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Surface Book Battery 1 Not Present

Hello,

I purchased my Surface Book in 2016 and it has been working perfectly until the past few weeks. The tablet battery (1) says it's "Not Present" and isn't charging and the keyboard battery is charged completely. Because of this, it won't allow me to detach the tablet, which isn't my biggest concern. I only get 3-4 hours off the keyboard battery which is difficult as a college student. 

I have tried the UEFI boot restart like mentioned in previous articles, restarting the laptop normally, flipping the charger around in the port and wiping it down, running the diagnostic tool, and the power trouble shoot in settings. 

Unfortunately my warranty has expired since then, so please advise me in anyway possible!

Thank you!

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If you look at the picture I uploaded when I took apart the tablet portion of the surface book, I found that the screws which are responsible for holding the motherboard against the battery are not catching on the motherboard itself but some washers of smaller internal diameter than the motherboard holes which are soldered to the bottom of the motherboard. Here is a sketch: This means the only way to fix the problem is by disassembling the surface and resoldering the screw washers and taking care not to deform the device in any- way afterward. This is a poor engineering choice from microsoft especially on a device with a gap between the screen and the keyboard which means the screen is bound to bend inward when in a bag etc.  It is interesting that the iPhone 6 had similar flexion based damage, but it was the solder on the chipsets breaking loose from slight bends but not the board itself. 

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As far as I know I think the surface book 2 motherboard is held on in the same way, likely prone to the same type of failure. The 15inch has more screws holding down the motherboard so a battery disconnection is less likely, but I would recommend a surface pro over a surface book 2 just to be sure. 

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...or the macbook pro 16“. As they finally changed the keyboard the MBP is back on the radar. After the extremely horrible experience with the cheap quality of Microsoft devices I‘m more than happy apple came up with a good device again. 

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Well, for me the lack of touchscreen, pen support and having to learn Mac OS (not to mention the absurd temperatures the CPU runs at) I'm still gonna stick with Surface devices. I really hope they dial up their quality control so this never happens again, although this problem is never gonna happen on Surface Pro devices.  Oh, and the surface laptop is never going to have any reliability problems since it's a regular laptop formfactor. 

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Don't keep disconnecting the power, i damaged my User Interface file and triggered logonui.exe to fail each time at startup until i run flash drive recovery. Now my touchpad and half of my touchscreen does not respond.

(frustration)

Mike.

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For anyone with this issue, I advise you to find a independent 3rd party repair centre with a good reputation to re-solder the motherboard screw washers and replace the batteries while you're at it. This is the only option to fix the problem (other than a out-of-warranty exchange). I have confirmed with staff of Microsoft Store London that all the units they replace (in or out of warranty) will be brand new machines made specifically for the purpose of warranty replacement, despite the T&C claiming that refurbished machines could be sent. You can check this by viewing the battery health and SSD power on time, used units will have a lower battery full charge capacity than designed capacity and more than a few hours of SSD power on time. 

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Ah nice to see that I am not the only one. This thread has been very useful, learning that it is a definite hardware problem where mine too doesn't detect battery 1 unless I apply pressure onto the back. I tried speaking to tech support but after all failed, they could only offer me an exchange for a device I had just under a year (excluding my first month where I had to get a replacement, so pushing me out of warranty). I would warn anyone exchanging as you only get an additional 3 months of warranty, not that I would expect anyone to.

Bottom line, I will try asking around any repair shops but I may just have to use it as a regular laptop and buy an iPad for all my note-taking. And there was me trying to be smart and get a 2-1 device to save the hassle of having separate devices.

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Honestly, everybody must stop and think if it is worth to buy any Microsoft hardware. I am never, ever, buying again. I bought the Surface Book and, BAM, Hardware problem and no fix for that. I bought 2 Lumia Phones (950 and 950 XL) and BAM, Microsoft stopped supporting it…

Good luck my friends. I already sold everything I had as garbage. I hope you have a different solution for your equipment.

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Although, ipads are notorious for structural problems and flexion based damage too. Best thing to do, don't put a lot of stress on the tablet portion of the Surface Book and the solder shouldn't undo itself, bad design choice regardless. 

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Reply In reply to deleted message

My bet and my reason do not coincide LOL 

But we're havin fun so im good with that

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Last updated May 31, 2024 Views 19,793 Applies to: