Hi fschuld,
Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your inquiry. We appreciate the effort in performing initial troubleshooting steps.
We also suggest you try a different outlet or a different Microsoft Surface Charger. Otherwise, this could be an issue with charger. Please contact the Microsoft Surface Support to check your options. If you're located outside the United States, the Global Support can also help.
Keep us updated about the issue by replying on this thread.
Kind regards,
John Neil_J
Thanks for the suggestions. We are in Canada. I went to Best Buy Geek Squad desk locally, and also tried out some of the chargers in the store. They concluded that a new charger would not work any better, as the ones we tried went off and on and needed to be manipulated to connect. It may be the charger socket is not aligned well, but I am not sure how to make any changes to that. I can manage to get it charged, but have to take some time to make sure it is connected and charging each time.