Worst battery powered device ever, my SP3...

[OppfinnarJocke]

The Surface Pro 3 is by far the worst battery powered computing device that I have ever had. Every time that I pick it up, the battery is depleted and it needs to be charged. It doesn't matter if the SP3 has just been laying around doing nothing since last it was charged, the battery is empty!

And this is my second SP3 since I broke the screen on the earlier one and the insurance payed me a new one. The other one was just as bad... every time I picked it up, the first thing I had to do was charge it.

I ran the powercfg with the /batteryreport, /sleepstudy, and /energy switches, but those files do not tell me much. Some error is reported, "CPU Utilizationrocessor utilization is high", but it doesn't tell me anything but that CPU utilization is high. Brilliant!

No, I find that I use the SP3 less and less, since I have to charge it every time I pick it up. I can just as well use my mobile to surf the web, FB, whatever, that one happily runs on battery for a whole day and more, no problem. Maybe Android manages power better than W10...

Thanks for listening.

 

[hughlle]

Return it as faulty then. Mine gets 9-10 hours just great.

However it does sound like to me, your issue is windows 10, not the surface pro 3. Windows 10 is very much an issue for many regarding battery life, however recent updates (i'm on fast track insider ring so can't say if it is for insiders, or everyone) are supposed to have solved this. I certainly don't have the issues you state above, which up until a few weeks ago, i also encountered. EAsiest solution is to just shut it down instead of putting it to sleep.

Or just install windows 8.1 and have a perfectly functioning computer. But as i say, i've an sp3, with a fully updated insider build of windows 10, and it easily gets 9 hours for my partners typical usage scenario.

 

[OppfinnarJocke]

9 hours... I wish!
Yesterday I set my power plan to hibernate when I push the power button (was previously on sleep). Then I charged the battery to 100%, disconnected from AC and shut down. This morning, like 10 hours later, I start up the SP3 and the battery is at 70%. I have now used the SP3 for reading news, no videos, for like 45 minutes, and battery is now at 60%!

W8.1...? A big no thanks, I never understood w8.1, I think w10 works much better from a user perspective, using it was like wading through waist-deep snow. And I cannot recall that I had better battery life with W8.1.

Thanks.

BTW, battery is now at 58%, so simply writing this post I lost 2% battery.

 

[GreyFox7]

Either you have something constantly using CPU, Network, Disk or it's defective. learn to use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and powercfg. Also see Who ate the battery Windows 10?

And don't run the screen at 100% you'll go blind.

 

[hughlle]

If you lose 30% power overnight when it is shut down (not put to sleep/hibernate) then I suggest returning it to Microsoft as a warranty claim.

 

[Chuck_IV]

If you are losing battery power when the thing is even in hibernate, there's something wrong.

Windows 10 will also hurt your battery usage. Running windows 8.1 will definitely help.

And btw, I'm sure the 9 hours that is mentioned above is not constant use. The battery will not last for 9 hours of constant use, even on 8.1.

 

[hughlle]

If you are losing battery power when the thing is even in hibernate, there's something wrong.

Windows 10 will also hurt your battery usage. Running windows 8.1 will definitely help.

And btw, I'm sure the 9 hours that is mentioned above is not constant use. The battery will not last for 9 hours of constant use, even on 8.1.

I get that with constant use (onenote and word). As to windows 10 and battery life, I think that things are now just fine. I was watching a film outside last night while having a bbq, after exactly 1 hour, on 50% screen brightness for 30 minutes and then upto 75% for the next 30 minutes , i was down to 92%.

 

[ramiss]

9 hours asleep is pitiful. I get several days easily. Of course, as has been mentioned, it all depends on what is waking up the computer.

 

[Chuck_IV]

I get that with constant use (onenote and word). As to windows 10 and battery life, I think that things are now just fine. I was watching a film outside last night while having a bbq, after exactly 1 hour, on 50% screen brightness for 30 minutes and then upto 75% for the next 30 minutes , i was down to 92%.

The screen doesn't stay lit the entire time tho. It's gotta go to sleep at times during the day. If you are telling me the screen stays on 100% of the time and still lasts 9 hours, I have a hard time believing that.

Anyway, unfortunatley, there still is a noticeable fall off in battery with W10 compared to W8.1. W10 seems better than it used to be, but still doesn't match the life I got with W8.1.

I honestly think W10 will never match W8.1 in battery life. There is too much behind the scene things going on with W10. Heck, there are quite a few threads with people trying to get 8.1 running on a SP4. That should tell you something right there.

I'm still debating whether to go back(again) to W8.1 because of the battery length as well as I still don't feel the touch mode in W10 is as convenient as the way W8.1 is set up. What is holding me back is I would need to do a complete reset to get back there and don't really feel like doing it right now.

 

[hughlle]

The screen doesn't stay lit the entire time tho. It's gotta go to sleep at times during the day. If you are telling me the screen stays on 100% of the time and still lasts 9 hours, I have a hard time believing that.

Anyway, unfortunatley, there still is a noticeable fall off in battery with W10 compared to W8.1. W10 seems better than it used to be, but still doesn't match the life I got with W8.1.

I honestly think W10 will never match W8.1 in battery life. There is too much behind the scene things going on with W10. Heck, there are quite a few threads with people trying to get 8.1 running on a SP4. That should tell you something right there.

I'm still debating whether to go back(again) to W8.1 because of the battery length as well as I still don't feel the touch mode in W10 is as convenient as the way W8.1 is set up. What is holding me back is I would need to do a complete reset to get back there and don't really feel like doing it right now.

I wouldn't own the device (well I no longer do, I gave it to my parter when i got the sp4, but still use it here and there) if it could not manage it. It is a key requirement for my university work. I can't stand the whole pen button for onenote, so i keep the machine on the whole time. Granted, a lot of the time it is simply displaying text, no actual interaction with the device, but I keep it on just in case (my teachers tend to go at a pretty swift pace). I'll add i always work with flightmode enabled, and battery saver enabled, because it makes no sense for me not to. I don't go to university for a social life, I ignore any and everyone and focus on working.

And i should correct myself. Regarding the 92% battery after an hour of video, that was not the sp3 but the S3, so feel free to ignore that. Skylake is one potential issue with battery life, but on the S3, I honestly can't see any difference whatsoever. A lot of the people trying to install 8.1 on the sp4 are not doing it for battery life, they're doing it because no different than 7 vs 8.1, there is still a big divide, and a whole lot of people want nothing to do with windows 10.

 

[Jay Marino]

My battery life was terrible until I completely overhauled the settings. I would get maybe three hours on a full charge, and that was on battery saver and simply visiting websites to pay bills and do work. It wasn't like I was rendering 3D images or anything.

 

[BOBEL]

RETURN TO MICROSOFT NOW!!
MICROSOFT IN RETURN GAVE ME A NEW PRO 3