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Surface Pro 3 has a weak charger and power system ?

kevinlevrone

Active Member
Hi,

Today I had my tablet in a cold car trunk for like half an hour, the battery was already empty. After I arrived to work, I waited about 10 min. until the tablet was at room temperature and then connected the charger and tried to start it. Nevertheless, it worked for like 20 seconds and then suddenly stopped. Tried again, the same. I let the charger on for 5 minutes and then it started normally.

My conclusion is that the charger (and the SP3 power system) cannot support running the SP3 without a battery having at least some minimal charge. The same thing happens with my Asus T100, only much worse.

For once, I think that the charger connector of the SP3 is of lower quality than the SP2. Magnet is weaker and the pins are very thin, the SP2 had a strong magnet and solid pins. So choosing a possible alternative charger with higher current I'm not sure would solve this problem.
 
10 minutes is not enough time for the battery to be completely warmed, there's nothing worse than a cold battery.
 
The poweradapter is strong enough. In windows settings it is set that the computer will hibernate at 5% energy, the setting is the same for battery and power. If you want to avoid this, you must change it in the powerplan settings.
 
upload_2015-3-6_18-43-27.png
 
in a cold car trunk for like half an hour
What's cold ? -20°C


BTW, does the Surface 3 have Sensors for Battery Temperature? Every Android phone has them and shows them in the right app, what about the Surface 3? Anyone ever saw one?
 
What's cold ? -20°C


BTW, does the Surface 3 have Sensors for Battery Temperature? Every Android phone has them and shows them in the right app, what about the Surface 3? Anyone ever saw one?

Yes, -20C is cold. You shouldn't charge a lithium-ion battery below 0C or above 45C.

I'm sure it must have a sensor for battery temperature.
 
Just had the exact same thing happening to me, but not because of the cold but rather a fully empty battery.
Was doing a virus scan and used the battery till totally empty! Saw the 6% warning, a second later the 4% warning came up, and the computer shut down.
half hour later i plugged the charger and turned my tablet on.
Entered password... screen was total dark because that was the last setting i used, increased brightness... BAMM Tablet offline.
So i was like... WTF?.... and restarted, same thing happened again.
Let it charge for 5 minutes, turn it on an i'm on 3% battery and charging.

so i guess a really cold battery does have the same low voltage problems as a completly empty battery :)
 
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