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
    2016-08-03T16:18:46+00:00

    Thanks for the tips. I ended up getting a USB 3.0 hub and got everything connected that way. Dock is now on the shelf next to me :-/

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T16:40:23+00:00

    is there any point in me getting the usb hub to run a monitor from it like i used to do with the Dock

    I am down to  8% plugged in not charging  from 97% a few weeks ago  and cannot install any updates 

    i still had 28k battery capacity on the last battery report last week 

    when i reach 0%  plugged in not charging will the surface just die and not boot up even when plugged in

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T16:50:09+00:00

    My sp3 did the same as yours, and in a week later it would not fully boot however i provided power

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T17:17:49+00:00

    is there any point in me getting the usb hub to run a monitor from it like i used to do with the Dock

    I am down to  8% plugged in not charging  from 97% a few weeks ago  and cannot install any updates 

    i still had 28k battery capacity on the last battery report last week 

    when i reach 0%  plugged in not charging will the surface just die and not boot up even when plugged in 

    The "8% not charging" is another issue, with the battery driver. 8% refers to the remaining capacity, not 8% of the charge when you bought it (Design Capacity).

    The fact that your Surface is not charging, is due to Microsoft's, really stupid battery algorithms that try to charge your battery in a way that extends their life (ironic, isn't it?). So Microsoft's algorithms let your battery discharge, then charge them up again and for some dumb reason, their algorithms, don't seem to factor in that starting with a low charge of 8%, the battery should really be charging as soon as possible, because it's below any reasonable level. What is happening, is in memory, the operating system has determined your battery should not begin charging yet and simply won't until you power off the device completely with the long power off option (hold down the power button for over 30 seconds), or failing that, the 2 button option (Hold power and volume up until you see the BIOS menu.)

    Your battery should charge to around 100% after the hard boot options, but as percentage is relative, 100% of a dead battery may not amount to much. My battery charges from 0% to 100% in under 2 minutes, because 100% charge for my battery is a mere 144mWh, when it should be the Design Capacity charge ( and was until May) of 42,157 mWh.

    You can find out how dead your battery is, by opening a command prompt, or Powershell prompt and typing: -

    powercfg /batteryreport

    This will generate an html page that will show you battery information, such as this entry. Note the "Design Capacity", compared to the "Full Charge Capacity", which is what 100% charge will get you now, but should be different on your Surface, than mine.

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=0cc06869-246a-4dfa-92dd-98ad49f86f47)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments