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
    2016-07-28T20:03:43+00:00

    I see posts indicating not all SIMPLO batteries necessarily have a problem. I can cite yet another. My cousin and I both bought our Surface Pro 3s about the same time. Both sport SIMPLO batteries. My battery had dropped below 50% (& falling) while hers was still around 94%. However, mine was a relatively high cycle count (300+) versus 32.

    Since my unit was just inside the warranty window I pursued this via Support and when their intervention didn’t do the job I took the swap out option. Microsoft handled that very well; high marks. However, I did note in the couple of days just prior to shipping off my Surface Pro 3 that the battery report showed a capacity increase from 20k to 22k mWh. I would sure have loved to see what was in store for that unit, but there was no way I wasn’t going to jump on the warranty swap while it was still available.

    My replacement Surface has an LGC battery and I had been feeling lucky on that score. Maybe I was being hasty. It would be interesting to know what percentage of units shipped with which brand battery. Perhaps the LGC is uncommon?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T20:14:41+00:00

    I have the LG battery around the same degredation and i have only  really used it when away from home 3 or  4 times a year

    I use a desktop at home  

    and now it looks like i have a mobile desktop  as well 

    my surface  will not work with out power cord and is now showing 13% plugged in not charging  from 97% plugged in not charging a couple of  months ago

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T20:52:59+00:00

    I've had my Surface Pro 3 for 18 months. Love the device with WIndows 10. Unfortunately, I am in the same position as the others on this thread. The battery capacity is now below 1000 and the device will not run unless plugged into the charger.

    I expect wear on the battery over time but not like this. There is clearly a general class problem with the device.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-07-28T20:57:01+00:00

    Hi Kridsada,

    Now that the number of people with the problem is in the 100's have you had any luck getting your costs back from Microsoft yet?

    Simon

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