MacBook Pro Battery woes

bartimaeus · 01-05-2009, 04:59 AM

I have been having some strange trouble with my MacBook Pro battery (2.2GHz model running 10.5.6). The symptoms as I see it are:

1. Computer while on battery power shuts down abruptly without warning (despite indicator showing anything between 6-60%)
2. The System Profiler charge on the battery went down initially to
1448. Since then it has gone up to 1670, 2190, 3300 over the last month and now is back down to 1958.
3. The battery status indicator has always said Check Battery for the last two months.
4. Resetting SMC controller seems to not do anything.
5. Strangely enough the usual way of trying to reset PRAM (Cmd-Opt-P-R at start-up) seems to have no effect (at least no multiple chimes are encountered -- the computer boots after 1 chime).
6. An attempt to test the battery by swapping it for another computer's (a battery that was known to be good) resulted in the other battery also reading Check Battery in the second computer.
7. Cycle count on the battery is just 27.

Any ideas of how to fix this problem? It rather limits my use of the computer to being a desktop.

benwiggy · 01-05-2009, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartimaeus


	5. Strangely enough the usual way of trying to reset PRAM (Cmd-Opt-P-R at start-up) seems to have no effect (at least no multiple chimes are encountered -- the computer boots after 1 chime).

The usual way of zapping the PRAM is to hold down the keys and continue holding, so that the machine restarts in quick succession three times.

Can you clarify exactly what happened in point 6? I can't work out whether your MBP worked the same or better with the swapped battery.

Either way, you may have a fault component: either a power manager or battery. You should take the Mac back to the shop and see what customer rights you have in your country for goods that are defective. If you bought within 3 months, you should be covered by AppleCare.

blb · 01-05-2009, 03:17 PM

I'm leaning towards a bad battery, I think Apple had a few, as I had mine replaced a few months ago. The same basic idea, low cycle count but about 50% capacity was gone.

bartimaeus · 01-08-2009, 05:08 PM

Thanks for the responses. I had meant to say that when I put in the battery from another computer (one that purportedly was good), it also held less charge. Moreover, when I reinstated this good battery back into its original computer, system profiler of that machine also indicated poor battery.

I think I should take the laptop around to an Apple store to get it checked. Will update on doing so.

pkmntrainerharry · 03-06-2009, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartimaeus


	3. The battery status indicator has always said Check Battery for the last two months.

what do you do when that appears? it's appearing on my system profiler, too..
the battery indicator on my mac seems to be getting inaccurate; it can suddenly jump from 50 percent to 10 percent, then go up to 20 percent. what's happening?

and when your computer's battery level goes down to below a certain value, the critical battery level alert appears, right? if you ignore it, is your computer supposed to go to sleep mode by itself or stay up until the battery is drained? the alert says 'your computer will go to sleep to conserve energy', but mine doesn't go to sleep and drains the battery to death =(

donenoch · 03-06-2009, 09:42 AM

1. Computer while on battery power shuts down abruptly without warning (despite indicator showing anything between 6-60%)

does this happen the moment you take it off of the cord or will it remain on for "hours" then die? (reason i ask is we've come across an issue at my office relating to "RSS" it tends to happen on machines that are putting a considerable amount of strain on the processor... a miscommunication between the machine and its heatsink convincing itself that it is reaching critical temps... And to shut down without warning) just curious... Either way if your batt. Is the major contributor to your problems I do know apple was replacing the 15" and 17" macbook pros batteries free of charge however that was roughly 2-3 months ago... So I don't know how long Apple would stretch it out... hope that helps at all

-don

01-05-2009, 04:59 AM	#1
bartimaeus Prospect Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 9	MacBook Pro Battery woes I have been having some strange trouble with my MacBook Pro battery (2.2GHz model running 10.5.6). The symptoms as I see it are: 1. Computer while on battery power shuts down abruptly without warning (despite indicator showing anything between 6-60%) 2. The System Profiler charge on the battery went down initially to 1448. Since then it has gone up to 1670, 2190, 3300 over the last month and now is back down to 1958. 3. The battery status indicator has always said Check Battery for the last two months. 4. Resetting SMC controller seems to not do anything. 5. Strangely enough the usual way of trying to reset PRAM (Cmd-Opt-P-R at start-up) seems to have no effect (at least no multiple chimes are encountered -- the computer boots after 1 chime). 6. An attempt to test the battery by swapping it for another computer's (a battery that was known to be good) resulted in the other battery also reading Check Battery in the second computer. 7. Cycle count on the battery is just 27. Any ideas of how to fix this problem? It rather limits my use of the computer to being a desktop.

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01-05-2009, 03:17 PM	#3
blb All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: CO, USA Posts: 908	I'm leaning towards a bad battery, I think Apple had a few, as I had mine replaced a few months ago. The same basic idea, low cycle count but about 50% capacity was gone.

01-08-2009, 05:08 PM	#4
bartimaeus Prospect Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 9	Thanks for the responses. I had meant to say that when I put in the battery from another computer (one that purportedly was good), it also held less charge. Moreover, when I reinstated this good battery back into its original computer, system profiler of that machine also indicated poor battery. I think I should take the laptop around to an Apple store to get it checked. Will update on doing so.

03-06-2009, 09:42 AM	#6
donenoch Prospect Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Barrow, Alaska Posts: 14	1. Computer while on battery power shuts down abruptly without warning (despite indicator showing anything between 6-60%) does this happen the moment you take it off of the cord or will it remain on for "hours" then die? (reason i ask is we've come across an issue at my office relating to "RSS" it tends to happen on machines that are putting a considerable amount of strain on the processor... a miscommunication between the machine and its heatsink convincing itself that it is reaching critical temps... And to shut down without warning) just curious... Either way if your batt. Is the major contributor to your problems I do know apple was replacing the 15" and 17" macbook pros batteries free of charge however that was roughly 2-3 months ago... So I don't know how long Apple would stretch it out... hope that helps at all -don