The Microsoft Surface Pro 3's battery drain issue is apparently not over, as the firmware update distributed back in August seems to have breathed life into the problem once again.
To clear things up, the 2-in-1 laptops are loaded with batteries from two manufacturers: LGC and Simplo.
At first, units with the cells from Simplo started to show battery drain issues, and after a while and several complaints later, Microsoft rolled out a patch to fix them. However, that very update is now causing the problem to turn up in models that house batteries from LGC.
The Battery Drain Issue Itself
To no one's surprise, users are now up and about in sending in their complaints. Long story short, the gist of it is that they can no longer fully charge their Surface Pro 3 and that the device would immediately lose power when the charger is unplugged.
"Since the Win 10 Anniversary update, I was not able to turn on my Surface Pro 3 i7 512GB with LGC Battery without having it plugged in with the power supply or docking (I own a total of Three Surface Pro 3 Docks at home and 2 offices). It always said '82%, Plugged in, Not Charging,' and would always instantly turn off once I pulled off the power supply tab," a user who goes by the name of ashtaron14 says, starting a thread on the Microsoft Community website.
This case is similar to the previous issue that the units with the Simplo batteries had, where they would also not charge completely and turn off when they were no longer connected to a power source.
Is Microsoft Aware Of The Issue?
Short answer is yes. Microsoft now knows about the problem at hand, with the community moderator Barb Bowman replying to the abovementioned thread.
"That's definitely a different problem from what we saw with the Simplo batteries. I'll send it back up to the engineering team," she says.
The Bottom Line
Microsoft has yet to formally address the battery drain issue on the Surface Pro 3, but considering that the Simplo models was fixed via a firmware update, it's safe to assume that another patch is going to make its way soon enough.
Interestingly enough, the Surface Team previously laid out the nitty-gritty details of the batteries on a Reddit AMA thread two years ago, saying that they come with high charge cycles that allow them to get charged five days a week for more than 4.5 years and still have an 80 percent capacity.
Perhaps that really is the case, but until Microsoft sorts this new problem out, owners won't really be happy despite that.
Did your Surface Pro 3 get a firmware update, and did it start getting battery drain issues? If so, feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
