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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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

2016-08-29T20:19:36+00:00

Congrats! I wonder if this is specific to Win 8.1. I do not see an update for my SP3, on Win 10.

There is no mention of 8/29 on the surface pro 3 update history site.

Win10 - https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/install-update-activate/pro-3-update-history?os=windows-10&=undefined

Win8.1 - https://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/install-update-activate/pro-3-update-history?os=windows-8.1-update-1&=undefined
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Anonymous

2016-08-29T20:16:53+00:00

Hoping we can get that 34-35kmwh up to 42k again where it should be. Guessing running it down every day and recharging it fully will help cycle that up and get it back up to near maximum again.
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Anonymous

been on battery now for over a minute (seriously longer than it's lasted for ages)

battery at 100% 7 hours 36 mins remaining.

Looking good!

Installed batteries

Information about each currently installed battery

NAME
MANUFACTURER	SIMPLO
SERIAL NUMBER
CHEMISTRY	LION
DESIGN CAPACITY	42,157 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	34,200 mWh
CYCLE COUNT	185

Recent usage

Power states over the last 3 days

2016-08-26 23:18:39	Connected standby	AC	7 %	578 mWh
2016-08-27 07:46:04	Active	AC	7 %	578 mWh
07:57:17	Connected standby	AC	7 %	570 mWh
15:17:20	Active	AC	6 %	502 mWh
15:18:25	Connected standby	AC	6 %	456 mWh
2016-08-28 08:16:28	Active	AC	6 %	441 mWh
08:22:37	Connected standby	AC	5 %	403 mWh
08:26:48	Active	AC	5 %	403 mWh
08:27:44	Connected standby	AC	5 %	403 mWh
09:34:15	Active	AC	5 %	403 mWh
09:35:37	Connected standby	AC	5 %	403 mWh
17:25:58	Active	AC	5 %	403 mWh
17:30:06	Connected standby	AC	5 %	372 mWh
17:30:13	Active	AC	5 %	372 mWh
18:17:00	Suspended		5 %	410 mWh
18:21:08	Active	AC	5 %	403 mWh
18:21:34	Connected standby	AC	5 %	403 mWh
2016-08-29 07:52:02	Active	AC	4 %	357 mWh
07:56:43	Connected standby	AC	4 %	350 mWh
08:57:57	Active	AC	4 %	334 mWh
09:03:46	Connected standby	AC	4 %	327 mWh
12:17:52	Active	AC	4 %	327 mWh
12:18:37	Connected standby	AC	4 %	319 mWh
17:40:57	Active	AC	4 %	319 mWh
17:48:43	Connected standby	AC	4 %	319 mWh
19:19:24	Active	AC	4 %	319 mWh
19:31:28	Connected standby	AC	4 %	312 mWh
19:40:13	Active	AC	4 %	312 mWh
19:40:18	Connected standby	AC	4 %	312 mWh
20:37:30	Active	AC	4 %	312 mWh
20:41:15	Connected standby	AC	4 %	304 mWh
20:52:22	Active	AC	4 %	304 mWh
20:54:00	Suspended		4 %	296 mWh
20:58:49	Active	AC	4 %	296 mWh
21:05:02	Active	Battery	4 %	296 mWh
21:05:10	Active	AC	3 %	274 mWh
21:06:00	Suspended		4 %	289 mWh
21:07:28	Active	AC	6219 %	34,018 mWh
21:09:48	Active	Battery	105 %	35,910 mWh
21:09:48	Report generated	Battery	105 %	35,910 mWh

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Anonymous

2016-08-29T20:09:14+00:00

Was in the middle of doing that when this update came through :)

firmware installed and battery showing 100% now.

Time to test longevity....
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