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
    2016-08-29T19:48:14+00:00

    I'm on windows 8.1, just did the update through the windows update client.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-29T19:39:29+00:00

    what firmware update did you do? link? I am not showing any available updates when I check on my device.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-29T19:32:59+00:00

    Just installed the new firmware (windows 8.1, surface pro 3) here at 2:22pm CST, after rebooting I'm active on battery and it's showing 100%.

    Battery report has not yet caught up it seems. But I'm seeing it working properly. We'll see how long the battery lasts.

    Just as a refresher, my battery report has shown 144mwh since about July 1st, and I had been forced to be on direct power since then. Even removing the cable it would shut down immediately from 100% battery available.

    edit: 15 minutes later and still going strong.

    Recent usage

    Power states over the last 3 days

    2016-08-2721:07:28 Connected standby AC 21 % 30 mWh
    21:07:28 Active AC 21 % 30 mWh
    21:58:04 Connected standby AC 100 % 144 mWh
    21:58:05 Suspended 100 % 144 mWh
    2016-08-2821:10:08 Connected standby AC 63 % 91 mWh
    21:10:08 Active AC 63 % 91 mWh
    22:58:44 Connected standby AC 100 % 144 mWh
    22:58:44 Suspended 100 % 144 mWh
    2016-08-2908:35:29 Connected standby AC 100 % 144 mWh
    08:35:29 Active AC 100 % 144 mWh
    09:16:22 Connected standby AC 100 % 144 mWh
    09:22:13 Active AC 100 % 144 mWh
    10:50:56 Connected standby AC 100 % 144 mWh
    10:54:41 Active AC 100 % 144 mWh
    11:16:03 Connected standby AC 100 % 144 mWh
    13:12:46 Active AC 100 % 144 mWh
    14:20:00 Suspended 100 % 144 mWh
    14:24:34 Active AC 126 % 182 mWh
    14:26:06 Connected standby AC 3758 % 5,411 mWh
    14:28:27 Active AC 9817 % 14,136 mWh
    14:29:46 Active Battery 12857 % 18,514 mWh
    14:40:00 Report generated Battery 23624 % 34,018 mWh

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-29T19:17:47+00:00

    I have been following this issue and like most, if not all, of you suffering from this SIMPLO battery issue. With my screen turned down to 25% and Edge open, no apps or processor intensive apps running, I get about 10 minutes of life while on battery.

    However, as of the last couple days a  new issue has come up. Plugged in, my SP3 hibernates or goes to sleep while I am using it. Really frustrating!!!

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