Surface 3 Charging

[GreyFox7]

I think the problems of Surface 3 charging can be attributed to the limitations of micro USB in general. The connectors and contacts are pretty small so a bad connection can easily occur. The power requirements of the Surface 3 is pushing the limits of micro USB charging so any suboptimal link in the chain diminishes the results. It just works doesn't apply. More like, "it's just temperamental and flakey" and that's not what you want.
Surface 4 will do away with micro USB charging and everyone will cheer.

 

[Zippy0n]

Anyone's battery pretty much halfed since updating to windows 10? not sure if this should go in that sub forum....I know its kinda obvious but can Microsoft actually fix this? I mean on 8.1 I had around 8 hours of battery, now its 4 at most.....

 

[GreyFox7]

Anyone's battery pretty much halfed since updating to windows 10? not sure if this should go in that sub forum....I know its kinda obvious but can Microsoft actually fix this? I mean on 8.1 I had around 8 hours of battery, now its 4 at most.....

I believe W10 will achieve near equal, possibly better, battery performance in time. now is not that time. When it will be is anyone's guess. Id guess 3-6 months.

 

[Zippy0n]

Let's hope so! right now 50% of what I had before isnt the best...im assuming you have a Pro 3? has the battery suffered on that too?

 

[GreyFox7]

Let's hope so! right now 50% of what I had before isnt the best...im assuming you have a Pro 3? has the battery suffered on that too?

Battery problems are across the board... if it's got a battery and W10 it's doubling the energy draw on the grid

 

[stammie]

I would disagree with Win 10 depleting battery life, turning off many features of it I don't need (most especially background apps) I'd say its increased my battery life by a small amount, 30 minutes to one hour.
its also eliminated any "plugged in not charging" reports from the battery pack I've posted about elsewhere in this thread, that's now just working, albeit using the USB cable that came with my Surface 3.
I've complained about Microsoft and Windows for what but be at least at least 2 decades and feel I should be doing the same for Windows 10 but apart from a few quirks (which really are the OS doing things differently) I'm struggling to fault it across not only my Surface 3 but two other computers I've upgraded to it.
I don't know if it makes a difference but all 3 PC's I've upgraded to Windows 10 including my Surface 3 (which I applied an unused key to) have been upgraded to the Pro version rather than the Home one.

 

[Zippy0n]

Fair enough, I reinstalled windows 10 and the battery seems to be telling me different things, right now (refer to screenshot) its around 2 hours left with 43% battery left with battery saver ON, with it OFF I'm getting roughly the same time. What/How do you turn off the features your describing?

 

[lookingforward]

Windows 10 did not fix the randomly occurring 'plugged in, not charging problem' for me. But today I received a 10ft 20AWG PortaPow MicroUSB and over the past hour, it seems to be charging steadily between 4-5000mW with the OEM charging brick. I will update later.

 

[Zippy0n]

What made you go for the 10ft version? I got the 150 cm porta pow and got similar results to you but that was with 8.1

 

[lookingforward]

I bought the 10ft version because when I must be tethered while it is charging, I like not worrying about where I am sitting, lying, or standing in relation to an outlet. If I feel like using the S3 in bed and the outlet is at the foot of the bed, I can still reach that no problem! And hey, if they are giving us a microUSB as a charging port for flexibility reasons (I would have preferred USB-Type C or a magnetic connector), I might as well as take advantage of it! The PortaPower cable is working great btw. No more "plugged in, not charging" events! I also like how pliable the cable is even though it is a 20AWG.

 

[Zippy0n]

Ahhhh I see. I just assumed the longer the cable the more resistance so it wouldn't charge as well potentially, say with a shorter cable

 

[DesmondKong]

New surface reporting in from Malaysia! Had been using less than a week then the charger fried. Could smell that something burnt inside the charger. Didn't manage to fully charge the tablet overnight. Now I'm using the iPad 10W Charger. It does the job well [I charged overnight] but i'm aware of the "not charging" issue whenever the tablet isn't put to sleep. Is the Asus 5V 2.0A/15V 1.2A charger working? Looking forward to purchase one. Sending the original charger back to the retailer later.

Ah the charger still supplies power but the charging light flickers at a very high frequency. That's it. The surface didn't detect anything. Tried charging my S6 and Xperia. Nothing. Powered an optical mouse. Very unsteady light. Kinda disappointed with the quality.