Surface Battery 'TEMP' Fix AKA BATTERY DRAIN -S3, S4, S5, S6, SL1,2, SB1,2 Via Firmware 08.2019 - RETAIL PRODUCTION UNITS

Question

Surface Pro 4 + (Battery Fix) – Disable Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) 

If you are facing high battery utilization drainage, disable the above Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT).

*) What is SMT?

Overview and Impact

Simultaneous multithreading is a processor design that combines hardware multithreading with superscalar processor technology to allow multiple threads to issue instructions each cycle. Unlike other hardware multithreaded architectures (such as the Tera MTA), in which only a single hardware context (i.e., thread) is active on any given cycle, SMT permits all thread contexts to simultaneously compete for and share processor resources. Unlike conventional superscalar processors, which suffer from a lack of per-thread instruction-level parallelism, simultaneous multithreading uses multiple threads to compensate for low single-thread ILP. The performance consequence is significantly higher instruction throughput and program speedups on a variety of workloads that include commercial databases, web servers and scientific applications in both multiprogrammed and parallel environments.

Simultaneous multithreading has already had impact in both the academic and commercial communities. The project has produced numerous papers, most of which have been published in journals or the top, journal-quality architecture conferences, and one of which was the most recent paper selected for the 25th Anniversary Anthology of the International Symposium on Computer Architecture, a competition in which the criteria for acceptance was impact. The SMT project at the University of Washington has also spawned other university projects in simultaneous multithreading. Lastly, several U.S. chip manufacturers (Intel, IBM, Sun and Compaq (when it still supported the Alpha microprocessor line) have designed and manufactured SMT processors for the high-end desktop market. Several startups are also building SMT processors.

REF: https://dada.cs.washington.edu/smt/

*) If you also scroll down via the website above you'll notice that Intel Xeon is listed with the most up2date support for Surface via Device Manager @ Surface Update (Intel Xeon E3 -1200/1500 Series v5th/6th Gen Intel Core Gaussian Mixture Model - 1911 (Fuzzy)

*) What are the advantages and disadvantages of SMT

• Disadvantage = Due to per call via instruction sets via OS every process and processes are monitored and then inspected with integrity for safe processing of task per thread, which causes high battery utilization.
• Disadvantage = Low level execution of malicious software such as Spectre & Meltdown, etc. will be able to be executed in a sophisticated manner if per thread is not tested with integrity.
• Disadvantage = The current state of SMT is still a work in progress, not all CPUs by Intel and AMD are 100% proven to resolve and or mitigate on going issues via Mal-Software.
• Advantage = Fixes Surface Pro 3, 4, Surface Book 1, 2, Surface Laptop 1,2, if effected.
• Advantage = Normal behavior of Compute Unit.

Let me know if this fixes your issue with battery drain via Surface 3, 4 and etc.

\!--------------------------------Instructions Below---------------------------------------\

1. Power off machine.

2)Boot into UEFI / Firmware Power + Volume Up key 

3. Turn off SMT
4. Drain Battery until Surface unit turns off by itself not via command is needed
5. Repeat step 4.
6. After second battery drain for full re-calibration, power on unit and set your battery configuration to Better, while doing so generate a energy (not a battery report and see what is indicated as a High Warning and or error)
7. Go down the list of high and medium errors (If found) and fix one by one
8. drain the battery once more (Not Shutdown) and then plug-in Surface unit and use like normal.

9)Once the unit is fully charged at 100% switch back and forth between Best & Better performance and see the difference.

10. -(Optional, But for testing) Turn MST back on.  Generate both reports once again and compare.

10)If battery is still draining quick and or while it is shut off & turning it back on, then do a refresh and reinstall windows if needed.

11)  After all is well and battery seems to be okay, reboot and turn SMT back on & evaluate Surface unit as in step 10

For Enterprise Users, ask your Admin (Security Officer) on how to go about it, if it is safe to disable and meets compliancy for mobile operational usage.  

Before Disabling SMT with all up2date drivers and updates via 1903 build. 18362.387

After while having SMT disabled..

Answer 1

Hi Johnny, 

thanks a ton again for this manual. I played around with all the settings and also with Microsoft Surface support and want to share here the experience - so others with the same problem know whats up:

• the instruction here in DOES solve the problem of battery drain while on and off with the SP4 (at least with mine and I tried all the other hacks before) - I run latests Win 10 (slow insider ring just to get away from the awful 1903 verison and am on 1909 now which per se had not solves the issue)
• What else have I done in orde to get my 3h+ battery runtime back!!! ?

1. clean install of windows 1909 (yes, it's pain....)
2. finished all updates before installing/doing something else
3. ran ALL the steps in Johnny's instruction exactly as told!
4. disable connected standby (regedit -> Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power ---- and there go to "CSenabled" and set the value to "0" (instead of "1") - this stopped my drain while off
5. Disable windows hello - no face no fingerprint recognition - also had in impact on drain while off

• I played with SMT on/off and different power plan settings -> sad result -> SMT ON - battery time less than 1,5h -> SMT OFF battery time over 3h (close to 4 even)
• Just for reference my battery health:

• 	NAME	X910527
  	MANUFACTURER	SMP
  	SERIAL NUMBER	62167
  	CHEMISTRY	LION
  	DESIGN CAPACITY	38.152 mWh
  	FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	31.987 mWh
  	CYCLE COUNT	400

• and now for the best part - the entertainment with Microsoft support (which was in German, but here is my summary for you folks) - get the popcorn:
  • Support ran Surface tool on my machine, although I told them all steps I already have done...ok -> finds nothing (surprise)
  • Support generates battery and energy report, which I have already done for them and tries to tell me that it's OBVIOUSLY a hardware issue and that my Surface is out of warranty and I should basically go **** myself for spending 1,7k€ just over 2,5 years ago.
  • Me being relaxed -> tell him to talk to his boss and to tell him that its OBVIOUSLY cannot be a hardware issue, as the SP4 runs 3h+ with SMT OFF and I have the battery report to prove it and rus 1,5h with SMT on and thats its their failed build 1903 and what his real suggestions might be on a solution
  • Support takes a loooooong time and comes back with the grand solution to clean install windows with a USB to version 1903 (we note that this was the version causing the issues). I tell him that this is not the smartest thing off his cheat-sheat and whether he can provide me with an image of a build BEFORE 1903 which I would even be ready to install. ......guess.......?! of course this is NOT possible.
  • Me telling him to find a better solution with his boss -> looooong wait -> next proposal: I can get a refurbished SP5 for 650€! Which is a joke basically as the SP5 with my config is trading for 500€ on ebay in good shape here in Germany and I can even bay a NEW SP7 on sale (with a little searching) for 700€.....
  • You know the end - which is somewhat anti-climax: I can either take it or live with my precious SP4 without SMT and not expect a fix to come anytime soon. This is basically what he told me. Not in these words, as of course I logged the chat, but there was not much hope for a fix, as the internal thinking is that this is a hardware issue inside MSFT and thus I dont see any reason for them to bugfix their sh*tty builds in this regards for the couple of poor guys still wanting to use their SP4 at promised performance....

Cheers, Michael

Good to hear Michael 

As stated prior to your feedback as many are faced with this issue.  In the current state of affairs with different units, ranging from SP3,4,5,6 | SL 1,2 | SB 1,2.  SMT is not new in development, it has been around since Y2K, but actual implementation of SMT on CPU's that support SMT is fairly new.  Take AMD RYZEN 5 and up along with Intel Core i9 & up, core focus right now is mainly on Server Side CPU's, Client / Consumer CPU's are taking a hit from integrity check without page cache of integrity values of what is clean VS. dirty file consistency.  So in short, moving forward from this mayhem, it is best to do all of the following above, then turn SMT back on, with a full flush of any Cache on the system.  Currently my battery is like yours with the exception that battery last about 3-3.5 with SMT on with WIFI and all radios including Windows Hello, Connected Standby and so forth.  With SMT off my SP4 will last 5-6 hours as should like if it was brand new, Watching Videos, Using high CPU and GPU applications, productivity apps and alike.  For the most part, aside from others facing this issue, it is recommended that like any electronics, do not charge battery over night or leave any electronic charged after it hits 100% stating fully charged.  Best Practices since I had my first cellular device @Nokia 96'.

NOTE:  Lets just hope MSFT fixes the firmware and with low-level implementation that is suitable for portable compute devices.  If the latest iPhone and prior Intel Core i9 MacBook Pro suffered from SMT along with battery inconsistency then MSFT should be able to implement the same practice with the guys over at BSD and recompile the code into a compliant MSFT SpecOps requirement along with Intel & AMD.   

As Stated Current Power Delivery While on Battery:  So give or take 5-6 hours on Battery while having all radios off.  With Best Performance. on AVG. Life span is about 2-3 hrs depending on CPU and GPU utilization.  Real World Utilization in any environment.

Answer 2

Hi Johnny, 

thanks a ton again for this manual. I played around with all the settings and also with Microsoft Surface support and want to share here the experience - so others with the same problem know whats up:

• the instruction here in DOES solve the problem of battery drain while on and off with the SP4 (at least with mine and I tried all the other hacks before) - I run latests Win 10 (slow insider ring just to get away from the awful 1903 verison and am on 1909 now which per se had not solves the issue)
• What else have I done in orde to get my 3h+ battery runtime back!!! ?

1. clean install of windows 1909 (yes, it's pain....)
2. finished all updates before installing/doing something else
3. ran ALL the steps in Johnny's instruction exactly as told!
4. disable connected standby (regedit -> Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power ---- and there go to "CSenabled" and set the value to "0" (instead of "1") - this stopped my drain while off
5. Disable windows hello - no face no fingerprint recognition - also had in impact on drain while off

• I played with SMT on/off and different power plan settings -> sad result -> SMT ON - battery time less than 1,5h -> SMT OFF battery time over 3h (close to 4 even)
• Just for reference my battery health:

• 	NAME	X910527
  	MANUFACTURER	SMP
  	SERIAL NUMBER	62167
  	CHEMISTRY	LION
  	DESIGN CAPACITY	38.152 mWh
  	FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	31.987 mWh
  	CYCLE COUNT	400

• and now for the best part - the entertainment with Microsoft support (which was in German, but here is my summary for you folks) - get the popcorn:
  • Support ran Surface tool on my machine, although I told them all steps I already have done...ok -> finds nothing (surprise)
  • Support generates battery and energy report, which I have already done for them and tries to tell me that it's OBVIOUSLY a hardware issue and that my Surface is out of warranty and I should basically go **** myself for spending 1,7k€ just over 2,5 years ago.
  • Me being relaxed -> tell him to talk to his boss and to tell him that its OBVIOUSLY cannot be a hardware issue, as the SP4 runs 3h+ with SMT OFF and I have the battery report to prove it and rus 1,5h with SMT on and thats its their failed build 1903 and what his real suggestions might be on a solution
  • Support takes a loooooong time and comes back with the grand solution to clean install windows with a USB to version 1903 (we note that this was the version causing the issues). I tell him that this is not the smartest thing off his cheat-sheat and whether he can provide me with an image of a build BEFORE 1903 which I would even be ready to install. ......guess.......?! of course this is NOT possible.
  • Me telling him to find a better solution with his boss -> looooong wait -> next proposal: I can get a refurbished SP5 for 650€! Which is a joke basically as the SP5 with my config is trading for 500€ on ebay in good shape here in Germany and I can even bay a NEW SP7 on sale (with a little searching) for 700€.....
  • You know the end - which is somewhat anti-climax: I can either take it or live with my precious SP4 without SMT and not expect a fix to come anytime soon. This is basically what he told me. Not in these words, as of course I logged the chat, but there was not much hope for a fix, as the internal thinking is that this is a hardware issue inside MSFT and thus I dont see any reason for them to bugfix their sh*tty builds in this regards for the couple of poor guys still wanting to use their SP4 at promised performance....

Cheers, Michael

Answer 3

Thank you Johnny, 

I've been struggling with my SP4 with all the battery drain issues after the latest Windows Update. The software/driver are so awfully tested/not tested by MSFT it seems.... well, I've tried many tips, but this one fixed the issue as a workaround for me. I hope MSFT will release a proper fix soon, instead of forcing us all to buy new hardware - this is so cheap....

I did the steps EXACTLY as you mentioned and now can get 2,5h of normal battery life with using various apps and office apps simultaneously - previously it was just little over 1h. It's still far off the expected 3-4h while just browsing....but oh well....

Funny enough I had to disable connected standby and HELLO and do your steps to finally get it not to drain while off and not to use up the whole battery in 1h while on. This is a pity for a device woth some 1,5k or more 

Cheers, Michael

Good day Michael:

Happy I can alleviate the migraine into a acute headache as many still face the same issue.  For the time being you can still disable SMT via EFI / Firmware as Jose had also increased battery life with no performance impact, if needed to be undone its just a toggle of turning it on /off.  Try it and test, let me know if you need any other insight on the matter.

Johnny

Answer 4

Thank you Johnny, 

I've been struggling with my SP4 with all the battery drain issues after the latest Windows Update. The software/driver are so awfully tested/not tested by MSFT it seems.... well, I've tried many tips, but this one fixed the issue as a workaround for me. I hope MSFT will release a proper fix soon, instead of forcing us all to buy new hardware - this is so cheap....

I did the steps EXACTLY as you mentioned and now can get 2,5h of normal battery life with using various apps and office apps simultaneously - previously it was just little over 1h. It's still far off the expected 3-4h while just browsing....but oh well....

Funny enough I had to disable connected standby and HELLO and do your steps to finally get it not to drain while off and not to use up the whole battery in 1h while on. This is a pity for a device woth some 1,5k or more 

Cheers, Michael

Answer 5

Toggling the 50% limit with restarts inbetween does nothing. I have seen this drain of ~ 1% per hour when shutdown below 50% as well so I don't think it's related. Nothing I do makes any difference, and in fact last night it was more like 1.5% per hour. 

I updated my recovered SP4 (was 1703) to 1903 with the new surface firmware that just got released as well  (I had tried it on insider preview before the recovery) and now the battery life itself is worse again. I'm draining fast just sitting here browsing and typing a little (about 1.5 hours of battery or 2 if I'm lucky).

Sigh I've wasted hours on this with no benefit at all. Thanks for the idea but I don't see this as being a reliable work around, at least not for me.

Seriously though MS support on these issues is beyond pathetic. Now they have a new generation and currently problems across all the older generations. Will their sales be impacted? Probably not with how things work these days, but it really should.

Like myself and others we all all agitated for the moment, but also for myself and others (with the exception for someone like yourself), we currently have our Surface Pro 4 running like normal with the temp fix / workaround for now.  I had also clearly stated, we all need to wait for the next final up2date firmware from Microsoft.  

NOTE:  Also its not just Microsoft as Apple and others are also faced this issue, not only with MacBook Pro's but also iPhone as well.  SMT is fairly new to be implemented on Systems.  but not new in terms of development.