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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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.

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

1,459 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T21:34:47+00:00

    I've updated my Surface Pro3 completely but still have the battery issue.

    When I unplug it, it dies within a few seconds.

    When I run the battery report, this is what it tells me:

    NAME X898289
    MANUFACTURER SIMPLO
    SERIAL NUMBER 1164122628
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 144 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 332

    Is this really a software issue or is there a legit hardware issue?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T21:35:25+00:00

    it just does not have the Simplo there is also the LG I have an LG and I have the same problem

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T21:49:07+00:00

    I just installed the Windows 10 Anniversary update, and the 8/1/2016 firmware.

    Neither seemed to have any immediate relief to the issue.

    And just an FYI: After installing these two updates (and I'm not sure which one did it) but I can no longer see my past battery history when I run the powercfg /batteryreport; so backup your reports if you want them for reference.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T21:58:02+00:00

    Hi,

    I'm having issues with my Surface Pro 3 not running unless plugged in. If I unplug the power cord, the Surface dies immediately... no shutdown process, nothing. It's like yanking the cord from the system. My power icon shows "99% (plugged in, not charging)". When going through the troubleshooting steps, one time, my power icon showed "No battery detected". But after another restart, it started showing "99% (plugged in, not charging)" again. I have the LGC-LGC battery. I recently installed Windows 10. I'm recently out of warranty as well.

    I realize that I do not have a SIMPLO battery. However, the issue may apply to other SP3 batteries as well. I'm throwing my data into the pile to allow MSFT to fix the bugs better.

    It seems like a lot of people are waiting for MSFT to release some updates to the SP firmware and Win10 OS. This includes me. I'll be going into the MSFT Store tomorrow morning. I'll update, if I hear any enlightening news. Please don't make us hold our breaths too long MSFT!!

    Thank you in advance for any help provided!!

    Please see my powercfg battery report below (removed some rows in the middle when it seems like everything was working fine... otherwise, this post would be too large):

    Installed batteries

    Information about each currently installed battery

    NAME X883815
    MANUFACTURER LGC-LGC
    SERIAL NUMBER 1157110020
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 32,026 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 330

    Usage history

    History of system usage on AC and battery

    2014-09-28 - 2014-10-06 24:13:53 32:19:22 21:17:04 30:58:49
    2014-10-06 - 2014-10-12 12:26:07 15:39:10 42:53:30 28:06:32
    2014-10-12 - 2014-10-19 9:00:08 24:14:24 46:34:42 44:24:39
    2014-10-19 - 2014-10-26 21:17:48 53:09:19 57:14:40 57:01:37
    ... then recently...<br><br><br>2016-05-30 - 2016-06-06 5:43:00 16:02:09 2:51:48 2:29:06
    2016-06-06 - 2016-06-13 7:47:44 24:13:13 4:24:37 9:16:35
    2016-06-13 - 2016-06-20 9:55:51 22:53:19 5:55:19 54:41:36
    2016-06-20 - 2016-06-27 6:57:14 41:16:23 8:45:08 16:17:18
    2016-06-27 - 2016-07-04 6:20:31 15:21:38 4:48:43 38:07:35
    2016-07-04 - 2016-07-11 4:36:15 22:38:46 5:01:20 75:01:28
    2016-07-11 - 2016-07-18 5:57:55 21:56:19 8:52:34 65:54:56
    2016-07-18 - 2016-07-25 4:48:25 4:50:28 3:10:55 74:36:39
    2016-07-26 - - 23:51:44 0:04:46
    2016-07-27 - - 11:43:50 12:05:49
    2016-07-28 - - 21:57:32 0:02:25
    2016-07-29 - - 22:22:40 -
    2016-07-30 - - 16:34:49 4:20:47
    2016-07-31 - - - -
    2016-08-01 - - 4:04:05 -

    Battery capacity history

    Charge capacity history of the system's batteries

    2014-09-28 - 2014-10-06 42,261 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2014-10-06 - 2014-10-12 42,580 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2014-10-12 - 2014-10-19 42,766 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2014-10-19 - 2014-10-26 42,726 mWh 42,157 mWh
    <br>... then recently...<br><br><br>2016-05-30 - 2016-06-06 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-06 - 2016-06-13 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-13 - 2016-06-20 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-20 - 2016-06-27 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-27 - 2016-07-04 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-04 - 2016-07-11 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-11 - 2016-07-18 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-18 - 2016-07-25 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-26 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-27 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-28 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-29 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-30 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-31 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-08-01 32,026 mWh 42,157 mWh

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments