Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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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1,459 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-08-12T15:29:21+00:00

I'm not an expert on the matter but what I understand is that they can recover the loss in battery life. They may be working on some kind of battery re-calibration software to recalibrate the battery....who knows.

Thats what I understand!

But it might be a matter of chemistry now? A Lithium Ion battery run dry and cycling to the minimal charge, every time you plug it in, might be damaging to the battery itself, so when the software fix is released, the batteries ability to be charged would be gone, because the chemical properties of the battery are now at a state that's the equivalent of many years of use and hundreds of charge cycles? In other words, this issue might be accelerating the aging process of the batteries.
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Anonymous

2016-08-12T15:49:14+00:00

What's the latest on this, is it really truly a dvr/fw issue, as MS officially claimed at one point, & if so when the heck is it going to be fixed?!?

I can't wait much longer, going to go through a return process soon, already teed it up, but thought I'd wait over the weekend before executing it all.

Not happy, they can't guarantee a new unit*, only a refurbished one, it better bloody be in pristine condition, & not a much older LOT/Batch number!

Thank-you.

*my SP3's WELL within warranty
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Anonymous

2016-08-12T17:11:18+00:00

I think the bug will be fixed, but by the time the fix is applied, flat batteries that are charging to 144 mWh are irreparably damaged and the fix will remove the cause, but won't undo the damage.

And what are you basing this on?

The software that is measuring and estimating the battery capacity is lying. Microsoft confirmed that. But you have no idea what part it is lying about. You're guessing the 144 mWh capacity part is correct when it is one of the most likely numbers to be in error.

The iFixit teardown someone linked to revealed a fancy "fuel gauge" IC with a lot of black magic in it. That is probably where the problem is. Until there is more information, the FUD is not helping.
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Anonymous

2016-08-12T17:20:13+00:00

And what are you basing this on? The software that is measuring and estimating the battery capacity is lying. Microsoft confirmed that. But you have no idea what part it is lying about. You're guessing the 144 mWh capacity part is correct when it is one of the most likely numbers to be in error. The iFixit teardown someone linked to revealed a fancy "fuel gauge" IC with a lot of black magic in it. That is probably where the problem is. Until there is more information, the FUD is not helping.

@mbulger

You sound more intelligent than most of the gimps that hang in these kind of threads.

I don't suppose you can spare a minute to address my post? (couple of posts above yours)

Thank-you.
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