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
    2016-08-18T06:51:00+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.

    Thought I'd repeat this for new comers asking if there is any progress.

    In other news it seems my SP3 has hit that low watermark where it turns off, well hibernates, randomly under load and looking at my battery report it's obvious why.  I sent a message to @IsForAt about the store saying that Surface Pro's are only made to last 2 years and the best he can come up with is "sorry to hear that. totally incorrect"?! ****? Wouldn't he ring the store and put a rocket up their *** and insist they contact that customer to apologise for the FUD?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T06:59:47+00:00

    contact ******@classlawdc.com for the class action lawsuit- microsoft is treating us like idiots and stealing our hard earned money for a piece of junk...im even feeling that was intentional and they were hoping we just give up and pay for battery replacement.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T07:39:45+00:00

    August 2016 - No Microsoft are not near a fix

    I paid to have mine replaced, so how can they fix that!

    All the people that had to buy laptops while Microsoft took 8 days to swap a warranty replacements - how are they going to fix that.

    How are Microsoft going to fix the damage to Brand Surface ? - There is only one top dog - Apple

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T07:48:09+00:00

    Apple, who released an update that deliberately bricked iPads that had a third party repair on the fingerprint sensor, told the world it was by design and buy a new iPad. then ages later said sorry it was a mistake, backed down and released a new update to "fix" the issue, not sure what apple did regarding everyone who had to buy a new iPad or pay for an out of warranty replacement on that either....

    manufacturers are all the same!

    TBH i'm glad MS are trying to do a software fix for devices that are out of warranty (probably because many are still in warranty!) but not sure how it will work for devices that will no longer boot (USB boot and patch?)

    I don't like the apparent silence from MS on progress but i know that software patches take ages to thoroughly test and would prefer not to receive updates like:-

    testing patch

    still testing patch

    still testing patch

    still testing patch

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