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
    2016-07-16T15:30:25+00:00

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-16T14:57:53+00:00

    Bob, run a battery report (admin cmd prompt, then powercfg /batteryreport) and then upload the results, including the manufacturer of your battery.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-16T13:28:51+00:00

    HelloKridsada Thanabulpong,

    Thank you for reaching out to the Surface community. Sorry to hear you are having issues with your battery. If you do in fact have a hardware issue it would be a Warranty/Service related issue that you would have to contact Assisted Support to resolve if you do not have a Microsoft Store in your country. However, to try to determine what is going on with your Surface's battery please follow the troubleshooting steps in this link.

    Please reply with what steps you've tried and what the results were.

    Best Regards

    I have tried, and I think most of the people complaining of this issue have also tried the troubleshooting steps. The "trouble" is with the Microsoft product. We want our batteries replaced at no costs! It's ridiculous and unheard of for a battery to go out on a device 12-18 months from the date of purchase. MS should be ashamed and embarrassed, as opposed to encouraging us to pay $99 for customer service that will tell us to mail our Surface's in so we can buy a battery from you!

    SORRY... with all due respect this is NOT answering the important question here.

    My Battery has been slowly degrading for weeks now, and now can only hold 10% of the original capacity after a full charge. By the time I leave home and travel 15 minutes to work, it's down below 40%. My Surface Pro 3 is only 18 months old, yet when I run the battery report, I see this accelerated degradation started almost a year ago. The reason I didn't notice it was because I dock it almost every day at work. I only travel once or twice a month... but when I do it's critical it has at least 4 to 5 hours of power.

    So the question is NOT how to fix this, BUT WHY ARE THESE BATTERIES SO BAD? Why are they failing prematurely, and more importantly what is Microsoft doing about it?

    Sad part is I my Surface is useless if you can't take it on the road.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-16T13:05:25+00:00

    I'd like to see the HISTORY so I can see the drops.

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