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
    2016-09-09T04:23:26+00:00

    10 days have passed since the update.

    My SP3 looked recovered at that time, but now seems degrading again drop by drop for these three days.

    Has the issue really fixed completely? Isn't that just a stopgap?

    2016-08-15 - 2016-08-22 144 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-08-22 - 2016-08-29 144 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-08-30 19,975 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-08-31 35,910 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-01 36,987 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-02 37,620 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-03 37,620 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-04 39,113 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-05 40,234 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-06 39,883 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-07 39,611 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-08 39,223 mWh 42,157 mWh

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-07T17:58:44+00:00

    I have ran the new firmware and it seems to have helped the battery.  

    Before the install if I were to disconnect the power the Surface would go from 100% to 6%.  Now I have had it discharging for about 20 min with no issues.

    I'm letting it discharge now and will update 

    *UPDATE*

    Battery fully discharged.  One issue upon  first drain the battery showed 100%.  I wasn't till it was dead did it show an accurate charge.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-07T07:37:59+00:00

    Thank you Barb, I'm writing the message using my SP3 with an SP4 AC adaptor powering the unit and unfortunately nothing has changed. I deleted Microsoft  ACPI-compliant control method battery and restarted the computer, I even rolled back the the firmware drivers and tried to reinstalling them, but nothing has changed. (Code 14) I'm just waiting for Microsoft Japan to get back to me regarding this issue.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-09-07T03:14:08+00:00

    Hi Barb, I've tried a SP3, SP4 and a dock. The dock flat out doesn't work, the LED light just flashes and my SP3 refuses to switch on. Using my friends and co-workers SP4 charger made absolutely no difference, they both powered up my SP3 but had no affect on my battery. It still says Battery no detected. Microsoft Japan has taken a look at my battery info that I sent to them on September 2nd, and I'm still being quoted also $800 to fix the battery issue. Which is a total disgrace, why would MS Japan quote such a ridiculously high replacement price when compared to other countries?

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