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
    2017-10-03T10:36:30+00:00

    Well said AndyD311.

    I wish everyone would contact the US Lawsuit that Migliaccio in Washington DC have been compiling - EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE USA CONTACT THEM!

    http://www.classlawdc.com/2016/07/26/migliaccio-rathod-llp-investigates-microsoft-surface-pro-3-battery-failures/

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-27T16:31:49+00:00

    if you dont have  40% battery power no update fix will work anyway

    they never came up with a solution to get round that so they just ignore everything now and split up the previously massive threads about it

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-08-12T04:17:14+00:00

    Well .. to me, I'm happy to see Consumers Reports to remove Surface PCs. I love the products and paid for SP3 and subsequently SP4. Had this problem on SP3 and I still remember during the early days, no one helped especially from Microsoft. All they could do is "your unit is out of warranty, but you can pay xx dollar and we'll replace the battery for you. That was when the "firmware" was out to fix the charging issue. 

    For almost 2 months, I had to suffer for this inconvenience. No sorry, no thank you no nothing from Microsoft. 

    And now this PANOS PANAY comes out to defend because he's highly paid to do so. **** idiot and will not change my mind to reject and never recommend Surface for any of my friends.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-08-12T03:28:21+00:00

    I guess consumer reports is spot on with their terrible review of the Surface and lack of reliability and "no longer recommends" and neither do I.  I have also advised the company that I work for to avoid them. 

    I too have a SP3 that no longer detects the battery and can no longer run without being connected to power adapter, that was just out of warranty when it stopped functioning..  Unacceptable Microsoft...

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