I'm still having battery drain issues... Post here if you do too!

[Dadstar0410]

We'll solve this problem together. I am still having poor battery life when my Surface is asleep. Something is STILL running in the background and continuously draining my battery.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I used to complain about this too till recently. But there are some measures that I think will help.

First, turn off the camera if you don't use it.

Second - and this is probably the most important - turn off those live tiles which you don't use. I have only kept the most essential live tiles on and I have seen better battery life.

Third, experiment with turning off and on the BT radio - some people say that keeping it on helps (counterintuitive suggestion and is apparently connected to the Connected Standby mode of the SoC of the Surface 2) - others say keep it off (which is in line with conventional wisdom - any actively seeking radio will expend energy).

Hope this helps!

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I have found that live tile updates cause a non-trivial battery drain to occur... particularly those that require internet access. The only ones that I keep active are: Mail, Calendar, Weather, Store, and Flipboard.

 

[strikeswp]

Any other tips on this? I am beginning to realize that I can't expect the same standby time as I had with my iPad. I could leave my iPad in standby for weeks while my Surface RT will die after a few days to a weeks time.

Live tiles disabled, Bluetooth radio disabled still the same drain.

 

[Dadstar0410]

Any other tips on this? I am beginning to realize that I can't expect the same standby time as I had with my iPad. I could leave my iPad in standby for weeks while my Surface RT will die after a few days to a weeks time.

Live tiles disabled, Bluetooth radio disabled still the same drain.

I realized that either Bluetooth or a battery-drinking tile must be the issue. That, or unused notification allowances.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Any other tips on this? I am beginning to realize that I can't expect the same standby time as I had with my iPad. I could leave my iPad in standby for weeks while my Surface RT will die after a few days to a weeks time.

Live tiles disabled, Bluetooth radio disabled still the same drain.

Hmmm...odd. Co-incidentally, I was today timing the battery life on my Surface 2. I started working at 10:00AM. Work consisted of one Word document open and active all the time. Working with the Modern UI browser (2 tabs open - looking up stuff on search engines (Bing and Google) and following through on links), Wifi on all the time (the Surface was continually tethered to my phone), BT was off, OneDrive was open all the time and I was constantly saving the document I was working on to it, Mail App was open and syncing with 3 accounts (one constantly, the other two set to check every 30 mins), brightness set at around 40% with auto-dim on. I worked straight through till 4:00PM (exactly) with 2 10-minute breaks during which everything was open/ on, but the screen -after 3 mins went dark (which is what I have deliberately set). I started with 100% battery at 10:00AM and ended with 52% at 4PM. Between 4 and 5:30PM I was in a meeting. The Surface was on my desk for that period of time - OneDrive, Browser and Word were closed, but WiFi was on as was the Mail app. I got back home at 6:30PM. I left the Wifi on during the time in transit. At 8:00PM I had a Skype meeting for 30 mins. When I was done, the battery was on 46%.

As for Live Tiles, I have the following on: Calendar, Mail, Skype, and a third party Clock app. I think the News App is also on because whenever I connect either to a WiFi network or tether to my phone (in other words, whenever I get online), I always get a toast notification of "breaking news".

By my reckoning - based on the above - it means that I could work for about 10 hours and see my battery level at around 20%, which I think is not too bad.

 

[strikeswp]

That's awesome. Yeah, I don't have any complaints about the battery life when actively using the Surface RT, however, it's the standby or sleep mode if you will that bothers me. I will sometimes leave my surface in my bag for 3 to 5 days without using it and will come back to a dead battery.

Hmmm...odd. Co-incidentally, I was today timing the battery life on my Surface 2. I started working at 10:00AM. Work consisted of one Word document open and active all the time. Working with the Modern UI browser (2 tabs open - looking up stuff on search engines (Bing and Google) and following through on links), Wifi on all the time (the Surface was continually tethered to my phone), BT was off, OneDrive was open all the time and I was constantly saving the document I was working on to it, Mail App was open and syncing with 3 accounts (one constantly, the other two set to check every 30 mins), brightness set at around 40% with auto-dim on. I worked straight through till 4:00PM (exactly) with 2 10-minute breaks during which everything was open/ on, but the screen -after 3 mins went dark (which is what I have deliberately set). I started with 100% battery at 10:00AM and ended with 52% at 4PM. Between 4 and 5:30PM I was in a meeting. The Surface was on my desk for that period of time - OneDrive, Browser and Word were closed, but WiFi was on as was the Mail app. I got back home at 6:30PM. I left the Wifi on during the time in transit. At 8:00PM I had a Skype meeting for 30 mins. When I was done, the battery was on 46%.

As for Live Tiles, I have the following on: Calendar, Mail, Skype, and a third party Clock app. I think the News App is also on because whenever I connect either to a WiFi network or tether to my phone (in other words, whenever I get online), I always get a toast notification of "breaking news".

By my reckoning - based on the above - it means that I could work for about 10 hours and see my battery level at around 20%, which I think is not too bad.

 

[strikeswp]

I'll give it a shot and test it over the next few days.

I realized that either Bluetooth or a battery-drinking tile was the issue for me. Try going into each app's settings and disabling notifications for the ones you don't care about.

 

[Dadstar0410]

That's awesome. Yeah, I don't have any complaints about the battery life when actively using the Surface RT, however, it's the standby or sleep mode if you will that bothers me. I will sometimes leave my surface in my bag for 3 to 5 days without using it and will come back to a dead battery.

That's the ONLY problem with mine, too! Although mine would be dead the next day. I don't know what the issue is, but I think I slightly reduced it by disabling some live tiles.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Well, as far as I can tell, I lose about 4% over an 8-hour period in connected standby mode.

 

[Dadstar0410]

Well, as far as I can tell, I lose about 4% over an 8-hour period in connected standby mode.

What're your parameters, i.e. BT on, how many/which live tiles active, etc?

 

[kristalsoldier]

What're your parameters, i.e. BT on, how many/which live tiles active, etc?

See post # 6; BT off; WIFI on.

 

[Dadstar0410]

I wish I had those results. After finagling around with settings and tweaks, etc., I think I minimized active battery drain, but something in the background is still draining battery.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I wish I had those results. I think I minimized active battery drain, but something in the background is still draining battery.

Also make sure that your apps are actually closed. Swiping apps downward doesn't always terminate them. To ensure that apps are truly terminated, swipe down and hold your finger at the bottom of the screen until the faded rectangle of the app "flips over" then release your finger.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I wish I had those results. I think I minimized active battery drain, but something in the background is still draining battery.

What apps do you have? And also try to consistently do what WillysJeepMan suggests. I should have mentioned it - I do this all the time. I don't know, however, if it makes a difference given that you are talking about Connected Standby time rather than Active Use.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

What apps do you have? And also try to consistently do what WillysJeepMan suggests. I should have mentioned it - I do this all the time. I don't know, however, if it makes a difference given that you are talking about Connected Standby time rather than Active Use.

It made a difference to me. Before doing that, I was averaging between 8-9% battery drain over 8 hours of standby. After getting into that habit (and being selective about which live tiles updated), it dropped to about 4.

 

[Dadstar0410]

Could the performance/resource monitor help me find the culprit?

 

[Elvis7]

My surface rt seems to be telling me: no battery detected .. while being on battery... help?

 

[darkrothaus]

Also still / continuosly having massive battery drain while in Standby.
I'm not using the Surface RT on a daily basis and I'm so often ending up wanting to use it with a dead battery.
Looking at my "powercfg /sleepstudy" also doesn't really give me a clue.
This example shows pretty much what I'm seeing - 50% battery damage for 20h Standby. Compared to my iPad3 this is just ridiculous.

Connected Standby Session 2
START TIME DURATION ENERGY CHANGE CHANGE RATE % LOW POWER STATE TIME
2 2014-03-13 17:26:01 20:44:21 14,433 mWh 50% of battery 696 mW Drain 96%

 

[Will6371]

I didn't use my RT for just over 12 hours and lost 6%

Have you tried Microsoft to get a replacement?