Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Anonymous

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.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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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1,459 additional answers

Anonymous

Hi Barb, I've been speaking to Microsoft Japan to try and resolve the situation and they've just asked me to send them the battery report information also. Below is what is left of my battery information after numerous OS installs.

Hope this helps.

Battery report

COMPUTER NAME	DJPRO3
SYSTEM PRODUCT NAME	Microsoft Corporation Surface Pro 3
BIOS	3.06.0350 04/25/2014
OS BUILD	9600.18423.amd64fre.winblue_ltsb.160723-0600
PLATFORM ROLE	Slate
CONNECTED STANDBY	Supported
REPORT TIME	2016-09-02 08:08:01

Installed batteries

Information about each currently installed battery

NAME	X863568
MANUFACTURER	SDI
SERIAL NUMBER	291E
CHEMISTRY	LION
DESIGN CAPACITY	-
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	-
CYCLE COUNT	-

Recent usage

Power states over the last 3 days

2016-09-01 18:35:58	Active	AC	-	-
18:35:58	Suspended		-	-
18:38:59	Active	AC	-	-
18:38:59	Suspended		-	-
18:40:33	Active	AC	-	-
18:46:00	Suspended		-	-
18:50:13	Active	AC	-	-
18:50:13	Suspended		-	-
18:53:24	Active	AC	-	-
18:53:24	Suspended		-	-
18:57:43	Active	AC	-	-
21:11:56	Connected standby	AC	-	-
21:54:07	Active	AC	-	-
22:04:09	Connected standby	AC	-	-
22:31:15	Active	AC	-	-
22:41:17	Connected standby	AC	-	-
22:41:21	Active	AC	-	-
22:51:23	Connected standby	AC	-	-
22:51:26	Active	AC	-	-
23:01:27	Connected standby	AC	-	-
23:12:24	Active	AC	-	-
23:22:24	Connected standby	AC	-	-
23:58:27	Active	AC	-	-
2016-09-02 00:08:29	Connected standby	AC	-	-
00:11:29	Active	AC	-	-
00:21:31	Connected standby	AC	-	-
03:43:14	Suspended		-	-
03:57:55	Active	AC	-	-
03:57:55	Suspended		-	-
04:00:38	Active	AC	-	-
04:10:28	Connected standby	AC	-	-
06:29:47	Suspended		-	-
06:34:07	Active	AC	-	-
06:51:20	Connected standby	AC	-	-
06:57:56	Active	AC	-	-
07:22:00	Suspended		-	-
07:24:39	Active	AC	-	-
07:30:00	Suspended		-	-
07:38:29	Active	AC	-	-
07:44:00	Suspended		-	-
07:49:14	Active	AC	-	-
08:00:00	Suspended		-	-
08:02:41	Active	AC	-	-
08:08:00	Report generated	AC	-	-

Battery usage

Battery drains over the last 3 days

-	-	-	-	-

Usage history

History of system usage on AC and battery

-	-	-		-	-

Battery capacity history

Charge capacity history of the system's batteries

-	-	-

Battery life estimates

Battery life estimates based on observed drains

-	-	-		-	-

Current estimate of battery life based on all observed drains since OS install

Since OS install	-	-		-	-

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Anonymous

2016-09-01T20:03:30+00:00

Mathew, thank you for the reply. The driver version is 38.10.90.0. I remember reading that this is the version I am supposed to have. Also while most of the time I use my SP3 docked, while installing the update I removed it from the dock as per the instructions. I will do another battery charge cycle to see if it helps.
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Anonymous

2016-09-01T19:41:13+00:00

Hi,

I have the same issue with one the SP3's in our business. Unfortunately, the Surface doesn't power up even though the light is lit on the charger (I have also tried numerous chargers). I have ran through the usual power button down for 30 seconds along with power button / volume button for 15 seconds to no avail. I spoke with MS support and they told me that the device would incur over a £200 charge as it's out of warranty. The Surface was only holding >30 minutes charge when on battery. It's extremely unfortunate that just as the fix has been released that the Surface Pro wont power up.

According to the FAQ for the fix I’m to go to a local Microsoft store

My Surface Pro 3 won’t boot on AC power for me to install the update. What should I do?

Ensure that you're directly connected to AC power. Don't use the Surface Pro 3 Docking Station. Also make sure that you don't have any USB peripherals or external monitors plugged into the device.

Make sure that the light on the tip of the power supply where it connects to the Surface Pro 3 is lit and not blinking. If the light isn't on or is blinking, there may be a problem with your power supply. If the light is on but the device won't boot, try reversing the direction of the connector to the device to ensure proper contact.

You can also visit a nearby Microsoft store location and ask a Microsoft Answer Desk technician for assistance in powering the device and applying this update.

As we are based in the UK visiting a store wont be possible.

At the moment I have a £800 device sat on my desk with a fix I’m unable to apply due to the device not powering up. Surely Microsoft should be liable for replacing this now given they have admitted fault with the battery fix?
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Anonymous

2016-09-01T17:57:41+00:00

I also have this problem error code 14 with an LGC battery
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