Surface Pro 1 (2013 model 1514) Battery Issues

[11chris850]

I know its not great starting my first thread with a question but I'm at my wits end with trying to figure this out. I bought this used from someone that said it had a bad battery (wouldn't stay on when unplugged). I've done several things to this since I've gotten it, I put windows 10 pro on it (about 3 months ago), for the most part. But to do with the battery I didn't really trust their judgement (they weren't very computer savvy), so I started trying to diagnose it. When plugged in it shows on the Battery Icon plugged in but with a white X over the battery, when you hover the pen or a mouse over the icon it says 255% available (plugged in). When you actually click the battery Icon theirs no white X just a solid battery with a plug and 100% fully charged. So, I tried to uninstall and reinstall and update the "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery" to see if there was a issue their and then update, did this about 4 times and still the same only the battery icon is empty with a plug on it until I restart or unplug and plug it back in then the white X comes back. I tried running a battery report (command prompt powercfg/batteryreport) and all the fields are blank, theirs a couple of dates but no power ratings anywhere, no Design cap, Full Charge cap, or cycle count. So I disassembled the surface and pulled the battery and put a volt meter on it, I know it has 6.8v in it but I don't know how to find out what the capacity is. I've come down to conclusions just from the research I've done online, 1 either it is a bad battery, or 2 something on the motherboard is keeping it from charging the battery (not sure how likely the second possibility could be). Does anyone have any suggestions before I end this endeavor? The only battery I can find in the states is on Amazon for 100$ and that more than I paid for the tablet, If I spend that I might as well spend a little more and get a newer version or just buy another one. Also I did clean the charger contacts on comp and charger side, and tested the voltage coming from the charger (its fine). I really like the surface and would love to keep it, I just don't know if replacing this battery is going to fix it and if it doesn't I would be extremely furious lol. Any thoughts on what it could be after reading what all I have done and the symptoms? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

 

[sharpuser]

Thanks for joining up and posting, @11chris850 .

You seem to be very skilled, patient, and like the Surface concept very much.

At this point, I think a new battery is unlikely to fix the Surface Pro 1, as some micro capacitors and other components are likely out of spec too by now, especially since it seems the battery regulation was out of control at some point.

Perhaps get a newer Surface. You will really like the improvements since the first generation, and obviously the Surface community would benefit from your experience.

 

[11chris850]

I absolutely love the surface, to have such a high performance spec device packed into such a small frame is astonishing to me, for example the 6th gen with the options of the intel I7, 16gig ram and 1tb SSD...... you cant fint these specs in most gaming desktops let alone the standard laptop platform. I figured this was going to be the case with the battery, I'll most likely reassemble it and use it as a smaller bedroom desktop or something and maybe get a pro3 or pro4, most likely a pro4 considering all the screen issues that 3 is troubled with. Thanks again for your help and advice!

 

[sharpuser]

Sounds like a wise plan. Use what you've got!