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
    2016-08-03T17:19:27+00:00

    So, how did we all get suckered into buying a hub from the manufacturer that is insufficient to make the device work?  I stopped by Best Buy and looked at the packaging and it does say that it supports Surface Pro 3, but clearly it cannot meet the minimum power requirements for the device.  Microsoft cannot simply say caveat emptor on this one.  What a fiasco.  We have dying devices, clearly inferior docks and silence from Microsoft on a fix or even an estimate of when to expect a fix.  Not inspiring confidence that a new Surface should be my next purchase.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T17:29:17+00:00

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T17:43:38+00:00

    So, how did we all get suckered into buying a hub from the manufacturer that is insufficient to make the device work?  I stopped by Best Buy and looked at the packaging and it does say that it supports Surface Pro 3, but clearly it cannot meet the minimum power requirements for the device.  Microsoft cannot simply say caveat emptor on this one.  What a fiasco.  We have dying devices, clearly inferior docks and silence from Microsoft on a fix or even an estimate of when to expect a fix.  Not inspiring confidence that a new Surface should be my next purchase.

    I think the issue is the battery was going to supplement the power usage at peak times and recharge at low power consuming times, such as inactivity and when shutdown or hibernating.

    As the battery is supposed to have 9 hours of use from full charge, supplementing the DC supply should not have been an issue, as it should have been able to supplement for hundreds of hours, but when SIMPLO batteries only charge to the power level of a watch battery, it has now become a major issue.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-03T17:43:55+00:00

    The HUB is not for the display. I am running the display off the mini-display port on the surfaces it's self.

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