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

2016-08-30T19:25:57+00:00

I find it very odd that many people reported a bottom of 144 mWh before the firmware update and 35,910 mWh after the firmware update. Since these are the numbers I show it has stood out that so many others have the same. Why would this be?
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Anonymous

2016-08-30T20:08:38+00:00

I just had a look at this page and there's nothing to say how long it will take, an idea of how long would be great. I know it says a few minutes but mine is coming close to an hour now and its still sitting on the "Please wait... " screen. There is a white ba all the way under the word 'Surface' that has been there for a long, long time. The fan is going nuts blowing cold air and I dont know what I should do.
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Anonymous

2016-08-30T20:29:44+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.

Thanks again.

Greg

Updated 8/29/16.

Thanks Greg to keep us posted.

This morning upgraded the Firmware and battery jumped from 182 mWh to 35,910 mWh and 105% capacity. This after 609 cycles.

Have not tried unplugging and check time on battery power.

Hey, me too about an hour ago. Found Windows doing an update but no indication that it was the long-awaited firmware update but suspicions aroused when battery did not lose charge when I accidentally unplugged from docking station. Luckily (having just read the instructions rather too late) it seems to have done the trick without my being aware of it. Gone from 14 mins remaining after unplugging from 100% to 6hr 38 mins! Other little changes I'm going to have to sort out now but minor compared to having the world's most expensive doorstop!
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Anonymous

2016-08-30T20:53:53+00:00

So now it says the firmware update has failed. Is there a way I can re-install it? I tried checking for updates and it doesn't give me an option to install the firmware update anymore.
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