Fix for Surface Pro 3 Battery Issues is on the Way, Microsoft Says

Good news for anxious Surface Pro 3 users: Microsoft says it has “confirmed” that it can fix ongoing battery life issues with a software update and that that fix is currently being tested.

“We heard your feedback on SP3 battery,” Microsoft’s Panos Panay tweeted today. “Confirmed we can address with a software update and we’re testing a fix now.”

Issues with Surface Pro 3 batteries came to light in July when a Microsoft Answers forum swelled with complaints. Reported issues range from battery degradation—where the battery life is just a small percentage of its previous lasting power—to complete failure, where the devices simply won’t power on unless attached to power.

Microsoft acknowledged that they were investigating the issue a month ago, and said it suspected that a software fix would make things right.

But Microsoft has been quiet since then.

And adding to the drama, Microsoft has repeatedly shipped Surface Pro 3 firmware updates since then—after ignoring the device for months—and many of those updates were battery related. For example, a July 22 firmware update “increased battery life during sleep mode” and “improved system sleep and hibernation behavior when battery level is low.” And an August 2 firmware update“improved stability and performance when changing between power states.”

But Microsoft said that none of these updates addressed the issues users were reporting. Today, however, the firm posted to the Microsoft Answers support forum with the following message.

“We can now confirm that this Surface Pro 3 battery capacity question is not a hardware issue, but one that can be addressed with a software update. Our team has been working on, and is now testing, an update that will address this. We’ll publish the update as soon as it has passed our quality assurance process. For now, you should not consider replacing your device as an update is pending.”

So stay tuned, folks. We’ll see if this really works soon enough.