Share via

How to Re-enable or Unpause Battery Smart Charging

Anonymous
2024-01-26T08:41:41+00:00

I keep my laptop on my desk and connected to the mains most of the time. Therefore, I want to utilize the battery smart charging function to preserve battery life. I observed it working once, but since then, it always charges to a full 100% State of Charge.

From online articles, I understand that I need to use the Surface App. I've downloaded the app and found the smart charging function there. However, its status is 'paused', and there is no option to unpause it. There is a 'Charge to 100%' button, but it's greyed out.

How can I re-enable or unpause Battery Smart Charging?

Thank you for your assistance

Surface | Surface Laptop | Power and battery

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
  1. Anonymous
    2024-01-26T14:01:23+00:00

    Hello Paul,

    Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

    We appreciate your question about on how to re-enable and un-pause battery smart charging on your Surface.

    The smart charging feature on Surface devices is always active and turns on automatically when it detects your device is plugged in for prolonged periods or used at elevated temperatures. It cannot be activated manually. The device will be the one that activates it automatically once it detects that it needs to activate smart charging and limit battery charging to 80%. There is no specific amount of time as when it would turn on the feature. It will be the device that will detect if Smart charging is needed.

    If the Charge to 100% button is greyed out, it means that the smart charging feature is currently paused. It can be the result of your device's battery not yet being at risk from temperature changes or charging. When a risk is identified by the system through patterns of battery usage, the feature will reactivate.

    For more information, see Smart charging on Surface - Microsoft Support.

    Please note that the Smart Charging feature is designed to lessen the chances of battery issues and prolong the life of your device battery. You might look at Battery Limit mode and see if this matches your needs where you keep your laptop on your desk and connected to the mains most of the time. This mode is recommended for devices intended to be always connected to power.

    Kind regards,

    Lavenia

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

24 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2024-05-15T10:56:27+00:00

    This doesn't really make any sense as I was the one that went in and paused smart charging as I was taking my computer where it wouldn't have been plugged in and I wanted it up to 100%. Now that the computer is back home, I want the smart charging back on but it won't let me put it back so it is constantly at 100% now. What do I have to do to the computer to have the smart charging "kick back in"? Should I just let it run low? TIA

    Gail

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-05-15T21:42:57+00:00

    Microsoft tech support says on the subject of Smart Charging on Surface "When Smart Charging is turned on and you discharge your battery below 20% or use your battery often, smart charging will automatically pause and allow your battery to charge to 100%. Smart Charging will turn on again when needed, based on your use patterns."

    My experience with "letting run low" is on the advice of Microsoft warranty tech support 'I ran the battery down to just above 20%, and then reconnected the charger. He said Smart Charging would automatically turn on. I tried, it did not work. He then recommended I get another computer under warranty. I did. Smart Charging still did not work. The only other third party experience I found is one person on You Tube who said charging for nine days to start Smart Charging worked for him.

    None of this makes much sense to me either.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-05T15:31:28+00:00

    You currently cannot enable smart charging on Surface computers. Hopefully, this will change in response to user feedback.

    What you can do, is enable battery limit in the UEFI interface. (Strart Surface holding power and volum-up down during startup to get to the UEFI.) That will stop the charging at 50 percent, but even that doesn't work in newer Surfaces. Those problems are described in other threads here.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2024-04-21T01:58:25+00:00

    Hello Lavenia

    I am trying to conserve the battery life of my Surface Pro 8. It is still under warranty. I left my Surface Pro 8 plugged into a wall power outlet for more than few days and Smart Charging did not activate. But the battery wore down to less than 4 hours of use (from 8 hours when it was new.) I sent the Surface Pro 8 to Microsoft for a battery replacement. They did not replace the battery. They sent me a (refurbished) PC including its' original battery. That is what I am using now. It has been plugged into the wall outlet for 24 hours so far and Smart Charging has not activated.

    I read your suggestion to try the OEFI (BIOS) change that causes the battery to recharge at 50%. I presume Microsoft means for the user to run on battery until it reaches 20% or so, then plug it into the wall out power outlet and when it reaches 50%, unplug and run on battery until it drops to 20%. (If the user does not unplug at 50%, the battery will constantly be turning itself on and off. Why this is better than the original configuration and simply plugging in at 20% when the battery alarm goes off, and unplugging at 80% manually? In other words, if the user has to manually control the battery level by plugging in and out of the wall power outlet, why wouldn't he/she simply mimic what smart charging is supposed to do and operate in the 20% to 80& battery range?

    Also, for travel when a power outlet is not available, I bought a portable travel battery that I can use to recharge the Surface for a few hours before the portable battery has to be recharged. Microsoft does not support that partial solution. Do you know why?

    Thank you. R Sloss

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments