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Very low reported battery capacity

Anonymous
2020-08-31T20:56:17+00:00

Hello, when I run 

powercfg /batteryreport

on mySurface Pro 2017 I get the following results in my battery-report.html

Installed batteries<br><br>Information about each currently installed battery<br><br><br><br> NAME M1009168 <br> --- --- <br> MANUFACTURER DYN <br> SERIAL NUMBER 0099926738 <br> CHEMISTRY LION <br> DESIGN CAPACITY 45 000 mWh <br> FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 4 720 mWh <br> CYCLE COUNT 601

As you can see, the capacity is at around 10% of what it's supposed to be, even though (from what I read around the Internet, specifically on Wikipedia) lithium-ion batteries (those are 2003 lithium-ion batteries, mind you) should have 76-88% of their original capacity after 500 cycles, and mine has 10%. What's even wierder is that this number used to be much higher just a month or two ago - around 17Wh. It was mildly concerning then, but the Surface was still usable, which is no longer the case.

Things I have tried

  • Charging the Surface to full and leaving it idle to discharge: brought the capacity from 17Wh to 21Wh (I tried it a while ago and the situation has got much worse since then)
  • Removing the battery drivers in Device Manager and reinstalling them: made no difference
  • Turning the laptop off and letting it charge overnight: made no difference increased the capacity from 4 to 14Wh ~~~~

Can anyone help me here? Is reinstalling Windows my only option? Or is it a BIOS issue, like on some dell laptops in this thread, which the Windows reinstall won't even fix?

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-09-02T02:41:02+00:00

    Thank you for your response, Darks16. 

    If you think that this isn't a hardware battery issue, what I can highly recommend is to reset the device back to its factory settings, if the battery capacity increases, then the issue could be due to software updates installed on your Surface device but if the battery status does not change, then it's a confirmation that the device battery is already having a hardware problem.

    Kind Regards,

    Crest

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-09-01T06:02:20+00:00

    Hey, thanks for your quick reply.

    See, I don't think that's a hardware issue. I just turned the Surface off and let it charge overnight, and the capacity is back to 14Wh! I have hosted the most recent battery report here.

    Look at the timestamps, the battery jumps like crazy and goes from being at 83% (2020-08-31 22:25:48) to getting suspended beacause of low battery just a minute later, not to mention the 465% that I somehow managed to charge it to today (2020-09-01 07:42:53).

    Also, have a look at the "Usage history" portion at the bottom, it says the Surface was  "Active" on battery for well over 24 hours on most days? (or am I understanding the stats wrong?) You can find days when the Surface was active on battery for 400 hours, which is just ridiculous.

    And then, of course, the "Battery capacity history". It has been going down and down way faster than a lithium-ion battery should, especially  after the [2020-04-27 - 2020-05-04] timestamp when it dives down by 7Wh (that's 15% of the factory 45Wh capacity!) in a span of a single month, and it fluctuates, sometimes going up to 21Wh and then down again.

    All of this makes me think it's a problem with how Windows recognizes the full charge battery capacity, and if there is something else I can do (besides reinstalling Windows) to try and fix it, it would be greatly appreciated. If the reinstalation of Windows doesn't help I probably will resort to replacing the battery, but I want to try all other possible solutions first.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-09-01T05:09:27+00:00

    We're sorry to know that you're now facing a battery issue with your Surface device, Darks16. 

    Based on the battery report you posted, the battery of your Surface device has already deteriorated. Its battery life depreciated that much and this isn't a software issue but a hardware problem. Resetting the device won't fix it so what I can highly recommend is to send the device for service to get it replaced. If you'd like to know further details about the replacement, you can contact our Microsoft Surface Support for more information.

    Kind Regards,

    Crest

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