Bowman: A battery depleted Surface can’t be charged from the Surface Dock

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Interesting observation from Barb Bowman, on digitalmediaphile. The reason why this is happening is that the power supply of the dock (although it is
[See the full post at: Bowman: A battery depleted Surface can’t be charged from the Surface Dock]

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No dock here, but sounds like Surface Pro batteries are a liability. My recent experience: perfectly fine Surface Pro 3 spontaneously went black in the middle of typing email.  Took to MS store, they said the battery wore out and if the battery is dead, it can’t be used even when plugged into AC.  Of course that’s not replaceable, so it’s now a brick. This was my second Surface Pro 3, in use since 2015.  First one mysteriously shattered in a padded backpack that fell 18in. I opted for an Inspiron 13 hybrid this time — still ultra-thin, but less fragile, better specs/dollar, multiple USB ports (duh), and no kickstand nonsense.

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GoneToPlaid

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Good fortune with your Inspiron computer purchase! You should still be able to use it if the battery capacity changes from great to kaput, while connected to an AC adapter like the majority of other original equipment manufacturer’s machines. (Do certain models of Apple Macbooks & Air computers work while powered by AC adapters with a malfunctioning battery?)

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We actually had a similar issue today.  Had a user say that she received a message on her screen saying that her tablet was plugged in but not charging, and that she had 5% battery left.  Plugging it in with a normal charger for a bit, then back to the dock resolved the issue.  Still not sure how it got down to 5% in the first place if it was docked…

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I’ve seen this issue for months now, actually surprised it’s just being reported here.

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According to the comments here and elsewhere, it seems as though the dock was only meant to keep a battery “topped off”. From experience, a 500 milliamp charger will keep an iPhone’s 6 battery from discharging faster but fails to add any capacity while in use.

I have a theory, perhaps what may have happened to the user mentioned in #213545 is that her Surface computer changed to using a high performance power state and that depleted her battery while connected to the dock. Any other surface users have an idea if it is a good theory?

The surface dock appears to be large enough to have a somewhat higher power supply placed inside the case, unless this thing has been torndown to see the parts.

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Aw, whatever. The upshot quite simply is inherently bad engineering of the hardware.

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Bill C.

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Or cheaper engineering of the hardware.

cheers, Paul

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