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

2016-08-19T19:16:05+00:00

Greg,

I'd be interested to know how you can address this with an update if the surface is essentially dead because there is just about no battery life left.

Have you got some kind of super quick update via usb that can bootstrap the fix within the minute that my Surface stays alive? ..because certainly the machine will not stay up long enough to download and install any kind of update the usual way.
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Anonymous

2016-08-19T19:29:45+00:00

Read my reply regarding using the Surface Pro 4 15 volt power supply above.

Mine was completely bricked. Using the 15 volt supply, I brought it back long enough to do the other two fixes suggested by others. Now I can use it attached to the dock, albeit slow and hardwired, useless for my purposes.

Greg,

I'd be interested to know how you can address this with an update if the surface is essentially dead because there is just about no battery life left.

Have you got some kind of super quick update via usb that can bootstrap the fix within the minute that my Surface stays alive? ..because certainly the machine will not stay up long enough to download and install any kind of update the usual way.
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Anonymous

2016-08-19T19:41:27+00:00

Read my reply regarding using the Surface Pro 4 15 volt power supply above.

Mine was completely bricked. Using the 15 volt supply, I brought it back long enough to do the other two fixes suggested by others. Now I can use it attached to the dock, albeit slow and hardwired, useless for my purposes.

Greg,

I'd be interested to know how you can address this with an update if the surface is essentially dead because there is just about no battery life left.

Have you got some kind of super quick update via usb that can bootstrap the fix within the minute that my Surface stays alive? ..because certainly the machine will not stay up long enough to download and install any kind of update the usual way.

Good information, but "buy a new power supply" can't be an acceptable part of the solution they roll out.
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Anonymous

2016-08-19T19:58:00+00:00

Just getting mad at how some ripped 450$ by their local nuts store deny the possibility of a SW fix, simply because they paid...

Just open your mouth if the next patch does nothing but don't start to cry and discourage others because local stores ripped your bucks!?

Like "when I am gone let happen what may..."...

Or like "no, you won't get your fix because I paid !"
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