Battery not charging to 100%

[joeka]

My first post on the SurfaceForums - it's been a great resource of info for both my Surface1 and now my Surface2... and I'm hoping someone may be able to shed some light on my situation...

I've just noticed that the battery on my Surface2 doesn't charge all the way up to 100% - it never goes over 99%. Even after leaving it charging overnight.

Is that the right behaviour? I'm sure my Surface1 (just recently sold on eBay!) showed 100% when fully charged and like my other devices do!

I have found that the battery doesn't seem to last as long as it did on my Surface1 - that is just a general observation and there's nothing scientific to show this! Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid that something isn't right with the battery!?

Has anyone else noticed this?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[Dave T.]

The other guys in here probably know a lot more about this than me, as I am new to the Surface too.

Anyhow, when I first go my Surface, I cycled the battery all the way down until it shutdown. Then I charged it all the way up. I went through that process the first 2 time I use it. It charges to 100% every time, and battery life has been good for me... about 8 1/2 hours.

 

[ctitanic]

If your brand new battery is not charging up to 100% something is wrong. Please contact tech support.

 

[joeka]

Thanks both. I thought that something might be wrong, but I just wanted to be sure before contacting tech support. I was also interested to know if anyone else might have been experiencing the same issue.

 

[joeka]

Contacted Surface Support (in the UK) - they are very good... Friendly, informative and not at all patronising.

Anyway, they agreed it sounded like a hardware fault, my Surface2 was barely a month old so I've actually just contacted the retailer (John Lewis) and they've agreed to replace.

I did learn an interesting tip though, which I thought I'd share... You can run a battery report, which actually looks quite complete and informative - to do this...

1. Swipe from right to show charms bar
2. Hit search and type: powercfg /batteryreport
3. On the top item that shows, hold down for a second or so, and select "Run as administrator"
4. The report will then be saved to: C:\Windows\System32\battery-report.html

Hope this proves useful to others... Happy battery reporting!

 

[deldalton]

Contacted Surface Support (in the UK) - they are very good... Friendly, informative and not at all patronising.

Anyway, they agreed it sounded like a hardware fault, my Surface2 was barely a month old so I've actually just contacted the retailer (John Lewis) and they've agreed to replace.

I did learn an interesting tip though, which I thought I'd share... You can run a battery report, which actually looks quite complete and informative - to do this...

1. Swipe from right to show charms bar
2. Hit search and type: powercfg /batteryreport
3. On the top item that shows, hold down for a second or so, and select "Run as administrator"
4. The report will then be saved to: C:\Windows\System32\battery-report.html

Hope this proves useful to others... Happy battery reporting!

This sounds fun! I'll try it this evening ...

 

[D1vad]

Contacted Surface Support (in the UK) - they are very good... Friendly, informative and not at all patronising.

Anyway, they agreed it sounded like a hardware fault, my Surface2 was barely a month old so I've actually just contacted the retailer (John Lewis) and they've agreed to replace.

I did learn an interesting tip though, which I thought I'd share... You can run a battery report, which actually looks quite complete and informative - to do this...

1. Swipe from right to show charms bar
2. Hit search and type: powercfg /batteryreport
3. On the top item that shows, hold down for a second or so, and select "Run as administrator"
4. The report will then be saved to: C:\Windows\System32\battery-report.html

Hope this proves useful to others... Happy battery reporting!

Great information!
It seems however on my Surface Pro 2 that one must copy/move the file from C:\Windows\System\ to the desktop (or another location) to access the battery-report.html file, at least for me in that location IE can't access it.

 

[joeka]

Arrrggghhhh... It's happened again!

Left my Surface 2 charging all day... have just come to use it and notice it is only charging to 99% again. With in 10mins it's down to 97% already and that's doing nothing more than doing a battery report and checking these forums.

This has only been it's 5th complete charge since I got my replacement! What's going on.... this is soooo annoying.... could I be that unlucky to get two faulty S2 tablets... with the same fault?! Maybe it's from a dodgy batch... Has anybody else had this issue?

I also notice when plugging the charger back in at 97%, it now says "plugged in, not charging".

Will try giving MS another call later in the week to see if they can shed any light on it... but I'll no doubt be sending this one back to get my replacement!

 

[TheIVJackal]

So what ended up happening with this? I also notice my battery does not charge to 100% (stops at 99%), I did not know this was a problem as I had read around online that batteries won't allow themselves to fully charge to avoid overpowering and high-voltage damage. I'm gonna run the battery test as soon as I can, thanks.
- Aaron

 

[joeka]

What happened... well, not a lot really!

Spoke to MS support again - they basically just said that shouldn't be happening (etc, etc) and suggested taking it back for a refund/replacement or they would send me out a new (well, re-conditioned) device. The usual thing, basically.

Since then, what I have discovered is there seems to be a bit of a pattern... No where near full-proof and not at all scientific - just some personal observations...

The device is more likely to stop charging at 99% if I let it drain to about 6% - i.e. to the point where the Surface2 will shut itself down.

The device will generally always charge to 100% if I "top up" the charge, rather than charge it from empty all the time.

When the device only charges to 99%, the battery discharges much quicker, relatively speaking - purely based on general observations.

I should really try paying closer attention to the battery report at all these different instances - this may very help determine how much charge the battery is holding each time... And I should probably have this device sent back and get a replacement, but in all honesty, I've just got a bit tired of this issue... I just want to get on with using my device now.

Apart from this battery issue, on the whole I really do like and enjoy using my Surface2. Now that I seem to have a better idea of the issue, I guess I can just work with it now and haven't found it to be such an issue as I first did.

Hope that is of some use - more than happy to help out where I can.

 

[TheIVJackal]

Ok, so I ran the battery report and it said that the design capacity is 31,659mwh but my full battery capacity is 30,968mwh. Also, during active use, has a 7-1/2hr battery life. This is on 5 charge cycles. Any thoughts on this? How do I reach that magical 10hr+ battery life? Any experience with battery life watching movies? Thanks.

 

[joeka]

Ok, so I ran the battery report and it said that the design capacity is 31,659mwh but my full battery capacity is 30,968mwh. Also, during active use, has a 7-1/2hr battery life. This is on 5 charge cycles. Any thoughts on this? How do I reach that magical 10hr+ battery life? Any experience with battery life watching movies? Thanks.

When I run a battery report, I get a similar reading - the design capacity is higher than the current full battery capacity, but I believe that is relatively normal. I'm no battery expert, but from what I understand, as soon as the battery leaves the factory it's capacity basically starts to deteriorate. IIRC, I have been through about 20 charge cycles, but I'll have to check my readings again when I'm back home.

On my first S2 device, which had the same "only charging to 99%" issue. When I rang MS Support the first time and they showed me how to do the battery report, my original reading said that the current battery capacity was HIGHER than the design capacity - but it still only ever charged to 99%!?

Personally, I find watching videos on my S2 to be very battery friendly, but I couldn't give you any definitive times.