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
    2016-09-30T11:09:23+00:00

    Hi all,

    I've applied the battery fix on my SP3, however, my battery life still isn't great. I've done a full discharge and re-charge to calibrate the battery, however, my battery capacity isn't improving. I have a SIMPLO battery with a cycle count of 227. Any idea why my full charge capacity is still much lower than the design capacity? Surely, it should not have degraded that much.

    Battery capacity history

    Charge capacity history of the system's batteries

    2016-09-21 32,718 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-22 32,718 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-23 32,709 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-24 32,703 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-25 32,703 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-26 31,758 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-27 31,069 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-28 31,549 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-09-29 32,574 mWh 42,157 mWh

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-30T11:34:46+00:00

    the Surface team said on Reddit originally that using the SP3 5 days a week for

    two years would result in about 80% capacity as I recall.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-10-01T14:53:44+00:00

    One person has found not a fix but a temporary workaround:

    http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/ms-surface-pro-3-battery-driver-problem.21508/

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-06T08:45:04+00:00

    Has anybody found a way to install the firmware when your battery level is under 40%?

    I have tried everything and nothing seems to work! It's really frustrating :(

    Imposing a battery level barrier for the firmware fixing the same faulty battery is absurd.

    Isn't there anybody who has the same problem as me?

    I first updated my firmware using Windows Update and followed up the two restart instruction but it didn't work.

    Then I downloaded the firmware manually and installed it but it didn't work either.

    While booting, firmware update progress bar goes near 100% and then device restarts and when I log on I see that the firmware isn't installed.

    Now my battery status icon in task bar shows "No battery detected" but when I click on it shows my battery is fully charged.

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