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
    2016-05-12T16:23:53+00:00

    Hello Kridsada Thanabulpong,

    Sorry to hear you are still having an issue. Unfortunately, at this point this would have to be handled by our Assisted Supportdue to it being a Warranty/Service issue because you have tried all of the troubleshooting.

    Best Regards

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-05-15T22:24:18+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for your suggestion to talk to Assisted Support. Unfortunately, their suggestion even after all this is to do the out of warranty exchange ($560 in my local currency) which is just sad. I loved the machine the moment I tried it in the store, and paperweight-when-not-plugged-in definitely wasn't what I expected it to be in a year after purchase.

    Lesson learnt: always ask about battery replacement policy before purchasing. Not going to make this mistake again.

    Thanks

    Kridsada

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-18T17:43:05+00:00

    I have a very similar problem and very similar Battery Report. I generally use a docking station but it seems like the battery issue might have started right after I switched over to the replacement power cord MS sent on the recall last month. Has anyone else had that experience? Any solution to the roller coaster battery performance? As I wrote this, mine jumped from 30% to 100% for no apparent reason. Thank you.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-19T10:37:43+00:00
    1. just to be sure, the replacement cord was not for the docking station.
    2. you can order another replacement cord to see if in fact it makes a

    difference

    1. if you are in the US, you can go to the nearest physical retail store and

    they will test your Surface and power adapter.

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Barb

    MVP-Windows and Devices for IT

    My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

    Please mark as answered if this answers your question

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