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
    2016-08-26T21:19:55+00:00

    Yea, its pretty bad. My SP3 only lasts for a few seconds once I take it off the plug. :(

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-26T21:30:26+00:00

    Sorry to disappoint the throngs waiting for an actual solution - this is yet another "me too" post. Hoping against hope this will be the one that finally convinces MSFT that this is not an isolated problem and they need to step up or they stand to lose far more than they can absorb with users fleeing to OEMs that at least man up and stand behind their products when they lay an egg.

    SP3 purchased May 2015

    According to Battery Report run on 26 Aug 2016:

    Battery Capacity on 17 May 2015 was 42125 mWh

    Battery Capacity on 22 May 2016 was 41,063 mWh

    Battery Capacity on 25 Aug 2016 was  1,300 mWh

    Where do we sign up for the class action lawsuit??

    Seriously, this is what I want to know. I want to know what my rights are as a consumer and what actions are available for me to take to get some of my losses back from this. Im going into the second week of school and stil have no electronic method for recording or taking notes. This was marketed to replace my laptop, and that is exactly what I have done with it. Now Im left with no alternatives but to wait and save to buy another device, which is going to take a bit of time. Considering the short time I have had this device and the 1400 dollar investment I pumped into it, I should not be facing this many issues. If it were something I had done to the device I would have to take responsibility for it and would be denied any further help, yet they can deny the issue all day and avoid taking fault until more and more people come out, and then they decide to give lip service about how small the affected community actually is and how hard they are working to come up with a solution, blah blah blah. What about the people who spent money to replace the device just to find out it was 450 dollars wasted, or the fact that this issue has likely done permanent damage to the battery's that even after the alleged patch is released many of us will never get back to the battery capacity we should have.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-26T22:01:52+00:00

    Yet another Surface owner with the SIMPLO battery (currently at 144 mWh of capacity).  I purchased my Surface at Costco with an AMEX card.  Just wondered if anyone that did use an American Express card has looked into a warranty claim with them since they are supposed to add a year to the manufacturer warranty period?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-26T23:07:59+00:00

    Thanks for the update.  I've been having the same issue and have the SIMPLO battery.  As of today, I can no longer get it to boot up though.  It's plugged in, but dies right before/after lock screen.  It's different at different times.  Sometimes I get the repair my PC screen. Either way I cannot get into machine because it dies too quickly.  The closest I've gotten is to the login screen and then it died.  How can I get past this?  I'll need to when the new firmware is available.

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