New Surface Pro 3 battery issue not caused by Microsoft software update

I've got this issue with my SP3. Started after installing AU. It's pretty annoying running blind on the battery remaining.

If it isn't firmware, then it's the OS. Either way, MS need to get a handle on these bugs that are happening on their own devices. If signature Windows devices have problems, then it really isn't a great advert for all those using 3rd party OEM devices.

it could be additional software that these SP3 owners have

Fairly implausible. Especially given the coincidence of this happening at the same time as the AU release.

This proves what mediocre quality they deliver! These SPs cost a lot of money and yet you end up with these issues. FAIL!

It was not a fail till the issue was discovered. It was released 2 years ago. It was a success for 2 years, is that what you want to say?

It was a success until windows 10 came out, for this yes, you are right.

Correlation is not causation

Spoken like someone that doesn't understand software.

This is a 2+ year old device that had been working fine. The AU update comes out, and these problems appear.
Of course the problem *could* be third party. But then again, the charging of batteries is a core OS function far outside the usual boundaries within which third party software operates.
Also, I would hazard a guess that at least some people who had this issues have tried reinstalling Windows - meaning that the installation is clean of any third party software. Yet still we haven't heard of any fix or workaround.
I know you are a fan of Microsoft...but this is a device built by them, and with their OS running on it. These kind of issues are simply unacceptable - and demonstrate how wrong Microsoft was to prevent us from being able to stop the installation of updates.
Windows 7 was clearly better in that regard.

I agree with you not being able to controle when you do the updates it is my pet hate with the OS at the moment. I do not like the fact i need to use my expensive travel data on an update that it downloads in the background as there is no way to switch it off.  

You can set mobile data connections as a 'metered connection'. This stops updates being downloaded until you are on normal WiFi. It's also the best workaround for delaying updates :) (Or at least it was. I haven't used that trick for a while as I've been hoping software updates would fix my Surface 3 standby issues!)

Windows 10 Pro, it'll allow you to defer the updates

Again, spoken like someone that doesn't understand software. I work in software, and I know what it's like to have people think the latest update is what broke their stuff. I literally deal with it almost every day. Yes it's possible, but if they say it's not what did it, you pretty much have to accept that unless you can prove it. Also, if you're so upset with it, and want Windows 7 back, you should've done it after you updated. It's no secret there were issues.

Lots of people "work in software", many of them are clueless and would argue for hours that their latest checked in code isn't the cause of a problem until it's proven to them. You sound like that kind of guy,  but good for you that you work in software

Well I'm happy that you know my coding abilities/habits after reading a comment on the internet from me. You must have some amazing abilities. Truth be told, I don't develop new, I support current software for one of the largest ehr companies in the world. I program regularly in 3 different languages. I know a little bit about how the software industry works regardless of what king of guy I seem like. But good for you for judging what kind of person I am and not adding anything relevant.

By what you say, you seem to have experience in SW Development, and yet you are defending MS and their lack of Quality Testing. You call windows 10 a good quality product? In this case either you haven't tested an app ever, or you are working for MS actually...Insiders cannot properly replace an experienced QA Team, and the result is obvious! Mediocre quality!

Neither. He's the worst kind of "developer"...he's the fanboy developer. Microsoft could be sacrificing little puppies to celebrate each Windows build and be would still come up with some bullsh*t to excuse them. This is a pretty logical case. SP3 was working fine. Update is delivered. SP3 stops working fine. It was caused by the update. Period. Saying otherwise is like cutting your hand with a knife and then saying it wasn't the knife, it could have been a cold you had. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Right, because post hoc logical fallacies are always correct.

Correlation is not causation

Show me where exactly I call W10 "a good quality product" or defend their testing. I simply said if they claim the AU update didn't break it, you pretty much have to accept it as fact unless you can prove otherwise.

What's to prove? SP3 was working like a BO$$ until windows 10 came out, then problems started to appear. After the AU more issues. More proof?

Im repeating this comment everywhere regarding this, but correlation is not causation. I used to do a lot of work in research and while my experience is not directly related to developing software, one of the most important things to learn is that a correlation between two different things does not mean one caused the other. So unless you can see/prove line of code x directly caused issue y then it's still a correlation.

Especially considering no Surface ever had Windows 7.. But it was so flawless.. So go buy a Dell with a Windows 7 downgrade and stfu.

That guy is clearly a MS fanboy and has ZERO idea about Quality Control. You can always revert to Win8.1 you know...what can you chose: a broken OS affecting your work or an older version, but more stable?

Just curious.. If you are sure that win 10 au is the problem, the logical thing to do would be install 8.1 and see if the problem is resolved and prove it. Why argue and flame? Really curious..

Because logical reasoning is harder than blaming someone else. Lol

My thoughts exactly.. Lol!

Right, because signature Apple and Google devices never have bugs...

Not sure how that's relevant, personally, I haven't had any issues with my mac and lots of issue with Surface Pros but that's completely anecdotal and hey, Microsoft may release a Surface Phone and it will save Windows Phone...

when MS is relying on insiders to test their OS, you cannot expect quality!

Insiders are just another level of QA but the main focus of insiders is feedback to help push W10 in the right direction. If you watched any of this year's build conference then you might have seen that 5 million+ automated tests are run on upwards of 300+ builds of Windows 10 EVERY DAY. That is the 1st line of defence and is most likely the largest automation project in the world. Then there are teams of QA dedicated to different parts of the OS, different core apps, different SKUs, there's internal "insider rings" with multiple levels and the Microsoft ring then external fast, slow and release preview rings that consists of 5 million + users with hopefully about 100k of them actually being useful in terms of finding and reporting bugs. Whatever way you look at this, Windows is likely the most tested piece of software in the world. Compare that to OS X that only runs on a tiny range of hardware that is all controlled by Apple instead of the 100k+ devices that Windows runs on from OEMs all around the world (which by the way also run their own QA teams on their hardware) and you can see why Macs might seem more stable, oh and don't forget the 16 million + win32 apps out there that have full access to the OS and can really cause a lot of damage, how man OS X apps are there? 100k? Since this new battery issue is only effecting devices with batteries from a single manufacturer (and likely a single batch of those made) it's almost certainly a hardware issue or a driver issue and nothing much to do with the OS at all.

Automation only asserts what you expect (it can't investigate anything you don't code it to assert). The "QA" at MS - they started getting rid of these people, as MS had/has the misconception that you can automate everything... As fas as I'm aware, they don't employ any exploratory testers to do the essential investigative testing. I think they leave that to devs, who aren't very good at it. (kind of like a "anyone can test, but not everybody can test well" situation... But MS haven't realized this yet).

Lol you use "assert" because you've probably written one or two tests and think you know it all. Congrats. Anyone that's done 5 minutes of help desk duty troubleshooting probably know more about testing than you do. There's so much more than just code based tests, there's an unending amount of analytical data available for all aspects of operation to look at, and a wonderful thing called machine learning that Microsoft happens to be at the forefront of as well.

Do you have inside knowledge of their employees and what tasks they are given? As far as I'm aware Microsoft could have employed an infinite number of monkeys typing code for an infinite time. Automated testing is not everything, and my point was that it is ONLY their 1st line of defence with many other lines standing behind it ready to find bugs.

...and I see how well they find bugs. Windows 10 is the buggiest OS ever, always beta, always with issues, so, sorry for questioning MS's so called testing teams that are there or not. Everything related to this OS being so damn buggy and mediocre started after Nadella decided to fire engineers and reorganize...coincidence? not really. I am not that stupid to actually buy MS's crap ideas about how well they test this OS. I see the real facts, it breaks!

:) How totally wrong, MS ditched dedicated testing teams and created the Insider Program. Windows 7,8,8.1 all were much more reliable and with way less bugs than windows 10, because there were dedicated teams to actually do testing scenarios, test cases that cannot be automated. Test automation DOES NOT cover every important aspect, and MS should know this. They chose to work cheap with free insiders, sacrificing the quality! While normal user's input is very welcomed, replacing experienced and dedicated testing teams with normal users was damn stupid idea, and the results are obvious.

Oooh the things I could tell you about ugly bugs in w7 in enterprise envs....

Remember,  fanboy code when something goes wrong with windows products,  blame google and apple..

Battery issue afer battery issue, on top of the mediocre beta experience windows 10 is on 1st party hardware. Waking my Surface Pro 2 from sleep keeps freezing the rotation sensor, forcing me to eaither restart or go into device manager to disable and reenable the driver. As-if that wasn't horrible enough, Explorer keeps randomly freezing, and sometimes my Surface Pro 2 won't even wake up from sleep... Glad I'm not relying on only this stupid half-baked software on my Surface Pro 2, always gotta wait a year and half or two before any windows becomes reliable and worth upgrading to.

Same. The sleeping and power issues on the Surface needa be fixed. They gotta refresh themselves on this whole thing. Maybe sit back for a day and have the whole team just work on that and collaborate. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

you can try to roll back to Win8.1 and avoid using this crap of 10

Never had this on my sp2, which version do you have, mines i5 (4200),8gb,256gb

Mine is the i5 4300U 8GB 512GB SSD.

HEY. For everyone who is blaming the Anniversary Update. That isn't it. The same issue is affecting my SP3, which is administered by my IT department. I can't get the AU because access to the Store has been blocked. Therefore, it is something else entirely. End of discussion.

Interesting, that could mean that whole batch of Battery may have some kind of defect

Just a note you don't download the anniversary update from the Store anyway.

You are correct, you don't. But the Enterprise level block which prevents me from upgrading the OS to AU also keeps me out of the Store. The fact remains that I am not nor have I ever run AU on that device, and it has the issue.

LOL I do not believe them! Their untested mediocre updates are causing these problems!

MS releases updates and then those got issues ! MS is not the responsible means IS IT GOOGLE or APPLE... LOL

May be some small bugs be there... They are working on it ...good

Surface Phone will be different. No need to wait for 4th iteration until Panay delivers working unit.

Says the man, who just avoided a bricked iPhone...

ha ha iphones were not BRICKED.  Shows how much you know.

Yes it was a close call. Somehow not deployed to my WP8.1 L1520.

The only issue I have had with my SP3 was an issue with the ACPI.sys driver going to max CPU after starting from hibernate. When I played music the CPU went back to normal, stop playing back up. I installed the latest Realtek USB 3.0 driver from Station Drivers and since then no more issues at all. Fan hardly is on and the unit is a lot cooler. See my post on this in the Surface 3 Pro forum over at Windows Central and give it a try. I am really really happy with the device now :)

Oh it's not MS's software it' just their hardware that's the problem!!! Even if the battery isn't made by MS the tablet that's sold under their moniker is, so all that comes within that package on opening is and will always be thought of as MS's. So to say that it's not the software makes it that much harder to accept knowing that a simple new coding and update release won't fix the issue.

The problem with Win10 is, they are still fixing OneCore and a lot of bugs. Every developer knows, that fixing bugs on one layer of software may cause problems on the layers depending on it. Add to this Murphy's law, and that continuous integration is no sufficient validation (because it builds, but it doesn't work). It will take another year or two to get all issues sorted and optimized. The same is true for iOS and Android, both bricking phones in the not so distant past. So maybe we will live in the world of the agile quality mess.

MS does not seem to follow too much of Agile...if there was any sort of cross-work between devs and testers we would not have such problems with this OS, but as there are no dedicated testers, no Agile here. Based on code design, UI design test cases are built before the actual code is written, and modified then on the go to optimize testing, finding bugs etc, but that takes a dedicated team to do it, which MS does not seem to have anymore.

August update fixed issues with my SP3. Before it I got the first battery warning, after dismissing it immediately the second one. Now it's back to normal. It is possible though that they fixed something and broke something else.

they probably just sent a temporary fix...to bide time...ha ha ha

Now that's new !

My 930 is highly unstable. Bluetooth sketchy, camera restarting phone and numerous other stuff. My xbox the other day just sat idle unresponsive. This unifying thing is bugridden and highly unstable.....

That's why I've got myself a Playstation 4 and not a xbox one. I had a xbox 360 before, and while I wanted to continue with the same product line, never in this world or another I am wasting my money on a device running windows crap 10! Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

At least it's not exploding... Wink, wink. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android