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Macbook Battery Issue

X

xtox

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
242
I have the MB as in my sig which is showing some problems with the battery reporting. Sometimes i'll put it on and it'll show 0% battery but last without power for an hour. Other times it will show one figure and then increase by 20-30% during the same usage.

I have tried running the battery down until it shuts down and then fully charging it a few times. The laptop does have Apple Care but will there be other things they ask me to do before taking it in?
 
Try resetting your PRAM and see if that resolves the issue. Also you may want to make a time machine backup, and reinstall the OS. It could just be a faulty power management driver. If all this fails, use coconutbattery http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/ to check and see if your capacity is fluctuating. I have found that the app usually gives me more accurate info then the OS. After all this if you are still having issues I would say its time to bring the laptop into the Genius bar.
 
How old is the battery? Try something like ibatt to show cycle count and charge information. Is it swelling?
 
I've now reset the PRAM and installed CoconutBattery. When I switched the laptop back on after resetting it showed the same figure as when I shutdown so it didn't fluxuate then.

Cocunut shows the age of my mac to be 15 months and only 3813 mAh capacity (93%) compared to original @ 4100 mAh (100%). It also shows as having had 134 battery cycles.

What's strange is that it says the battery is charging but charger is not connected (only on coconut and not the os x icon)??
 
I believe that we have the same mac and coconut has never misread my system in 10.5 or 10.6. Sounds like you ether have a power management driver issue, or there's something wrong with the logic board itself.

I would start with a reinstall of the OS.
 
I have been meaning to install Snow Leopard so I guess this is the perfect time.

On the other hand, does anyone know if Apple will straight out replace my battery/macbook if I went into the store? What would they do if I explained my issues and tell them what i've done so far?
 
Have you gone though the actual recalibration process? I know you said you ran it down, but the computer will shut down while there is still a small amount of power left. You actually have to let it sit for about 5 hours then recharge it all the way. The full process is here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490.

If that still doesn't work then it doesn't hurt to take it to apple and tell them what is happening and see what they say. Don't be afraid to be a little pushy. I don't see a down side to asking.

I purchased an extra battery with my 2008 MBP. This year I noticed one battery would shutdown before it got to 0%. I tried the recalibration and resetting the PRAM, but it did the same thing. I took it into my apple repair place (there isn't an apple store where I live) and originally they said I it wouldn't be covered. I did some research on my own and found this page http://www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html. I showed it to the repair shop and pointed out that I had two batteries which were purchased at the same time one was acting normally and the other obviously wasn't. They submitted a claim to apple and it was approved.
 
xtox said:
I have been meaning to install Snow Leopard so I guess this is the perfect time.

On the other hand, does anyone know if Apple will straight out replace my battery/macbook if I went into the store? What would they do if I explained my issues and tell them what i've done so far?
Click to expand...

If the battery doesn't pass diagnostics then they will replace it on the spot (alternatively I could have just gotten lucky). My Powerbook G4 battery started to act very strangely about 4 months after I got it. The genius bar staff took it into the back room, and came back with it stating that it had failed their diagnostic check and they replaced it on the spot as it was less then a year old.

As far as just replacing your Macbook on the spot, there is basically no chance of that happening. Its a discontinued SKU so they don't have any in stock that they can just swap. If they determine that a part needs to be replaced they overnight it to a repair depot, and you usually get it back within about 4-5 business days with a new part. I was hoping that they would replace my sister's iBook G4 that had just about everything except the keyboard, and screen replaced under apple care, but they never did even though it was still in production at the time.
 
My battery has now lost almost 30% capacity upon booting today. It is now showing 65% capacity. I'll try the callibration exactly as in the Apple link today.
 
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