i7 battery drain whilst plugged in

[Mike007]

Hi guys.

Recently bought the i7-16gb-256gb version Surface pro 4 and spent the last few days setting everything up and testing. What a beast!

I think I may have an issue with the power supply though so I wanted to ask other i7 owners if they experience a similar problem to me.

When playing a few games with the power supply plugged in, I'm noticing the battery is draining pretty fast (25% ish per hour while gaming, all while still plugged in)

It even drains slowly when running something CPU intensive like handbrake when converting videos. But, when idling, it goes back to charging as normal.

I installed batterybar to see if I could find any more info and it shows that whilst gaming, it's draining at a rate of about -9000mwh

I realise this unit uses hybrid power but, surely not to this extent?

Do you guys experience this or is my adapter faulty?

 

[leeshor]

If you aren't doing anything but charging how long does it typically take? My guess is you could have a bad charger.

I removed your other post since it was a duplicate. (cross posting)

 

[sharpuser]

Sounds like a bad charger. Battery should not be draining faster than resupply. That means by extrapolation that your device will not work plugged in (battery depleted).

 

[Mike007]

Sounds like a bad charger. Battery should not be draining faster than resupply. That means by extrapolation that your device will not work plugged in (battery depleted).

It only drains when running something intensive, so plugged in and not doing anything just charges it as normal.

If you aren't doing anything but charging how long does it typically take? My guess is you could have a bad charger.

It seems to charge normally from flat to full in about 2.30 to 3 hours

 

[sharpuser]

It only drains when running something intensive, so plugged in and not doing anything just charges it as normal.



It seems to charge normally from flat to full in about 2.30 to 3 hours

It is not normal, and it is unacceptable to have a charger which cannot keep up with intensive use.

It is also bad for your battery.

What is the wattage of the charger you are using?

 

[Mike007]

It is not normal, and it is unacceptable to have a charger which cannot keep up with intensive use.

What is the wattage of the charger you are using?

It is the standard 36w one as far as I can see. (the one that comes in the original sealed box)

 

[leeshor]

Everything sounds OK except for the not keeping up part. Strange.

 

[Mike007]

I think I have figured out what is happening, The i7 CPU has a 25w TDP so when running games, it is using 10 watts over what the power supply can handle. (Intel XTU shows it using 25w)

If I limit the CPU to use 15w only like the i5 version and run the same game again, the battery doesn't drain because the adapter has enough power and the surface doesn't need to take extra from it.

I wonder if we can buy a higher wattage PSU?

 

[starstreak]

Yes you can. There's a 65watt unit. Its the one that the Surface Book w/GPU comes with.

 

[Mike007]

Yes you can. There's a 65watt unit. Its the one that the Surface Book w/GPU comes with.

Shame... Not available in UK at the moment. I think they are released in April over here.