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
    2016-08-17T20:03:20+00:00

    @TimBarley stay tuned. We think we got this one but need a little more time to confirm through depth testing. — Brian Hall (@IsForAt) August 16, 2016

    A little bit of good news worth sharing although why that information can't be shared here is beyond me.  Then again why should I expect the leopard to change it's spots now.

    Also something that suddenly occurred to me today, isn't it true that you can't take an electronic device on a plane unless they can turn it on at security (this might be UK airports only)?  That means it isn't even possible to take an SP3 on a plane with the intention of using it plugged in at your destination.  Just another example of the fiasco that this situation has become.

    Who is this Tim Barley guy and why does he get such a quick response from Brian Hall?  Are they old drinking buddies or something?  Meanwhile, there's 84 pages of people asking nicely for answers about what was billed as premium hardware that are being completely ignored.

    Here I thought this was the place you are supposed to go to ask Microsoft employees for support questions, but apparently you have to be the right person on Twitter to get any kind of answer at all.

    At this point, even if Microsoft does make this right, I'll be really hesitant to buy any more hardware from them.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-17T20:09:20+00:00

    Just like to put in my 0.02.

    Class action lawsuit may be the only option at this time BUT people have to realize what usually happens with these lawsuits.

    Typically, class action lawsuits only return small fraction of damage to the people after the lawyers take their cut. So to make an assumption, each person with battery issue may end up with $50, $100, or something like that.

    All I'm trying to say is that the class action lawsuit is not the ideal solution here. Instead, Microsoft should offer a solution be it software fix or hardware replacement.

    Good luck to all.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-17T20:21:07+00:00

    Just like to put in my 0.02.

    Class action lawsuit may be the only option at this time BUT people have to realize what usually happens with these lawsuits.

    Typically, class action lawsuits only return small fraction of damage to the people after the lawyers take their cut. So to make an assumption, each person with battery issue may end up with $50, $100, or something like that.

    All I'm trying to say is that the class action lawsuit is not the ideal solution here. Instead, Microsoft should offer a solution be it software fix or hardware replacement.

    Good luck to all.

    A class action lawsuit would not only settle on the cost of the device, but the cost the failure may have incurred on the claimants. This would include loss of revenue, productivity, man hours dealing with the issue and the distress caused by the device failure, along with the total number of devices sold.

    This could add up to quite a hefty amount per device and considering class action lawsuit amounts cover all the potential victims, those who share the compensation would only be those who registered by a given amount of time, but would get an equal share of the grand total, less fees.

    It could amount to a great deal more per person than the cost of the device.

    Lawyers retire on fees from class action lawsuits against large corporations.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-17T20:54:55+00:00

    So, I received my replacement surface today, as I contacted MS during my year warranty.

    Funny how those in warranty seem to be treated completely differently.

    Well, I received it and decided to have a look at the battery. Design capacity 42k, actual capacity, 40k. Cycles, 417.

    The display driver crashes constantly, every time I press start to be precise, every app I open crashes too.

    Things are off to a good start.

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