I've owned a Surface Pro for a few months, and the Surface Pro 2 for a week. Because they have non-replaceable batteries, I've been concerned about battery health - that is, maintaining battery capacity over the long term. It's well known that lithium-ion batteries experience loss of capacity through charge/discharge cycles, but also from being stored in high-temperature or fully-charged states. (See this post for details.)
For this reason, many laptop manufacturers have provided utilities to optimize battery health in exchange for giving up some immediate capacity:
These are remarkable because the batteries in those laptops can be replaced, but the option still exists to optimize its life. However, the battery in the Surface Pro 2 can't, so this issue really needs to be addressed. After searching around a lot, I haven't been able to find a solution for the Surface Pro and Windows 8 despite putting a bounty on superuser.com.
I've come to the realization that having a solution to this requires firmware support from Microsoft (so that the charging policy can be implemented even when the Surface is powered off) as well as software support. I really would like my Surface Pro 2 to not have its battery capacity cut by half in 3 years due to poor energy management, and given its 8+ hour battery life right now, I'd love to sacrifice some of its immediate capacity for longevity.
I'm currently implementing the poor man's solution to this, which is to pull out the AC adapter whenever it reaches 80% charge. However, this is suboptimal because if I want to use it while docked, it either has to be charging or discharging (not just "not charging" but using AC power) and this causes unnecessary charge/discharge cycles on the battery.
What do you guys think is the best way to get an energy management firmware update to show up in this official list?
For this reason, many laptop manufacturers have provided utilities to optimize battery health in exchange for giving up some immediate capacity:
- Sony Battery Care software, which allows for 50% and 80% charging thresholds designed for AC and battery use, respectively.
- Lenovo Energy Management software, which not only sets a single charging threshold, but allows the battery to cycle between multiple thresholds to avoid top-off cycles.
These are remarkable because the batteries in those laptops can be replaced, but the option still exists to optimize its life. However, the battery in the Surface Pro 2 can't, so this issue really needs to be addressed. After searching around a lot, I haven't been able to find a solution for the Surface Pro and Windows 8 despite putting a bounty on superuser.com.
I've come to the realization that having a solution to this requires firmware support from Microsoft (so that the charging policy can be implemented even when the Surface is powered off) as well as software support. I really would like my Surface Pro 2 to not have its battery capacity cut by half in 3 years due to poor energy management, and given its 8+ hour battery life right now, I'd love to sacrifice some of its immediate capacity for longevity.
I'm currently implementing the poor man's solution to this, which is to pull out the AC adapter whenever it reaches 80% charge. However, this is suboptimal because if I want to use it while docked, it either has to be charging or discharging (not just "not charging" but using AC power) and this causes unnecessary charge/discharge cycles on the battery.
What do you guys think is the best way to get an energy management firmware update to show up in this official list?
Last edited: