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

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?

I am in the middle of this. AMEX does extend for a year, but I am in the middle of the process and do not know if it has been approved. I called an started a claim and this is what I needed to supply:

<ul><br><li>AMEX card billing statement showing Cardmember name, account number and transaction charge.</li><li>Charge receipt showing transaction billed to AMEX card.</li><li>Original manufacturer's warranty (complete warranty)</li><li>Itemized repair estimate from a service provider such as the manufacturer, retailer or repair shop</li></ul>

I didn't have the original warranty, so I pulled it off the internet. I went into the store and they gave me a quote to replace the out of warranty product for $450. It might be better to go to a repair shop and get something that says it is not repairable.

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Anonymous

2016-08-27T02:19:22+00:00

And one more yet to come. Has anybody tried resetting the PC to the original configuration and not updating anything afterwards?

Yes I tried.

When I could not run it without plugging it in to AC power, I did a reset to 8.1. The battery status still showed at 85% not charging.

An upgrade to 10 didn't change anything.

And now it is not even detected.

I didn't boot it for the fear of completely bricking it.

If MS does come up with a patch, that is outside the update cycle, like an installer similar to installers for other peripherals, I may just be able to download it and install it to restore the battery.

There is a registry tweak suggested earlier which I am contemplating. But how to apply it when my battery is not even detected?

Thanks
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Anonymous

2016-08-27T03:10:34+00:00

I was curious also. Mine shuts off as soon as I get to the login screen now. Currently I can run the recovery mode options and that's it. That will stay up and running all day. Thought about going to a restore point but afraid I'll be stuck as well. Currently it isn't usable anyway so may be worth it. I'm not sure how I could even load a firmware upgrade at this point.
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Anonymous

2016-08-27T06:52:03+00:00

Whats the status on this? I really would like to not have to spend $450 to replace a battery that is impacted by poor software. I need this machine for work, and I need to be mobile to be effective. I feel like SP3 owners are helpless here. This is a high severity issue for those of us impacted.

Currently, I am at risk of my machine simply powering off if I need to move between meetings on separate floors, which may be a ~5 minute walk.

I am so disappointed that this has gotten out of hand.
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