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

2016-08-29T15:31:09+00:00

@netdev2000 you would be correct to worry about getting bricked. Mine officially doesn't have the juice to launch Windows anymore. The last time I was able to successfully check, my battery was reporting really low at 140. It continually 'degrades' or at least the firmware think's it is. So now this is what happens. If I unplug it, I get the battery logo. If I plug it in, I can get to the Surface screen and if I'm lucky my lock screen. The furthest I've gotten is to enter my password and it goes lights out. Usually though it's dead before I get to that point. If I go to the repair screen it will stay up fine, but I can't really do much there. I've tried it docked and with wall charger and neither are helping. I now have a $2000 paper weight.

And yes props to Barb, she has been really helpful and I believe wants to help everyone. She helped me find this forum and has given me things to try. Now, I'm stuck though as it won't do anything. She had mentioned a more powerful charger at a Microsoft store, but the nearest Microsoft store is 2.5 hours away. Barb do you know if there will be any kind of agreement with like a Best Buy so they can be aware of the issue and help me? That is where I purchased. I just don't want to have to pay all kind of service fees and still come up empty handed. My Surface has been awesome and I love it. There is nothing like it. I use it every single day. But immediately after system/firmware updates, mine started the battery problems.
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Anonymous

2016-08-29T16:29:51+00:00

Hey, I have the same problem but I have a way to work around it. It's finicky, but it work. Unplug the surface and let it sit for a few hours. Plug it in and then start it up. As soon as you see the surface screen Unplug the cord and quickly plug it back in. Leave it plugged and it should trick the firmware in to charging again, or at least running off AC power enough to log in. Sometimes you have to do it a few times but I can usually get it to start running off AC power. Also, I recommend buying the 65W surface charger for $30 on amazon. It seems to happen less frequently when the firmware knows own it's getting more power. Also, as soon as you can log in, go to advanced power settings and change battery critical action to never hibernate
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Anonymous

2016-08-29T16:30:08+00:00

Bestbuy=unknown. I will ask, but you may need to make the long trip to the MS Store.

Edit: my contact at Microsoft is checking and will see f he can talk to the right folks to make this happen.
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Anonymous

2016-08-29T16:41:02+00:00

@SeanDavis33 great tips. If this works, sending you a beer. I'll try when I get home.
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