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Strange Battery Charge Issue

Nuspieds

Active Member
A very strange thing happened to me the other day...

I was traveling home to the US west coast from the US east coast: On the plane my Surface Pro battery eventually died while I was watching a recorded show and it had shut down. I remember getting warnings at 10% and 6% battery life remaining, but it was right after the 6% message that the system turned off. Though I thought it was odd at the time (i.e., for the system to shut down even though 6% of the battery was remaining), it wasn't a big issue.

When I got home, I plugged in my SP and went about with other activities/errands. Seven (7) hours later, when I sat back down in front of my SP, I noticed the battery meter indicated, "2% available (plugged in, charging)". At first I thought that maybe I had not connected the cable properly, but after reconnecting it, the message never changed. I even tried rebooting, doing the cold boot, etc., but it would still stay stuck at 2%.

I contacted Surface Support. It was near closing time and the agent wanted me to do a backup prior to performing a test to keep the SP unplugged to see if it would shut off immediately (i.e., the 2% available reading was correct or if it would shut off in a couple of hours, meaning that the 2% reading was incorrect). My backup finished after closing time, so I was on my own at that point in time.

So I unplugged the SP and the red "X" was flashing over the battery icon but the machine never gave any messages or shut off even after an hour. As a matter of fact, I as able to leave it on overnight. In the morning it obviously had died and this time when I plugged it in, it indicated that it was "plugged in, charging" but this time it did not get stuck at 2%. I eventually got to 100%, as I had always achieved.

The Surface Support rep had already told me to be prepared to send the device in for a replacement but because it would take 5-7 business days, that's when I decided to perform the test to see if letting the device drain (again) would solve the issue. Surely enough it did, but the whole situation still leaves me puzzled.

Has anyone else encountered similar charge issues?
 

riggi

Member
Was the LED on the charger connector lit?
Sometimes if mine is not connected properly, the LED will not be lit, but the system tray still says it is plugged in and charging. It isn't, because the battery drains.
You need to check the LED when you are charging, or set different screen brightness levels so you know if it is really charging or not.
 
OP
Nuspieds

Nuspieds

Active Member
Was the LED on the charger connector lit?
Sometimes if mine is not connected properly, the LED will not be lit, but the system tray still says it is plugged in and charging. It isn't, because the battery drains.
You need to check the LED when you are charging, or set different screen brightness levels so you know if it is really charging or not.
It was definitely lit and as I later determined, it was charging, just not updating the battery meter.

Thankfully it hasn't happened again.

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8
 

Wayne Orwig

Active Member
I've seen this happen on smart phones. I believe the battery controller chip gets confused about the battery level. To reset it requires a full discharge and charge. Then you are good again.
 

lethal.industry

New Member
having the same issue! hope it get fixed when i get home later :( if not, will try to wait for it to get drained and do what you said to get it fixed. Thanks for this! :D
 
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