Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

Question

I've been using Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for a year, and shortly after the warranty expired I noticed my Surface Pro 3 can only last about 1-2 hours after a full charge. At first I thought this was a problem with background process draining the battery so I disabled everything running in the background. It didn't helped. Then I found out about the powercfg utility and run powercfg /batteryreport on it, and this was the result:

A full charge capacity has degraded by over 80% in just few weeks and continue degrading. I tried to "recalibrate" the battery by doing full charge then full drain multiple times, and it didn't helped. Talk with Microsoft via chat support and they insist this was a software problem and reinstalled the driver and asked me to wait few days to see if things improve. Not only it didn't improved, but now my Surface can only last 30 minutes.

Few days after chat (today), I called Microsoft support and they were being extremely unhelpful. Insist that this was a software problem (which the chat support person already did) and it's "perfectly normal" for battery capacity to degrade. I insist that I've already done the software "fixes" and it didn't work and tell them this is definitely hardware problem, but the person on the phone tell me there's nothing I could do except to order the out of warranty exchange (which cost about $560 in my local currency). 

Is there anything else I should do? My country has no Microsoft Store which I could take the machine for them to take a look. Phone/online support were the only option, and none of them could understand the issue.

Answer 1

Hello everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience here. We have now completed our testing of the update and it has passed our quality assurance process.

The update, “System Firmware Update - 8/29/2016”, is now available to install from Windows Update.

Before installing this update, ensure that your Surface Pro 3 is plugged directly in to AC power using the standard AC power adapter (do not use the Surface Docking Station), disconnect any USB devices or external monitors, and check that Windows shows a 40% charge or greater when you hover over the icon in the taskbar before you begin.

Once you install the update, please select Restart now (do not shutdown). After your Surface restarts, please manually restart it a second time to complete the process. For more information, please see our Surface Pro 3 Battery FAQ article.

If you’re having trouble charging your Surface, you get a low-battery error, or your Surface turns off when you unplug it, the steps in our Surface battery won’t charge article can help you pinpoint the problem. Should you need any further assistance, please contact us. 

Thanks again.

Greg

Updated 8/29/16.

Answer 2

I've been having serious battery drain issue.  As soon as I unplug the Surface I go from 100% battery life to 80ish% in a matter of seconds.  I'm only getting about 30 minutes of battery life from a full charge.

I've turned it off and let it charge to ensure it was 100%.  Same issue.

I've gone thru and turned every background program to OFF and still same problem.

Just today I restored it back to factory.  Same issue.

I'm really at a loss.

Answer 3

Hi,

Thank you for your suggestion to talk to Assisted Support. Unfortunately, their suggestion even after all this is to do the out of warranty exchange ($560 in my local currency) which is just sad. I loved the machine the moment I tried it in the store, and paperweight-when-not-plugged-in definitely wasn't what I expected it to be in a year after purchase.

Lesson learnt: always ask about battery replacement policy before purchasing. Not going to make this mistake again.

Thanks

Kridsada

Answer 4

YashKumar23,

Thanks for your query. Please visit this page for information and steps related to Surface battery and how to make it last.

Answer 5

Hi,

I've tried the steps in the link even before I chatted with support (and still do after) and it didn't helped at all. When it's plugged it shown "Plugged in, not charging (98%)" so I've tried solution 1 may be 4-5 times, solution 2 twice, I've lost count how many times I tried solution 3, solution 4 for about few days, solution 5 on every occasion I could do it. Nothing helped. That's why I eventually decided to call the local support via phone to see if they have any options. They didn't. So I fallback to posting here.

As of today, powercfg reports capacity of 7,760 mWh at 100% charge. I really hope paying $560 isn't the only option I have. 

Regards,

Kridsada