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
    2016-06-20T12:54:28+00:00

    I am also having this problem. ~55% degradation in about 6 weeks. My SP3 is 18mo old; drop in capacity started in May.

    FWIW, it seems like my SP3 is getting a lot hotter than it used to when it is plugged in. Batteryreport is also reporting ~950 charge cycles, which I definitely is NOT something that happened on my end. Maybe it's a firmware issue?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-19T17:14:33+00:00

    I have had to pay £400 to get mine replaced, which hurts a lot. Especially as my Son has one too and I expect I will have to pay another £400 to get his fixed shortly.

    I have gone from the "Best device in the world" to only buy if you are stupid rich.

    My Advice, is simply to get enough people reading this thread, until a Journalist picks up the story, once the press knows there is a problem Microsoft will have to give us back the money we spent or face losing the Surface brand forever.

    There is a tread on Reddit too.

    Good luck

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-06-19T13:05:09+00:00

    Hello,

    What can we do in such a situation to Microsoft exchanged or fixed our faulty equipment? Disadvantages could not discover during the warranty period. In another thread I read that a normal battery capacity decrease is 10% to 100 charge cycles. In our case it is more than 80%, which testifies to the erroneous action of management, and its factory defect.

    Regards

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-19T12:49:03+00:00

    I have exactly the same problem: my surface pro 3 is one year old: and lately, since the last month i would say, the battery is running low faster and faster.. - I can now not work on battery for not even 2 hours  and i have the idea that each time it is shorter and shorter;...

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