Do I have a failing battery? Or is a program draining the heck out of it? - Surface Pro 3

[Jose_49]

I just purchased this Surface Pro 3 (i7 256GB - 8GB RAM) over eBay at Mint Condition. I don't have more than 24 hours of using it, so right now it is the first time that I'm trying it on-field. To my surprise the battery is sucking bad. I wanted to have this device as a companion for my Lenovo Y510p, which kinds of feels bulky for daily tasks (browsing web, using Visual Studio, etc.)

 

I ran a powercfg /batteryreport to see. I'm astonished to see that 370 cycles of the battery have already been used!!! Here's the result:

 

 

 

 

From this post: http://forums.windowscentral.com/microsoft-surface-pro-3/352691-what-typical-battery-life-cycles-surface-pro-3-a.html#post3074937

 

Quote

“The batteries on our Surface products are designed with some of the highest charge cycles for consumer electronic devices. This means that the battery can get charged daily (5 days a week) for over 4.5 years and still maintain 80% capacity.” So you should be good to go for a very long time.

There shouldn't be a problem with the number of cycles. In fact, if we do the math:

(261 days per year @ 5 days per week) * 4.5 = 1,174.5 cycles for 80%. 

 

So I don't think this is a problem...

 

 

Now, 

 

 

 

I'm right now using the default Balanced Plan with 75%.

 

 

I really really really really don't want to return this. I have even read that Microsoft does not replace Surface batteries, but the whole unit (Costing around $500!!!) 

 

Is Vivaldi the culprit? Or could it be something else? 

 

Any suggestions?

 

[Jose_49]

Cool, discovered that it's just $200 to swap for a newer battery. I don't want to shell out $200, but it's waaaay better than $450.

[Jose_49]

 

Here's the latest report.

[papercut2008uk]

if it's going to cost  $200 for a new battery, why don't you try the mobile battery packs that charge phones? 

[Jose_49]

1 minute ago, papercut2008uk said:

if it's going to cost  $200 for a new battery, why don't you try the mobile battery packs that charge phones? 

That's actually an interesting alternative. What I really love of this device is the whole portability in general. If in the worst case scenario I decide to change the battery it wouldn't cost me as much as a new one. I would still be saving $300 over the Surface Pro 3 i7 256GB model.

[DevTech]

I have a SP3 i3 and the battery lasts forever at default settings so I have never looked into it.

 

1. verify you have latest firmware updates

 

2. there is a download somewhere of special surface utilities that I have never bothered with so don't know if helpful

 

3. all mobile devices should be plugged into a charger at all times so battery discharges only when the device is actually mobile.

 

4. all batteries fail which makes trend for non-replaceable batteries in everything very annoying - there was no improvement in battery technology to justify this trend, just Apple obeying corporate law to maximize return to its shareholders. I suppose the ultimate result of this trend is landfills everywhere full of exploding batteries!

 

5. you mentioned Visual Studio. By default, the Visual Studio install will turn on Hyper-V for Mobile Emulation. Hyper-V might be conflicting with Connected Standby in a way that messes up battery drain.

 

6. If you did an upgrade install to Windows 10, it can really mess with device drivers. The major 1511 update also redoes the device drivers in weird ways. So a clean install of latest version might help.

 

[Jose_49]

1 minute ago, DevTech said:

I have a SP3 i3 and the battery lasts forever at default settings so I have never looked into it.

 

1. verify you have latest firmware updates

 

2. there is a download somewhere of special surface utilities that I have never bothered with so don't know if helpful

 

3. all mobile devices should be plugged into a charger at all times so battery discharges only when the device is actually mobile.

 

4. all batteries fail which makes trend for non-replaceable batteries in everything very annoying - there was no improvement in battery technology to justify this trend, just Apple obeying corporate law to maximize return to its shareholders. I suppose the ultimate result of this trend is landfills everywhere full of exploding batteries!

 

5. you mentioned Visual Studio. By default, the Visual Studio install will turn on Hyper-V for Mobile Emulation. Hyper-V might be conflicting with Connected Standby in a way that messes up battery drain.

 

6. If you did an upgrade install to Windows 10, it can really mess with device drivers. The major 1511 update also redoes the device drivers in weird ways. So a clean install of latest version might help.

 

Thanks  bunch for the tips! "So a clean install of latest version might help".

 

You mean about Windows or the drivers?

[DevTech]

1 minute ago, Jose_49 said:

Thanks  bunch for the tips! "So a clean install of latest version might help".

 

You mean about Windows or the drivers?

I hate software VooDoo but the Windows codebase is so large and complex that it is beyond human understanding by a single person.

 

So the answer is possibly both, possibly neither but my personal anecdotal experience on a variety of computers is that Windows 10 makes the right choices on some computers and the wrong choices on others and the chance of "wrongness" is higher on upgrades and I am not normally one of those OCD "clean install everything" guys...

 

 

[Jose_49]

7 minutes ago, DevTech said:

I hate software VooDoo but the Windows codebase is so large and complex that it is beyond human understanding by a single person.

 

So the answer is possibly both, possibly neither but my personal anecdotal experience on a variety of computers is that Windows 10 makes the right choices on some computers and the wrong choices on others and the chance of "wrongness" is higher on upgrades and I am not normally one of those OCD "clean install everything" guys...

 

 

Thanks! I will try with the drivers first!!! I have installed them, and restarted PC. Will wait for 4 hours until the device is fully charged and test it out. Thanks a bunch for pointing it out.

[DevTech]

10 minutes ago, Jose_49 said:

Thanks! I will try with the drivers first!!! I have installed them, and restarted PC. Will wait for 4 hours until the device is fully charged and test it out. Thanks a bunch for pointing it out.

Also as another test, go into Windows settings and turn off Hyper-V to see if that affects anything.

[DevTech]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Face-Off-Microsoft-Surface-Pro-4-Core-i7-vs-Surface-Pro-4-Core-i5-vs-Surface-Pro-4-Core-m3.156031.0.html

 

Scroll down to battery testing and you can get an idea of what you should be getting. The Surface Pro 3 is in the test results (i5 model - probably 20% better on battery)

 

[Jose_49]

6 hours ago, DevTech said:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Face-Off-Microsoft-Surface-Pro-4-Core-i7-vs-Surface-Pro-4-Core-i5-vs-Surface-Pro-4-Core-m3.156031.0.html

 

Scroll down to battery testing and you can get an idea of what you should be getting. The Surface Pro 3 is in the test results (i5 model - probably 20% better on battery)

 

Yosh! Here's the update! Battery life has improved a lot since compared of this morning.

 

BAM! You were RIGHT! ###### drivers were the culprit. There were no anomalies at the Device Manager, but reinstalling the drivers yielded outstanding results. I got somewhat scared at first, since it drained 12% of the battery in 30 minutes. But heck, the device just lasted 4 hours 23 minutes rocking! I freaking feel bad about this, being something so simple and I didn't do it (Silly me. Happens for trusting Windows Update...)

 

The last hour and 23 minutes I decided to do a personal testing: Grabbed the Surface and placed it in my bathroom with full brightness (100%) always-on-display, with 80% volume. No joke! The Surface speakers are loud enough, and needed to concentrate for something I was doing. I had no place to store it, so the bathroom worked wonders. I was kind of scared now, for how long was the battery going to last.

 

Seriously, thanks! Now I have a very bright smile in my face!!!

 

Now... Do you have any recommendations for this device? Like any tips or tricks I should be aware of?

 

[DevTech]

1 hour ago, Jose_49 said:

Seriously, thanks! Now I have a very bright smile in my face!!!

 

Now... Do you have any recommendations for this device? Like any tips or tricks I should be aware of?

 

1. Organize everything with the Pen and OneNote

 

2. The original keyboard had a suckage factor - I am planning to get one of these:

 

https://www.neowin.net/news/surface-pro-4-signature-type-cover-unboxing-and-first-impressions

 

3. The new Surface Pro 4 Dock also works with the SP 3 which I am interested in testing

 

4. Watch out for the driver mess on every giant update such as the upcoming Redstone

 

[Jose_49]

23 minutes ago, DevTech said:

1. Organize everything with the Pen and OneNote

 

2. The original keyboard had a suckage factor - I am planning to get one of these:

 

https://www.neowin.net/news/surface-pro-4-signature-type-cover-unboxing-and-first-impressions

 

3. The new Surface Pro 4 Dock also works with the SP 3 which I am interested in testing

 

4. Watch out for the driver mess on every giant update such as the upcoming Redstone

 

2) Ooof, sweet. I ordered a SP4 keyboard and it is working flawlessly.  Look over eBay, I got a midnight blue for $101 New.

3) Do you think it is worth it? It's kind of expensive.

4) Thanks for the notice and heads up. I'll be super aware from now on.

 

On top of that, I don't know why I didn't do this earlier... but just ran an sfc -scannow, and it found a couple of problems which couldn't fix. Will look over them later. Will ran a chkdsk to see if everything's fine.

[Jose_49]

I'm going to format this thing completely as you suggested. Today went again and delivered only 2.5 hours while staring at 50% of the screen. 

[chrisj1968]

On 4/21/2016 at 10:23 AM, Jose_49 said:

Thanks  bunch for the tips! "So a clean install of latest version might help".

 

You mean about Windows or the drivers?

Not to be a party pooper, I ran Windows 10 mobile on my lumia 635. It killed my battery like a kid eating a jar of cookies. I reinstalled 8.1 mobile and my phone ran cooler and the battery lasts a lot longer. I know you like Windows 10 but, sometimes it does creepy things to the battery life.

[DevTech]

4 hours ago, Jose_49 said:

I'm going to format this thing completely as you suggested. Today went again and delivered only 2.5 hours while staring at 50% of the screen. 

I think you need to look very carefully at the other software you are installing, the sort of things you always install and consider "normal" - one of them might be interacting in a weird way.

 

Also Google Chrome has become some of the nastiest "Let's Have a Party and Do Some Evil" resource sucking software on the planet. I won't let it get within yards of a tablet. If you need it for any reason, go into advanced settings and turn off the run programs in the background setting.

 

 

[DevTech]

4 hours ago, chrisj1968 said:

Not to be a party pooper, I ran Windows 10 mobile on my lumia 635. It killed my battery like a kid eating a jar of cookies. I reinstalled 8.1 mobile and my phone ran cooler and the battery lasts a lot longer. I know you like Windows 10 but, sometimes it does creepy things to the battery life.

I have a Surface Pro 3 upgraded to Windows 10 and it runs perfectly. Battery is fantastic and I get all the Windows improved desktop advantages so I always have a real computer with me at all times and NOT some silly trivial media consuming device if it was Android or IOS. Microsoft Surface is Geek Heaven....

 

 

[Jose_49]

Ok, I've been through everything this weekend. I installed Vanilla Windows 10, Vanilla Windows 8.1 W/U 1, Windows 10 IP Build 14,328 and bam! Nothing. I'm contacting the eBay seller right now to see if I can return the device.

 

I even contacted Microsoft, and discovered that there's a driver for battery management.

 

I'll just grab one from Amazon, which I think they are very good in price. Heck, they even come with 1 year warranty from Microsoft:

 

So, hopefully I can return it, and get a new girl back.

Guys thanks a lot for the support.

 

I will post back for any updates.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

On 4/22/2016 at 8:05 PM, Jose_49 said:

Yosh! Here's the update! Battery life has improved a lot since compared of this morning.

 

BAM! You were RIGHT! ###### drivers were the culprit. There were no anomalies at the Device Manager, but reinstalling the drivers yielded outstanding results. I got somewhat scared at first, since it drained 12% of the battery in 30 minutes. But heck, the device just lasted 4 hours 23 minutes rocking! I freaking feel bad about this, being something so simple and I didn't do it (Silly me. Happens for trusting Windows Update...)

 

The last hour and 23 minutes I decided to do a personal testing: Grabbed the Surface and placed it in my bathroom with full brightness (100%) always-on-display, with 80% volume. No joke! The Surface speakers are loud enough, and needed to concentrate for something I was doing. I had no place to store it, so the bathroom worked wonders. I was kind of scared now, for how long was the battery going to last.

 

Seriously, thanks! Now I have a very bright smile in my face!!!

 

Now... Do you have any recommendations for this device? Like any tips or tricks I should be aware of?

 

You wouldn't happen to have a recovery disc for the y510p, would you? Maybe an ISO? Just curious, and I'm sorry for going off topic.....

[Jose_49]

Just now, Obi-Wan Kenobi said:

You wouldn't happen to have a recovery disc for the y510p, would you? Maybe an ISO? Just curious, and I'm sorry for going off topic.....

Nope. I obliterated the recovery partition many years back, is there an issue with your machine? You can always PM me, I can help you out. This machine has been working flawlessly with me, except for some video problems I fixed a couple months ago.

[DevTech]

17 minutes ago, Jose_49 said:

Ok, I've been through everything this weekend. I installed Vanilla Windows 10, Vanilla Windows 8.1 W/U 1, Windows 10 IP Build 14,328 and bam! Nothing. I'm contacting the eBay seller right now to see if I can return the device.

 

I even contacted Microsoft, and discovered that there's a driver for battery management.

 

I'll just grab one from Amazon, which I think they are very good in price. Heck, they even come with 1 year warranty from Microsoft:

 

So, hopefully I can return it, and get a new girl back.

Guys thanks a lot for the support.

 

I will post back for any updates.

Sorry to hear about this.

 

I know firware is supposed to be updated automatically via Windows Update but that might be worth a double-check

[DevTech]

9 minutes ago, DevTech said:

Sorry to hear about this.

 

I know firware is supposed to be updated automatically via Windows Update but that might be worth a double-check

whoops! firware runs on pine trees - I meant firmware.

 

[Circaflex]

On 4/22/2016 at 7:37 PM, Jose_49 said:

2) Ooof, sweet. I ordered a SP4 keyboard and it is working flawlessly.  Look over eBay, I got a midnight blue for $101 New.

3) Do you think it is worth it? It's kind of expensive.

4) Thanks for the notice and heads up. I'll be super aware from now on.

 

On top of that, I don't know why I didn't do this earlier... but just ran an sfc -scannow, and it found a couple of problems which couldn't fix. Will look over them later. Will ran a chkdsk to see if everything's fine.

I thought the SP4 keyboard has nice upgrade over the one that came out when SP3 launched. The touchpad was more refined, the keys were separated a little bit and the fingerprint reader was excellent with 10 and Hello.

[Jose_49]

49 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

I thought the SP4 keyboard has nice upgrade over the one that came out when SP3 launched. The touchpad was more refined, the keys were separated a little bit and the fingerprint reader was excellent with 10 and Hello.

It is! I remember trying an SP3 last 2 years with the TypeCover 3, and oh boy! This one is amazing! Everything is so well spaced and typing really feels like typing.