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
    2017-08-11T21:59:16+00:00

    My surface pro doesn't even stay on while plugged into the charger! Disappointed in this con job from Microsoft for $2000 of my hard earned money for electronics they want me to pay to replace after their automatic update broke it!! POS!

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-08-11T21:53:59+00:00

    I am extremely disappointed in the Surface Pro 3. The battery life after 11/2 year of service is not good. I have invested over $2K in this "mobile" tablet and it has not lived up to expectations. This SUCKS! The only thing worse, was Microsoft not standing by this product and making users whole by reimbursement or replacement. I will never purchase another Microsoft hardware device again. ARG!!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-07-19T04:01:17+00:00

    Mine seem to have fixed itself... almost...

    I still have no battery statistics but at least the battery life is back to almost normal.

    What I did was that at some point in the beginning of this year (or maybe it was the end of the previous... don't remember exactly) I wiped the entire Surface and reinstalled Windows 10 on it.

    Since then I had no issues with the battery (except for the missing statistics...)

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-07-19T02:47:22+00:00

    one year later, and still no solution?

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