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
    2016-08-29T20:33:23+00:00

    Do you only need to install the firmware tool? Or do you also have to load a driver set from the list? I am not sure what steps to take once installing the firmware tool. 

    Edit - I realize I may just by chasing down something that is not the actual trigger for firmware availability. 

    Edit 2 - The SP3 Firmware download shows updated as of 8/29 here - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38826

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-29T20:35:21+00:00

    How about Microsoft specifying on the issue, now that the patch seems to be out? Or someone knowledgeable to check the code of the update?

    The bad feeling remains that all this was about planned obsolescence, and that we will see just the same in a few months or probably years again...with MS just having added a better random seed process to the "simulate battery death"-routine...this suspicion is just all to apparent

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-29T20:35:23+00:00

    Battery life depends on how it's used/abused. Mines abused by being on mains most of the time, then when on battery drained to almost flat then mains for days, then battery untill flat.......

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-29T20:35:58+00:00

    Looks like the new firmware (8-29-2016) didn't do anything for me.

    LGC battery

    Cycle count = 154

    Design Capacity = 42,157mWh

    Full Charge Capacity = 28,644mWh

    Thats 32.1% battery wear!

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