**Surface 3 Battery Settings - Time Remaining**

[Troy Kerns]

Hello -

I apologize if this is addressed elsewhere but I could not find it.

My director is testing a Surface 3 and he wants to know why he cannot change the battery display to show hours remaining rather than percentage. I cannot seem to find a clear cut answer anywhere! Can someone please explain why/why not? I believe you cannot due to connected stand-by but I really need to verify. If anyone has any sources of explanation that would be great!

Also - were you able to do this on a Surface 2? I know you could on a 1.

Thanks!
Troy

 

[jnjroach]

Hello -

I apologize if this is addressed elsewhere but I could not find it.

My director is testing a Surface 3 and he wants to know why he cannot change the battery display to show hours remaining rather than percentage. I cannot seem to find a clear cut answer anywhere! Can someone please explain why/why not? I believe you cannot due to connected stand-by but I really need to verify. If anyone has any sources of explanation that would be great!

Also - were you able to do this on a Surface 2? I know you could on a 1.

Thanks!
Troy

This is a by product of the SP3 being a Connected Standby Machine, some use Battery Bar Pro to get this information. The SP3 typically will get between 6-9 hours of use depending on what the user is doing.

 

[Troy Kerns]

Excellent!

I was asked to deploy this machine yesterday and I was not familiar with Windows 8.1 let alone the SP3!

I may be on this forum a lot in the near future!

 

[jnjroach]

Welcome to the community....

 

[laestrella]

I take not credit for this suggestion but a lot of folks in this forum have recommended installing this app. I'm using the free version:

http://batterybarpro.com/

 

[kristalsoldier]

I take not credit for this suggestion but a lot of folks in this forum have recommended installing this app. I'm using the free version:

http://batterybarpro.com/

Does this app have any negative effect on the battery of the SP3 though? Like some similar battery meters on Android?

 

[FrankMurphy]

You can get the time estimates back by enabling Hyper-V. You'll lose connected standby, though (it will be replaced with hibernate).

 

[joell85]

I have been using it since I got my old SP2 with no effect on battery life. Sometimes it can be quite a bit off though at times saying as much as 21 hours remaining. Definitely a must install for the SP3.

 

[laestrella]

Does this app have any negative effect on the battery of the SP3 though? Like some similar battery meters on Android?

Not that I've noticed. I'm getting amazing batter life lately. I'm getting over 8 hours now.

 

[dman27]

You can get the time estimates back by enabling Hyper-V. You'll lose connected standby, though (it will be replaced with hibernate).

This is what fixed it for me. You will also gain the ability to set your own customer power profile for the SP3.

 

[dman27]

Not that I've noticed. I'm getting amazing batter life lately. I'm getting over 8 hours now.

What power setting and screen brightness are you using?

 

[laestrella]

Someone recommended 35% and I did that. But I totally forgot (until you asked) that I changed it to about 50% when I was sitting in my car yesterday and didn't even notice a decrease in battery life. So I think I'm going to stick with that. What I think really helped was the last firmware update from the 8th (I believe that was the date) and getting rid of Chrome. I do a lot of web surfing and sending IMs nothing too crazy. But I'm definitely getting 8 hours + of battery where as before I was getting around 6.

Oh and I'm just on the standard balanced. Haven't changed a thing there.