A number of people who own the original Surface RT tablet (now known just as Surface) have not had a lot of luck when it comes to updating the tablet to Windows RT 8.1. Microsoft pulled that update from the Windows Store a couple of days after it was released because it was bricking some Surface RT devices. Microsoft put the update back in the store earlier this week.
Now, Microsoft has stated that some owners of Surface RT have experienced a decrease in the tablet's battery life after installing the Windows RT 8.1 update. This is apparently affecting just the owners who had downloaded and installed the preview version of the OS before the final version was released.
In a page on the Surface website, Microsoft says:
During the update, the wireless adapter power policy isn’t migrated. Instead, the power policy is set to a default value that consumes more power both during use and in the connected standby state.
The good news is there is a fix that Surface RT owners can do on their own to restore the battery life back to normal, which is posted on the same page. The bad news is that it's rather complicated. Here's the full procedure:
- 1: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)
- 2: In the search box, enter command prompt.
- 3: Touch and hold (or right-click) Command Promptto bring up the context menu. Tap or click Run as administrator.
- 4: On the User Account Control dialog box, tap or click Yes.
- 5: At the Administrator: Command Prompt, enter the following: powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 19cbb8fa-5279-450e-9fac-8a3d5fedd0c1 12bbebe6-58d6-4636-95bb-3217ef867c1a 3
- 6: Then enter powercfg -setactive scheme_current
Remember, this is just for Surface RT users who installed the preview version of Windows RT 8.1 and then installed the final version. If you own one of these tablets and never bothered to download the preview build of Windows RT 8.1, this workaround does not apply.
Source: Microsoft via The Next Web
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