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
    2016-07-28T17:28:50+00:00

    That article is doing nothing more than quoting the MS answer on the first page of this thread.

    I also have SIMPLO battery and out of warranty. Luckily my battery is around 95% capacity.

    I seriously doubt this is a software issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T17:33:06+00:00

    Till yesterday my SP3 kept going into sleep mode every 10 or so minutes irrespective of the power settings. This was in addition to the horrible battery life measurable in minutes. There was an update last night. Since today morning, the SP3 is atleast not going into sleep mode. Fingers crossed.

    If I top the battery to 100% and remove the power cable, the power drops from 100 to 1 in just a few seconds, it'd be called comical if it wasn't my daily driver machine... Not sure if I can post a video here of that happening, will try to do that.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T19:13:30+00:00

    I had this occur to my SP3 in April of this year well before there was any acknowledgement of the problem. I paid $450 for a replacement device, as I was approximately 45 days out of warranty and in fact everyone I dealt with at Microsoft was quite rude about the fact I was having a problem like this and being asked to shell out a great deal of the value of the device for a replacement after such a short time. Not to mention the fact that we were originally promised battery replacements for $200.

    Will Microsoft be reimbursing me for this cost now that they acknowledge this is a widespread issue? At this point all plans to roll out Surfaces more widely in my workplace have been shelved because of this issue and the treatment we received in dealing with it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T19:19:00+00:00

    I'm not entirely sure this is just a SIMPLO issue - my battery is the LG:

    Installed batteries

    NAME X883815
    MANUFACTURER LGC-LGC
    SERIAL NUMBER 1149835268
    CHEMISTRY LION
    DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 26,798 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT 134

    But since March it has diminished in capacity:

    2016-01-04 - 2016-01-11 44,270 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-01-11 - 2016-01-18 44,270 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-01-18 - 2016-01-25 44,257 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-01-25 - 2016-02-01 44,270 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-02-01 - 2016-02-08 44,198 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-02-08 - 2016-02-22 44,255 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-02-22 - 2016-02-29 44,235 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-02-29 - 2016-03-07 44,131 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-03-07 - 2016-03-14 43,153 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-03-14 - 2016-03-21 41,971 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-03-21 - 2016-03-28 40,988 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-03-28 - 2016-04-05 40,010 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-04-05 - 2016-04-11 39,342 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-04-11 - 2016-04-18 38,691 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-04-18 - 2016-04-25 38,092 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-04-25 - 2016-05-02 37,565 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-02 - 2016-05-09 36,199 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-09 - 2016-05-18 35,512 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-18 - 2016-05-23 35,207 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-23 - 2016-05-30 33,536 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-05-30 - 2016-06-06 32,956 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-06 - 2016-06-13 32,468 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-13 - 2016-06-20 31,609 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-20 - 2016-06-27 30,860 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-06-27 - 2016-07-04 30,045 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-04 - 2016-07-11 29,042 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-11 - 2016-07-18 28,350 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-19 28,006 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-20 28,006 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-21 28,006 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-22 28,006 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-23 28,006 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-24 27,860 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-25 26,798 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-26 26,798 mWh 42,157 mWh
    2016-07-27 26,798 mWh 42,157 mWh

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=e13a5984-48ce-4d1d-b4d6-25bb60b780c8)

    Estimated time on battery is less than 2 hors now.  It used to be about 7

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