Firmware fix for Surface Pro 3 battery life bug is now available

Surface Pro 3 owners who have been plagued by battery issues in recent months can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Microsoft has released a fix for the problem, which takes care of the bug responsible for the widespread reports of severely diminished battery life.

Back in July, many Surface Pro 3 owners began to experience a massive decrease in the length of time that their system’s battery would last. Microsoft claims its tablet offers nine hours of usage from a single charge, but devices were running out of power after just one or two hours.

It was soon determined that only systems using batteries from a company called SIMPLO were affected, while batteries from LG were largely immune to the issues. By late July, Microsoft confirmed that the battery problem was related to firmware, and stated that a patch would negate the need for a costly hardware replacement effort.

Just over a month later, Microsoft has released a firmware update that seems to eliminate the problem. Users can download the patch from this page on the company’s website, or use Windows Update to grab the fix.

The source of these battery woes: a situation where the maximum charge of affected batteries was not being properly recorded, according to a report from Ars Technica. The device would erroneously think that its battery was full, and wouldn’t accept any further charge from the outlet.

Users are advised to charge their device beyond the 40 percent mark before installing the update, and to ensure that the system is plugged into an AC power source throughout the procedure. While the patch should yield some improvement immediately, it may take several cycles for the battery to make a full recovery.