What is going on with my battery? (MBP, early '08)

[Anti]

Hey guys,

So I've had this battery since I bought this good 'ol computer back in October last year. (Long story short, my mid-2012 MBP got fried, and it was more economical to buy a new machine than it was to try and repair the ruined one...) After going to Apple to get the service history of this machine, it turns out the owner took pretty good care of this MBP, and got it overhauled in October 2011 as part of the logic board repair program. At that time, he also bought this battery.

Anyway, when I bought this MBP, he said the battery had begun acting up recently, and seeing the good 'ol "Service Battery" in the menu bar, I had a feeling I knew what was going on. My mom's late '08 MBP suffers the same problem from time to time, but it usually pulls out of it. So I thought this was fixable.

I never really turned my attention toward this problem because I was usually near an outlet. But then I started having to go wait at a mall for long periods of time, and being away from an outlet started really putting a pinch on things. So I began to research this problem deeper and poke at the battery a bit more with Coconut Battery. This is what I got:



Every time I took a sample of the battery data is when the computer died. (The battery capacity was around 60%, and the computer would lose power as if I pulled the battery out.) The interesting thing is around when the capacity fell to the 30% mark, the max. capacity went up to 1493mAh, and the battery percentage (in the menu bar) suddenly shot up to 40%.

Even better, when I had this computer booted under Snow Leopard (it's running ML now), System Profiler reported the capacity as 1600mAh. Something seems amiss to me.

So, what I want to know is...is this battery defective? Or is this really just old age? Either way, Apple says I'm pretty much on my own as far as the battery is concerned, because even if it were less than a year old, it wouldn't be covered under warranty. So more or less, I guess this is just to satisfy my curiosity. Since my theory is that there *might* be a firmware issue with the battery itself. I dunno.

Thanks in advance!

[DeltaMac]

Your battery is failing.
The block "Battery Capacity" shows that you have 14% of the original charge capacity - which means that if it runs at all on the battery, you get 30 minutes of use - maybe.

The "Service Battery" notice that you get tells you what to do.
And, it's apparently changing the amount of max charge, which is another indication of a failing battery.
I trust that you have tried a battery calibration (a battery as low as yours may not respond at all to that, but it's worth trying to see if there's any improvement)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

I agree with your theory about a "firmware" issue in the battery.
The battery (the firmware, or hardware, the internal cells) is failing.
The method to fix that is - replace the battery.
Is it an early death? Perhaps, but even a brand new battery is 12 month warranty.
Likely the replacement more than a year ago was a service replacement, which is only 90 day warranty.

[Anti]

I was hoping there was possibly a way to get this thing back on it's feet, but possibly not.

It does seem to last a little under an hour off the charger. So the battery isn't completely bad. However, every time it hits 0%, the max capacity sinks considerably, but it comes right back up if I fully recharge it and run it down to 30% or so again. It's really weird.

I'm thinking I might pick up a NewerTech battery, as I've had good luck with them in the past for other devices. And they're about $30 cheaper, too.

[anthlover]

Generally Lion Batteries have a max charge/discharge Cycle Capability of 500. Newer ones from Apple on machines from the last couple of years claim 2x that.

I would say that around 5 years was an amazing run... *** Though you said new one was put in 2011. Maybe not an "Apple" one? If it was a new one and a receipt would have gotten you a year of warranty service on it through some part of 2012. You can if you like buy a new battery, from Amazon, Apple or Macsales. I would tend to go with Apple or Mac Sales.

Sorry. I have seen dead lion batteries rarely come back to life after a long charge. But I have never seen one with a severely diminished charge capacity all of a sudden have a much higher capacity.

Good Luck

[agentx]

LOL i have to replace my battery every 18 months !
Time for a new one.

If you did buy form Apple then take it to Apple Store or speak to them on phone, explain battery has failed and they might replace as cycle count is low.