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
    2016-08-18T08:04:38+00:00

    Agreed - the fear of admitting fault makes them do stupid things, and if they have 1000 devices currently bricked and 50000 devices all going bad, currently better to fix the 50000 before they become bricks and then admit the fault and offer compensation.

    In the US there is a class action to try to recover costs from Microsoft.

    I am in the UK and am trying to sort out how to bring a small claim against Microsoft, who charged me £400 for a warranty replacement when as I understand it by EU law they must fix the product (2 year's no cost fix or replacement in EU law).

    I don't want to go against PC World as they didn't charge me for the warranty replacement, and they did nothing wrong, I paid to Microsoft the £400 pounds to fix a Microsoft Product. 

    Does anybody have any experience of making a small claim that can offer me some advice please?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T08:04:44+00:00

    Just tweeted these hypocrites. I suggest that you do the same.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T08:18:50+00:00

    I am in the UK and am trying to sort out how to bring a small claim against Microsoft, who charged me £400 for a warranty replacement when as I understand it by EU law they must fix the product (2 year's no cost fix or replacement in EU law).

    the UK, where EU rules about warranties are strangely never applicable.

    AFAIK, EU law doesn't say that the manufacturer has to provide 2 years warranty, it says that the seller has to provide that service to the buyer. Sometimes the seller and the manufacturer are the same overall company, but most people don't buy from Microsoft directly.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-18T08:38:50+00:00

    Countries in the EU are free to use their own regulations. Here in the Netherlands the products has to be "fit for use", so a battery failing in 2 years means the product is not fit for use and the seller (not necessarily the manufacturer) has to  provide an acceptable solution.

    Recently there was a court case here of a lady with an iPhone that failed and she did not get a new one back but a refurbished one. Protests did not help. Then she one-sidedly undid the bargain (annulled the buying contract) and claimed the purchasing price back. She won the court case!

    I came at this forum because of poor battery life (less than 2 hours after 18 months of low usage), but I have LGC-LGC batteries so most if what is said here is not applicable to me. But I will surely contact the seller and claim a solution later. First see how eventual Surface upgrades and the W10 anniversary edition affect the problem.

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