

    At this point with a maximum charge capacity at 31mWh I took a few actions: a reinstallation of the battery driver, and the most important I change the way of use of the equipment (always leave it disconnected of the electrical power supply or unplugged from the dock after turning it off while i was not using it, for several hours every day) :

    First of all, I went back to the previous version of the driver of the battery and reboot, then update it again with the last driver of the battery and restart.

    Afterwards I started to always leave it disconnected from the electrical power supply after turning it off or Hibernate, for many hours, basically throughout the night and part of the day.

    Then, each day with patience used it only on battery up to 50% or 60% and then connecting it to charge it. While I was doing this I realized that is was taking more time for  loading when arrived to the 99% and when it got to the 100%, the capacity of load was of 2 to 3% more than the charge capacity of the previous day, and I did it during a week, until now  that it reached the 100% of the capacity again.

    Attached my battery report where you can see first the degradation, and then the recovery of capacity.

    In order to verify, I've tried to use it on battery up to 15% with use of normal light web browsing tasks, eventually some videos, etc. lasting now more than 8 hrs. then charge to the 100% of the normal capacity again.

    I hope my experience can help, try it  (I do not know if it can help with a very advanced degradation) and comment and sharing to verify it.

    Also I would like to confirm if leave connected to power supply when not is in use is what is affecting the degradation of the battery?

    So far, now I have panic of maintain it connected after the charge, at least until clarification of what is the cause of this problem.

    I have bought my SP3 in USA and my warranty expires in OCT-2016, but I live in Argentina, so i cannot take it for an Exchange as a first alternative.

    BEFORE

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=c6cf3122-c958-455e-a448-ea196cad5214)

    AFTER

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=8613fe95-06b7-4724-b70a-03dbeb09310c)

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=d15dfac6-ae5a-4b18-a8ee-c27d34c0d90b)

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=e5c60663-e5ad-49d3-804c-78ef675a7a83)

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-20T23:13:02+00:00

    I just want to add my name to this list as well as having problems with the SP3 battery life. I've always attributed this as a side effect of being on the fast ring for preview builds, but now I am a bit more concerned.

    The biggest concern is how much full charge capacity it is losing per day:

    July 16 21,379 mWh

    July 17 21,280 mWh

    July 18 20,351 mWh

    July 19 19,122 mWh

    July 20 18,658 mWh.

    At this rate it will be dead by early-mid August.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-20T20:16:26+00:00

    I will add my surface pro 3 to the ring as well

    Installed batteries

    Information about each currently installed battery

    NAME X898289
    MANUFACTURER SIMPLO
    SERIAL NUMBER
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 1,588 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 217

    Battery capacity history

    Charge capacity history of the system's batteries

    2016-05-01 - 2016-05-08 7,735 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-08 - 2016-05-15 5,634 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-15 - 2016-05-22 2,773 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-22 - 2016-05-29 1,764 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-29 - 2016-06-05 1,669 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-05 - 2016-06-12 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-12 - 2016-06-19 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-19 - 2016-06-26 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-26 - 2016-07-03 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-03 - 2016-07-10 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-11 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-12 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-13 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-14 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-15 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-16 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-17 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-18 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-19 1,672 mWh 42,157 mWh

    Glad to know I wasn't the only one with a problem. Lets keep this thread going.

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