back to article Microsoft releases firmware fix for faulty Surface Pro 3 batteries

Frustrated Surface Pro 3 customers unable to properly charge their batteries have been offered a fix by Microsoft. Last month Microsoft 'fessed up to its battery woes, saying they were down to software problems rather than a hardware fault. Some Surface Pro 3 devices have been working as long as the power is plugged in, but …

  1. hplasm
    Windows

    For sale- 10000 m mains extension lead.

    Contact "I'm a mountain guide and a Surface user" from the TV ad.

    Yeah... and statistics.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. hplasm
        Happy

        Re: For sale- 10000 m mains extension lead.

        "Is that the irritating one that uses "summit" as a verb?"

        Yep- and isn't even a Yorkshire lass!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: For sale- 10000 m mains extension lead.

        Is that the irritating one. {end of} FTFY.

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Re: For sale- 10000 m mains extension lead.

      The length of the cable doesn't matter. If the battery reports less than 3% the Surface shuts down, even if it is on mains power! I managed to get mine replaced under guaranty, but I need 12 attempts at booting to get to the login screen without it switching off, before I could reset it to factory. Luckily it held through the reset...

  2. djstardust

    Took them long enough

    To fix it.

    Things like this should be dealt with in weeks not months down the line.

    Be interesting to see how many other "bugs" are introduced with the new firmware though ........

    It's pretty bad when Microsoft can't even get their own hardware to work properly.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Took them long enough

      I blame DevOps. Because.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Microsoft shifted 275,000 Surface Pro devices ... In contrast, the iPad Pro sold 107,000 units"

    Yeah, except that's not comparing like-for-like.

    Surface Pros tend to be bought by people who want a really skinny laptop, rather than a really expensive tablet. That's the same market segment as the Apple Macbook.

    1. Ragarath

      Re: "Microsoft shifted 275,000 Surface Pro devices ... In contrast, the iPad Pro sold 107,000 units"

      Does the MacBook work as a tablet? No I thought not. On your bike sir Apple Fan.

      1. OffBeatMammal

        Re: "Microsoft shifted 275,000 Surface Pro devices ... In contrast, the iPad Pro sold 107,000 units"

        true. the Macbook neither works as a tablet (no removable keyboard) nor does it (or any other Mac laptop) support touch (which is pretty commonplace in the PC world). it's a good little laptop, but it's not a fair comparison.

        the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro are more apples to apples (pun intended) even though the Surface is a more general/backwards compatible computing device and the iPad Pro essentially a jumped up phone ... but in terms of the sorts of things you can do when you plug in the keyboard and swipe around the touchscreen it is a fair comparison... especially when you look at the price tags

    2. TheVogon

      Re: "Microsoft shifted 275,000 Surface Pro devices ... In contrast, the iPad Pro sold 107,000 units"

      "Surface Pros tend to be bought by people who have a clue."

      TFTFY!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fuel Gauges.

    As Trading Standards only know too well, petrol pump "fuel gauges" are notoriously inaccurate at the best of times, but always seemingly deliver less than you paid for.

    Good to see a MS firmware fix keeping up the traditions.

    As fuel gauges go, was it accurate, but now inaccurate, or inaccurate, now accurate, I suppose we'll never really know.

    It shows though there is more than meets the eye regards actual battery capacities, when a battery is tested for a warranty claim in-store by either Microsoft or Apple. This so called fix all sounds a bit iffy to me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I suppose we'll never really know.

      Unless we read the article and understood it......

  5. Stevie

    Bah!

    "Fuel gauge" app jointly developed with Volkswagen.

  6. Nick L

    So far so good...

    My battery had dropped from its design capacity of 43Wh to 17 in July, and was dropping day by day. I'm on the Insider program and I suspect something was pushed out last week, as capacity mystically has been recovering since and I'm now up to 35Wh and still trending upwards, which after 247 discharge cycles doesn't seem bad.

    Edit: just to add I've been working on battery today for 4 hours, and still have 39% left, which claims to be 2h 57m... This is the best I've seen in a long time.

    1. hplasm
      Devil

      Re: So far so good...

      On the downside, the CPU is running at 1Mhz now.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. hplasm
          Thumb Up

          Re: So far so good...

          "A big H. I hope that's ok with you, Hplasm..."

          Indeed, you are correct, and I stand in the corner, having failed to proofread. :(

          Thumb up for truth, and to represent my fat-fingers.

        2. channel extended
          Happy

          Re: So far so good...

          Although true, I still miss the days of Kilo and Mega cycles. Much more informative for most of us electron pushers.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So far so good...

      Well now MS have (collectively) got that "fix" out, time for a lot more coffee breaks/SP3 idle/standby time I suppose, bound to have 39% left after 4 hours, gauge permitting, Mr coder.

      Not seeing your miracle fix here.

    3. Stevie

      Re: So far so good...4 Nick L

      Let's hope the "fix" was a better job than that done by the original coders. Better charge the device on a large concrete slab, surrounded by sandbags, water tanks and other blast mitigation measures in the event there's a fencepost miscalculation in the overcharge protection routine.

    4. OffBeatMammal

      Re: So far so good...

      similar experience... before yesterdays update I'd get somewhere between 45 mins and an hour on a full charge. yesterday after the update (and another reboot for good measure) I got over 5 hours before the thing finally ran out of juice and I had to re-tether.

      what is frustrating is I had to go through a whole return/replace procedure on my original SP3 for this issue that I could probably have avoided

    5. Nick L

      Re: So far so good...

      In case anyone cares, my SP3 battery capacity is now showing as 41,732mWh compared to a design capacity of 42,157mWh and a cycle count of 248. Battery life is back to a full day and now regularly lasts a full day - but admittedly I don't sit running encoding tasks and visual studio compiles all day.

  7. Alex Read

    Next up they need to fix the bloomin' hibernate & sleep issues which have plagued all surfaces then, including their latest 4 models....

  8. Nameless Faceless Computer User

    And if you have a Surface pro 3 running Windows 7? No fix for you.

  9. peter wegrzyn

    Mine was running fine until yesterday. Now its randomly switching off and the charge light randomly fails to light up.

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