Surface pro 4 - battery draining while Off.

Question

Hi, I have a problem with my SP4. 

I have an huge overnight battery draining (more than 20% and, in a few days, battery drains down to 0 %): it seems that the pc never really turns off. 

I get the same draining percentage leaving the Surface in sleep mode. 

I disabled connected standby throught registry editor (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power - Csenabled to 0). 

Nothing changed.

Battery's performance is normal while on (it lasts as expected), so I don't think it's an hardware problem. How can I resolve?

Thanks, best regards

Answer 1

I got the same isse and my surface pro4 is still under warranty.

I conteacted microsoft service and they told me "is like that". 

Even I got a replacement device it may not get the problem solved. 

****, I am super angry now.

Answer 2

Same issue here:

My 3y old Surface Pro 4 has suffered from the battery drain symptom, i.e. about 7~8% per day battery drain when turned off (SHUTDOWN). Seems a problem with some SP4 production batches, see the many discussions about this topic.

But lately I noticed that the drain is now reaching 30~40% per day ! Again, with the system turned off (and keyboard removed).

Here is the relevant part of the pwercfg reports:

Battery Report:

2019-08-29 12:54:03    Suspended         92 %     28,005 mWh

2019-08-30 16:29:57    Active     Battery     45 %     13,612 mWh

    16:31:40    Active     AC         44 %     13,222 mWh

System Power report:

29/08/2019  [...]

19    12:54:03    00:00:48    Active    -    -    -    Drain    -        92%

20    12:54:51    27:34:44    Shutdown    -    -    -    -    -        -

21    30/08/2019 16:29    00:01:43    Active    390 mWh     1% of battery     13,631 mW     Drain    -        -

22    16:31:38    00:16:42    Active    -    -    -    Charge    -        44%

There is this clear 45% loss in about 28 hours Shutdown state (line #20 of System Power report); lines 21 & 22 reflect the fact that I (cold) booted the system a couple of minutes before connecting the mains charger.

CsEnabled=1, but AFAIK this should not impact a true Shutdown, which is *not* Modern Standby, correct ?

The battery report says this battery has only 20% wear... Full Charge cap. = 30,900 mWh  (Design Charge cap. = 38,152 mWh)

Could this be a new "feature" introduced by the Surface Firmware 103.2614.257.0 rolled out in August ?

Or is simply my battery almost dead now (acceptable wear level and activity duration but unacceptable drain while completely off) ?

Answer 3

I have the same problem: my Pro 4 has always suffered from a 10/15% battery drain per day (CSenabled or not doesn't change anything) but since the last august 2019 firmware/software update the battery drain is about 45/50% a day and after 48 hours my Pro 4 is completely "dead"; PS: shutdown is performed with shift key pressed, so really shutdown.

Answer 4

Hey Microsoft, will you address this issue some day ?

Buying a computer for which the battery isn't replaceable was a choice I made based on the assumption that the battery and power system was good quality. And I took great care in managing use/charge cycles.

Now my system is out of warranty, and thanks to the latest firmware update, battery performance has dramatically decreased (both when working - about only 3 hours uptime now, with occasional unexpected instant dirty shutdown while the battery showed 25% left (!), or when fully turned off - battery drains in a little more than 3 days) so either I have to buy something new (my ecological footprint thanks you), or have my unit serviced (basically replaced by a refurbished unit, most probably since the battery can't be cleanly replaced) for an obscene price.

Taking into account the number of people complaining (and those who have the problem but never noticed it due to their usage patterns), I regret a class action suit isn't practically possible for a user base spread across many countries....

Answer 5

Following the t'shooting steps on Microsoft's website about Surface Pro Batteries "Uninstall and reinstall the Battery Driver in Windows" (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4484738/troubleshooting-surface-battery-issues), I deinstalled then reinstalled the Battery driver.

At first, I thought that these steps solved my problem, as I could work a little less than 1.5 hours while the battery drained apparently steadily but very gently to about 54%, then...BOOOM ! black screen...brutal and dirty shutdown !

This is much worse than a few days ago (where the unexpected abnormal shutdown occurred when the battery meter was around 20%) !!!

Also the apparent available capacity has dramatically decreased in just a few days.

I guess this means my battery is plain dead. (but strangely the problems became very severe right after the latest update...)

With only 323 charge cycles, I reckon this absolutely unacceptable.

I have to dump a perfectly viable €1,500 machine because the non-replaceable battery is so poor quality ? (no value for reselling in 2nd hand)

By reading other posts, I doubt a refurbished machine will do much better, so I'm not keen to pay nearly €500 for a out-of-warranty "repair".

...net loss thus.

***angry***