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Battery life measuring in mins - is this battery report right?

SP3 i5 128GB here, running fully patched Windows 10 Pro, Office 2016 via 365 University and Norton 2015.

I've found over the past week that from fully charged, I'm getting maybe 15 to 20 mins tops before the battery is showing as discharged and the SP3 shuts itself down. The machine was bought November 2014, so is 14 months old.

As per the battery life thread, I've run the battery report and if the numbers are right, I'm worried:

Installed batteries
Information about each currently installed battery
BATTERY 1
NAME X898289
MANUFACTURER SIMPLO
SERIAL NUMBER 1160845828
CHEMISTRY LION
DESIGN CAPACITY 42,157 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 4,932 mWh
CYCLE COUNT 168

and

Battery capacity history
Charge capacity history of the system's batteries
PERIOD FULL CHARGE CAPACITY DESIGN CAPACITY
2015-11-16 - 2015-11-23 42,583 mWh 42,157 mWh
2015-11-23 - 2015-11-30 42,075 mWh 42,157 mWh
2015-11-30 - 2015-12-07 38,364 mWh 42,157 mWh
2015-12-07 - 2015-12-14 33,991 mWh 42,157 mWh
2015-12-14 - 2015-12-21 29,668 mWh 42,157 mWh
2015-12-21 - 2015-12-28 26,085 mWh 42,157 mWh
2015-12-28 - 2016-01-04 23,174 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-04 - 2016-01-11 19,645 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-11 - 2016-01-18 13,779 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-18 - 2016-01-25 11,916 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-26 8,481 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-27 7,928 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-28 7,431 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-29 7,333 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-30 6,770 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-01-31 6,304 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-02-01 6,057 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-02-02 5,848 mWh 42,157 mWh
2016-02-03 5,513 mWh 42,157 mWh

If I'm reading all of this right my maximum battery capacity has effectively dropped off of a cliff. Can any of you good learned people concur based on the above numbers, and is there a reconditioning/recalibration tool or is it return to Microsoft time?
 

Chuck_IV

Member
15-20 MINUTES? Wow, something is wrong there. Windows 10 will reduce the use ability time vs 8.1 but not that much. I get 7+ hours with use.

I'd have it checked out. Was it like this when you had 8.1 on it?
 
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ChiefSpaceGoblin

New Member
Chuck,

Appreciate the reply. No, it wasn't like this under 8.1 nor on Windows 10 for the most part (installed Win 10 on launch day). Looking at the batter report the capacity started falling off a cliff from 23rd December, losing significant capacity each time it was measured down to the ~4500 mAh it is today.

The machine is out of Microsoft's warranty but still under store warranty (John Lewis, UK). Will be taking it in there tonight. Does leave me high and dry for my Open University work through until it's sorted though.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
I would try two things, do a clean boot by completely shutting down the device, wait 10 seconds and Volume Rocker Up and press Power, exit from the UEFI Screen making no changes, charge the battery completely and then run it down completely to 0 (you'll need to adjust power settings). Repeat this process.

If that doesn't work, open a support case with Microsoft.
 

conan1600

New Member
Looks like a battery fault to me
If it were me I would backup my info and do a clean install of windows 10 or reset tablet which will re install windows 8.1. That seems to clear up many issues for me on any machine I work on where I suspect a software issue on an upgrade version of windows 10. Short of that it may actually be a battery fault. Occasionally a battery will lose a cell or cross a few. If this happens you will have a sharp drop such as you had. At that point you only have 2 options, replacement from Microsoft.... or replace the battery yourself. Replacing it yourself is very tedious and you run the risk of very easily snapping the screen sooo ... unless you are endlessly patient and have talented hands spend the money on a replacement. Always get Microsoft complete warranty. 150 bucks up front and you would be covered now for 50 bucks. Hindsight
 
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ChiefSpaceGoblin

New Member
Did the full PC reset on the SP3, same results with the battery.

So back it went last night. Turns out the retailer in question (John Lewis) no longer stock the Surface line so offered me either a full refund on my SP3+keyboard, or the same original value towards another machine. With them no longer stocking the SPx line and having made serious use of the pen+OneNote, I opted for the full refund and bought a SP4+keyboard elsewhere.

Despite my machine failure, I wasn't expecting a full refund on my failed SP3 especially with having had serious use over the 14 months I owned it. Serious props to John Lewis for customer satisfaction!
 
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