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
    2016-08-24T02:58:11+00:00

    My frustration with Microsoft over this wasn't that there was an issue, it was that they weren't communicating to us effectively on the issue. Requiring us to pay $99 to talk to them was even more frustrating, and I eventually filed a report through my state's Consumer Protection Division.  NC has a pretty strong one and they tend to go to bat pretty quickly.

    I was contacted by Global Escalation services last week, who has been working on my case.  I am not going to post the exact contents of the email as I am not sure how much he was supposed to tell me, but here are the things I learned.

    1. This is a software issue (we have been told this)
    2. The patch is in final QA, and is expected within one week
    3. Because the issue has been positively identified as software, the new guidance is to NOT do out of warranty replacements anymore. This guidance has been passed down to the Microsoft Stores. (I assume the previous guidance as to allow out of warranty replacements for very frustrated customers... because this was what the escalation team thought they could do)
    4. He freely admitted frustration with how Microsoft was handling this situation, and that effective communication would have likely gotten in front of this issue. He made it sound like they knew earlier, but couldn't publicly comment on the issue.

    I have agreed to let my case pause for a week to give them time to get the firmware fix out and see if that resolves my issue.

    Great information, thanks for the update - please keep us posted.

    Despite the new guidance to stores, I would think/hope for those who are bricked, there is still an inclination to replace them. What else are they supposed to do with the bricks? Since they have not committed to an official delivery date, it's officially messed up and open ended for these folks.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-24T03:02:32+00:00

    I'd be interested to find out how they expect some of us to apply a fix (should one come) to a machine that won't boot up, due to lack of battery power?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-24T03:34:23+00:00

    Great info, thanks. And yes, Microsoft's apparent pigheaded refusal to engage with their customers has created this giant mess in the first place. Many of us are folks to who people turn for advice, or responsible for corporate purchases. I'm extremely surprised that MSFT is ignoring this segment. That doesn't speak well for the Surface brand. Pains me to say this, because I otherwise am loving what they're doing in general both in h/w and s/w space.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-24T03:51:08+00:00

    Don't think so. I'd expect that to have a firmware update part to it, too.

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