{"id":5165,"date":"2026-08-30T08:50:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/server-tech\/surface-pro5-1796-slow-battery-throttle-2\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T08:50:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:50:37","slug":"surface-pro5-1796-slow-battery-throttle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/en\/diy-repair\/repair-pc-hardware\/surface-pro5-1796-slow-battery-throttle\/","title":{"rendered":"Surface Pro 5 (Model 1796) is Painfully Slow! Could the Cause Be Clock Throttling Due to a Failing Battery?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My usually smooth-running <strong>Surface Pro 5 (model 1796)<\/strong> suddenly became &#8220;painfully slow&#8221; overnight. App launches take forever, and the perceived processing speed has dropped to the point where even web browsing is a struggle. To investigate the cause, I checked the system status.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Investigating the Cause and Finding Clues for a Solution<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why is there such a severe performance drop that makes working impossible?<\/li>\n<li>I want to verify if battery-related issues are specifically involved and outline a potential solution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The goal is to provide users suffering from the same symptoms with &#8220;cause isolation&#8221; and &#8220;material to help them decide whether to repair or replace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>CPU Clock is Stuck at 0.39GHz<\/h2>\n<p>Checking the &#8220;Performance&#8221; tab in Task Manager revealed that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The CPU, which should normally operate at <strong>2.5GHz<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li>was stuck at an extremely low frequency of <strong>0.39GHz<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1996\" src=\"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169.png\" alt=\"Task Manager CPU Limit\" width=\"998\" height=\"814\" srcset=\"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169.png 998w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169-300x245.png 300w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169-768x626.png 768w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169-530x432.png 530w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169-565x461.png 565w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169-710x579.png 710w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1929e14b338624cf7cd74f339f04b169-725x591.png 725w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 998px) 100vw, 998px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At this point, it seems highly likely that this is a &#8220;performance restriction caused by hardware control rather than an OS or application issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Impact of a Non-Charging Battery<\/h2>\n<p>With this Surface Pro 5, the <strong>battery stopped charging<\/strong> some time ago, and it has consistently shown 0\u20131%.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/54225c7bff407f0f5db82e159683d10e.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1995\" src=\"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/54225c7bff407f0f5db82e159683d10e.png\" alt=\"No Battery Remaining\" width=\"550\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/54225c7bff407f0f5db82e159683d10e.png 550w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/54225c7bff407f0f5db82e159683d10e-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/54225c7bff407f0f5db82e159683d10e-530x377.png 530w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Surface devices are known to exhibit the following behaviors when the battery degrades significantly:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Automatically switches to power-saving mode for safety<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>CPU clock is forcibly throttled (fixed at 0.39GHz)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Performance fails to peak even when the AC adapter is plugged in<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Since these characteristics match my current symptoms, I suspect that <strong>a battery malfunction is likely one of the causes<\/strong>. However, this cannot be definitively concluded at this stage and remains a &#8220;strong hypothesis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Future Plan: DIY Battery Replacement Using an AliExpress Part<\/h3>\n<p>I have already ordered a replacement battery on AliExpress and am currently <strong>waiting for delivery<\/strong>.<br \/>As a next step, I plan to <strong>actually replace the battery and verify whether this is the root cause<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Official repair is expensive and likely results in a device exchange<\/li>\n<li>Third-party repair shops cost around 30,000 yen<\/li>\n<li>DIY replacement carries risks but keeps costs down<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Given these circumstances, I decided to first <strong>try replacing it myself and see if any improvements are made<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>How Can It Be Fixed?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Battery Replacement<\/strong><br \/>\u2192 A permanent fix requires replacing it with a new battery. While official repairs are expensive, other options include third-party repair shops or DIY replacement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Almost No Temporary Workarounds<\/strong><br \/>\u2192 Power settings on Surface devices are strictly locked down on the hardware side, with no settings available other than the &#8220;Balanced&#8221; plan. I tried using a trick to unlock the &#8220;Ultimate Performance&#8221; plan, but it did not appear.<\/li>\n<li><strong style=\"font-size: 1.4rem;\">If Continued Use is Difficult<br \/>\n<\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 1.4rem;\">\u2192 Upgrading to a newer model is also worth considering.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>How to enable &#8220;Ultimate Performance&#8221;<br \/>Enter the following command in PowerShell<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<pre class=\"brush: bash; title: ; notranslate\" title=\"\">powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61<\/pre>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Conclusion: Is the Surface Pro 5 &#8220;Painfully Slow&#8221; Issue Due to Battery-Induced Clock Throttling?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Symptoms: Constantly agonizingly slow, CPU clock fixed at 0.39GHz<\/li>\n<li>Status: Battery won&#8217;t charge, stuck at 0-1% display<\/li>\n<div>&#8211; Cause Estimation: Highly likely related to battery malfunction, but unconfirmed<\/div>\n<li>Future Plan: <strong>Plan to replace the battery purchased from AliExpress myself and identify the cause<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Solution: Depending on the results, decide whether to repair, replace, or buy a new one<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This case taught me that before concluding &#8220;the PC itself is broken,&#8221; it is necessary to <strong>check whether the battery is acting as a system bottleneck<\/strong>. If you happen to own a Surface that suddenly became painfully slow in the same way, I recommend checking <strong>your CPU clock and battery status<\/strong> first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My usually smooth-running Surface Pro 5 (model 1796) suddenly became &#8220;painfully slow&#8221; overnight. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/?p=1994","footnotes":""},"categories":[1165],"tags":[434,1162,772,771,275,623],"class_list":["post-5165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-repair-pc-hardware","tag-aliexpress","tag-powershell","tag-surface-1796","tag-surface-pro-5","tag-275","tag-623","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5168,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5165\/revisions\/5168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donguri3.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}