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Is it possible to cheat the number of battery cycles?

1

13rutal

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi everyone,

I am about to buy a secondhand MacBook Air from Craigslist and wondering if there is any possible way for the sellers to lie about the battery cycles as they do for car mileages. 😡

Thanks for any opinions
 
13rutal said:
Hi everyone,

I am about to buy a secondhand MacBook Air from Craigslist and wondering if there is any possible way for the sellers to lie about the battery cycles as they do for car mileages. 😡

Thanks for any opinions
Click to expand...

They could easily change a screenshot via Preview, if that is all you get to get battery cycle information. As for anything else, probably, but then again, it may be too much work for someone not or only half versed in scrubbing shiny code.
 
13rutal said:
Hi everyone,

I am about to buy a secondhand MacBook Air from Craigslist and wondering if there is any possible way for the sellers to lie about the battery cycles as they do for car mileages. 😡

Thanks for any opinions
Click to expand...

Well if they show you a screenshot as proof, they could have photoshopped it.
 
For battery, IMO shelf life matters. Say ur buying a 2009 laptop and battery says 50 charge cycle only. Now IHO battery needs exercising just like a car engine that's left sitting.

How old is this laptop?
 
13rutal said:
It's a MacBook Air 2012 with 30 cycles.
Click to expand...

Oh you are fine then. So it's about 6 months old, even if they guy discharge it everyday, doesn't amount to more than 200 cycles, not worth it to anybody to going into the trouble of rolling back the odometer.
 
No because in a car reversing reduces the mileage and going forward increases it. However in a battery both charging and discharging affect the cycle count.
 
Oh I found it! Cycle Count 7 on my Mid2012 MBA I got in Sept 2012. I guess I keep it plugged in mostly... Says Fully Charged capacity of 6758. I read somewhere it's supposed to be a 6800mah battery. Does it go down that fast after only 7 cycles?
 
Nimravus said:
Oh I found it! Cycle Count 7 on my Mid2012 MBA I got in Sept 2012. I guess I keep it plugged in mostly... Says Fully Charged capacity of 6758. I read somewhere it's supposed to be a 6800mah battery. Does it go down that fast after only 7 cycles?
Click to expand...

Battery's in your MacBook are meant to fluctuate overtime. Search the forum for Battery FAQ to get a lot of questions answered.
 
Nimravus said:
Oh I found it! Cycle Count 7 on my Mid2012 MBA I got in Sept 2012. I guess I keep it plugged in mostly... Says Fully Charged capacity of 6758. I read somewhere it's supposed to be a 6800mah battery. Does it go down that fast after only 7 cycles?
Click to expand...
If you're not already doing so, use iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) to get accurate readings of your battery health and cycles and computer uptime, among many other things. A forum member has posted a copy of iStat Pro that has been "tweaked" to enhance compatibility with Mountain Lion. You can download it here.

It is perfectly normal if your battery health (maximum capacity) is more or less than 100%, even when brand new, or if it fluctuates up or down over time. For further details, read the CHECKING STATUS AND HEALTH section of the following link.

Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery. Just make sure you don't run on AC power exclusively, as your battery needs to be used regularly to stay healthy. The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
 
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