A Surface Pro 3 Battery Problem Costs 500 To Fix

Some Surface Pro 3 users are finding themselves in a pickle because of battery problems with their device. And while the blame rests with Microsoft, those same users are being presented with only one option: pay $500 to get it fixed.

This has much to do with a specific type of Surface Pro 3 battery, the Simplo battery. The first batch of Surface Pro 3 devices were shipped with this battery, but after that Microsoft decided to go with the LGC battery. The Simplo batteries appear to have several problems from faulty sleep states to the battery becoming almost useless after a year of use. And since many of these problems are popping up now, way outside the Surface Pro 3’s one year warranty, this forces users to either pay $500 to fix it or decide to get a new computer.

On May 11, Kridsada Thanabulpong posted a complaint about the Surface Pro 3 battery problems on the Microsoft Answers forum:

After failing to get the help he needed, Kridsada posted again with the following:

I’ve been using Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for a year, and shortly after the warranty expired I noticed my Surface Pro 3 can only last about 1-2 hours after a full charge… Talk with Microsoft via chat support and they insist this was a software problem and reinstalled the driver and asked me to wait few days to see if things improve. Not only it didn’t improved, but now my Surface can only last 30 minutes.

Whether or not he will pay the $560 to get the Surface Pro 3 fixed is up in the air right now. We know we wouldn’t because this is clearly the blame is on Redmond.

Thank you for your suggestion to talk to Assisted Support. Unfortunately, their suggestion even after all this is to do the out of warranty exchange ($560 in my local currency) which is just sad. I loved the machine the moment I tried it in the store, and paperweight-when-not-plugged-in definitely wasn’t what I expected it to be in a year after purchase.

The Surface Pro 3 now ships with Windows 10 installed in case you’re thinking about getting one. Furthermore, a new firmware update was released for the device two months ago.