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
    2016-08-01T22:54:21+00:00

    The new firmware does NOT seem to have fixed the battery problem.

    10:05:41 Active AC 100 % 16,621 mWh
    10:15:01 Active Battery 100 % 16,621 mWh
    10:20:49 Active AC 86 % 14,303 mWh
    10:49:34 Report generated AC 95 % 15,793 mWh

    it took 5 minutes to drain the battery to 86%, then 30 minute to charge it back to 95%, where it stopped charging! So by using it for 5 minutes, I lost another 1000 mWh battery capacity.

    I did this experiment so you don't have to. Using the battery is killing it.

    I confirm that after restarting the computer, it is now reporting 15,793mWh as 100%.

    If I keep the device plugged in when use it, I lose about 300~500 mWh per day.

    Any slight use, the degradation is in the range of 1000 mWh.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T23:08:54+00:00

    The next few days will be interesting.  Many of us have SP3s that will not charge beyond the required 40% to patch.  I'll be very curious if the Anniversary release can be installed.  More so if they do have a firmware patch to fix the battery and it can't be installed because the "software problem" they have identified cannot be installed.  Do we take it to a store and have them try to install it then???

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T23:30:28+00:00

    If you land here searching for your solution, at a minimum, make sure you all go to the top of this thread, and click the 'Me Too' button under the first post. I think this will be helpful in illustrating how wide spread the issue is.

    Apparently there is an 8/1/2016 update but it does not appear to, at least, immediately solve the issue according to some initial reports.

    http://www.winbeta.org/news/surface-pro-3-gains-firmware-update-simplo-battery-fix

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T23:53:01+00:00

    As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is probably the "fuel gauge" IC built into the battery pack that is misprogrammed.  The IC is a tiny computer that controls all the power going into and out of the physical battery cells.  You are right in guessing that the problem is in firmware (for the fuel gauge IC).  The problem is that there is usually no way to get at this firmware since it is all sealed in the battery pack.  The only thing Microsoft can probably do is read registers and data from the fuel gauge IC.

    Ever looked at a battery for a phone or computer and wondered why it had more than 2 contacts?  At least 3, sometimes 5 or 6.  An AA battery only has two contacts, plus and minus.  Some of those extra contacts are for communicating with the fuel gauge IC.

    I worked for a phone manufacturer and we had a similar problems with a phone many years ago.  Batteries would go dead suddenly, could only be charged up to 49%.  All kinds of weird behavior.  Turned out to be the fuel gauge IC.

    My guess is that Microsoft is trying to get Simplo to foot the bill for all the repairs.  But Simplo may not have the resources which is why this is dragging out.  Much like the Takata airbag problem.

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