Charger Cable Light?

[Sir Face]

I have been talking to MS tech weenies trying to figure out just why my Power Cover doesn't want to "top up" it's charge to 100% unless it AND the internal PS2's batteries are really low. In other words, if just the PC's battery is down to 20% or so and I hook up the charger, after an hour or two, the charger's little LED goes off and the PC's battery only goes up to maybe 50 or 60 percent.
Microsoft tells me that the LED in the charger cable should STAY on as long as it is connected. I never knew that since I didn't have anyone with a SP2 to compare notes with. Is this what you Guys find? As a result, they say I've either got a defective Surface or charger one. If this is so, I hope it's just the charger. Has anyone else seen this issue?

 

[javispedro]

I believe the LED in the cable is basically a dumb LED that will just light up if the current is larger than some threshold.

Here (no power cover) it lights up always when the SFPro is on (charging or not), because I assume there's always some current flowing through the cable. When the SFPro2 is off, then it only lights up when actually charging. Possibly, depending on the threshold, the light may actually turn off slightly before finishing charging because trickle charging current is so low.

 

[Sir Face]

So you are saying that your with your SP2 the LED does go off after charging, even though it is still attached to the Surface? MS says it should ALWAYS be on if it's attached. Mine never has even before I began using it with the Power Cover it would go off after a period of time.

 

[javispedro]

Yes, it turns off. Whether the moment it turns off actually matches the moment it finishes charging, I haven't checked yet, but they are close.

 

[Rvacha]

Others have reported the light turning off - this is a bug introduced in one of the firmware updates and it surfaced before power covers were introduced. Best as I can tell the bug is not widespread (its one of the few I DON'T have). My guess is that the light is unrelated to the cover charging problem, most likely a different firmware issue altogether

 

[be77solo]

So you are saying that your with your SP2 the LED does go off after charging, even though it is still attached to the Surface? MS says it should ALWAYS be on if it's attached. Mine never has even before I began using it with the Power Cover it would go off after a period of time.

This statement is true IF the SP2 is shut down but still plugged up on mine... when my SP2 is powered on and hooked to AC, the LED is always on.

When shut down the LED will go off eventually on mine even though still connected.

 

[Korlon]

my charger led always stays on, even when fully charged.

as for your battery charge, for about a week my battery wouldn't charge beyond 80% because I changed the settings on the WiFi card, the selective suspend and the power option. once I changed it back the battery went back to fully charging. hope this helps.

 

[GoodBytes]

The LED of the Surface Pro 2 power connector is supposed to stay turned on at all times to indicates that it is properly connected.
It will however turn off by itself, after several minutes, if you shutdown (or hibernate) the Surface Pro 2, AND the battery is fully charged at 100%.

 

[javispedro]

Others have reported the light turning off - this is a bug introduced in one of the firmware updates and it surfaced before power covers were introduced. Best as I can tell the bug is not widespread (its one of the few I DON'T have). My guess is that the light is unrelated to the cover charging problem, most likely a different firmware issue altogether

Bug? Sounds like a feature to me

Though I still suspect it's just a dumb LED, without control from the firmware, and it's always been that way. I do clearly remember that my late Jan unit had this behavior even during its first change.

 

[al2fast]

Bug? Sounds like a feature to me

Though I still suspect it's just a dumb LED, without control from the firmware, and it's always been that way. I do clearly remember that my late Jan unit had this behavior even during its first change.

I'm pretty sure it's controlled by the firmware. I got my SP2 in January. If the charger was hooked up to the SP2, it was on all the time regardless if SP2 was on or off, charged or not. I'm very sure it was the Feb 2014 firmware update that introduced the charger light turning off when the SP2 was powered off/hibernating and at 100% charge.

 

[GoodBytes]

It controlled by the firmware, as mine used to be always on. But after the January firmware (or Feb, I forgot), that feature appeared.