Apple Releases Firmware Battery Fix for 2010/2011 MacBook Pro 15- and 17-Inch Models

[photographypro]

OK, just did update on my LATE 2011 model, and now max battery capacity is 6230mAh, which is 90% of original 6900mAh. I use the app coconutBattery, and I did a test on the 6th of Feb, one week ago, and had 94% capacity, or 6459mAh. I don't think I would have dropped 4% in one week. I even ran my machine down to 2% power yesterday and did a full charge last night.

Just curious, I'd like to see someone check capacity just before and after doing this update.

[starfx6464]

Originally Posted by daneoni

Mac Firmware updates usually scare the crap out of me.

EDIT:...and for good reason

Similar thing happened to me. Scared the bejesus out of me. Fortunately, in my case I simply powered down (holding the power button to force it off) and booted it back up. It recognized my drive without issue and I then re-ran software update and it worked without issue.

FWIW - If anybody wants to find a commonality I'm running an Early 2011 15" MBP with OS X Lion 10.7.5.

Wheeee!

[Smigit]

Originally Posted by photographypro

OK, just did update on my LATE 2011 model, and now max battery capacity is 6230mAh, which is 90% of original 6900mAh. I use the app coconutBattery, and I did a test on the 6th of Feb, one week ago, and had 94% capacity, or 6459mAh. I don't think I would have dropped 4% in one week. I even ran my machine down to 2% power yesterday and did a full charge last night.

Just curious, I'd like to see someone check capacity just before and after doing this update.

I have an early 2011 13" MBP and did the similar update for this model two weeks ago. I'm unsure if the firmware update is the actual cause...but I never noticed battery issues before. Certainly a month ago the battery seemed fine. In the past fortnight I noticed I could no longer get an hour out of my system.

Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 306
Fully Charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 311
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 273
Condition: Service Battery

Original capacity is 5770mAh, so I'm at 5% now.

Anyway, posting that for the hell of it. If anyone knows of any issues after the 13" update it'd be appreciated. Going to visit the Apple store on Saturday and see what I can do about it anyway.

[AppleMacFinder]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

1000 cycles? How on earth does a 2011 MacBook Pro reach 1000 cycles that fast? Crazy! Must be that 0.000001% of the Apple-owning population that reaches such a number.

I believe that my previous battery (which was not old - about 100 cycles) suddenly died because of the same problem.
And I am far from being alone! Just lookup the "Service Battery" problem in Google: the significant part of complains about dead batteries are related to 2010/2011 MBP models, and these batteries had an acceptable count of cycles.
The whole story makes me think that Apple did not want to take responsibility for broken batteries, to admit their fault,
and that is why they set a very high number of cycles in their note.

So, I am glad that I did not paid extra money to get a new replacement battery from Apple directly
(since this problem was their fault, they do not deserve my hard earned money)
Instead, I got it from eBay top-rated seller plugplayers , $76 with shipping, and luckily it turned out to be genuine.
Was almost two times cheaper than from Apple. However, if we compare with Apple "premium" service,
there were some minor issues:
1) I had to wait the battery for about one month (was using power adapter all the time,
and because there were not battery inside the MBP, it was downclocked automatically,
probably to prevent shutdowns caused by a sudden increases in power consumption)
2) I had to buy a 38-Piece Set from DX, so I could unscrew the nasty triangle screws
(to be fair, that increased the total cost of replacement to $86)
3) I had to do the battery replacement work by myself (was not hard, really)

[otherjobs]

Originally Posted by AppleMacFinder

I believe that my previous battery (which was not old - about 100 cycles) suddenly died because of the same problem.
And I am far from being alone! Just lookup the "Service Battery" problem in Google: the significant part of complains about dead batteries are related to 2010/2011 MBP models, and these batteries had an acceptable count of cycles.
The whole story makes me think that Apple did not want to take responsibility for broken batteries, to admit their fault,
and that is why they set a very high number of cycles in their note.

So, I am glad that I did not paid extra money to get a new replacement battery from Apple directly
(since this problem was their fault, they do not deserve my hard earned money)
Instead, I got it from eBay top-rated seller plugplayers , $76 with shipping, and luckily it turned out to be genuine.
Was almost two times cheaper than from Apple. However, if we compare with Apple "premium" service,
there were some minor issues:
1) I had to wait the battery for about one month (was using power adapter all the time,
and because there were not battery inside the MBP, it was downclocked automatically,
probably to prevent shutdowns caused by a sudden increases in power consumption)
2) I had to buy a 38-Piece Set from DX, so I could unscrew the nasty triangle screws
(to be fair, that increased the total cost of replacement to $86)
3) I had to do the battery replacement work by myself (was not hard, really)

Cool story, bro But for $44,
it was stupid to go through all the hassle

[MiltonThales]

Found Firmware updates for my MacBook Air 2011 this morning. Listed was both 1.6 and 1.8 ! And after installation and restarting - twice - I was left at the gray linen screen with nothing going on, though I could change the volume and brightness from the keyboard. Manually powered off and rebooted, and came up normally. SMC Version (system): 1.73f65

My Air is 18 months old, and shows 89% of original battery capacity. Of course, I just got it back from Apple service, after they replaced the logic board. The old logic board never saw these updates ! So who knows what is going on now...

[PinoyAko]

Anyone tried this update that experienced an issue?

[nikhsub1]

Originally Posted by PinoyAko

Anyone tried this update that experienced an issue?

No, none of us

[ghostface147]

Originally Posted by PinoyAko

Anyone tried this update that experienced an issue?

No, no issues here.

[jonnysods]

That's a shame. I was hoping it would fix the poor battery life on my 2011 MBP. It's the worse one I have had in the 12 or so unibody MBP's I have owned.

[nomanstool]

Originally Posted by dXTC

Aw man, you beat me. My 2010 MBP has 38, which surprised me. Even though I use it plugged in most of the time, I thought I would have cycled it more than that.

You gotta be kidding me, from coconut battery it says my battery load cycle is already 106. Why the heck yours is just 38? Did you remove the battery and plug it directly?

[Macrolido]

My 2008 unibody MacBook has 333 cycles, thats insane!

[Krazy Bill]

Need a battery fix for the 13".

Ever since I talked my wife into getting one I've been sleeping in the garage.

I'm so tired of hearing about her $349 dead Dell that ran 12 days straight and also powered the washing machine. All on a single charge. (You have to know my wife).

[dXTC]

Originally Posted by nomanstool

You gotta be kidding me, from coconut battery it says my battery load cycle is already 106. Why the heck yours is just 38? Did you remove the battery and plug it directly?

No; I don't have the tools to remove the battery on my model.

Like I said before, I use the MBP on battery power very rarely (much less than 5% of its uptime). I can think of only a handful of times that I ran down the battery completely.

(In retrospect, I probably bought too powerful for my needs. I was seriously considering getting just the 15", but my wife insisted on the 17". The funny side of this is, she now strongly prefers using her iPad. Go figure.)

[Mercurymerg]

I recently updated the firmware on my early 2011 mac air. This firmware update was to address some battery issue. My Apple bluetooth trackpad will not stay connected now. It keeps flashing between the connoted and disconnected state. Is there a way to go back to the previous firmware?

[yomamajomama]

Clicked update about 15 minutes ago. And the MBP is still stuck on a blank grey screen with an active cursor. I forgot what the instructions read before I clicked update but i remember something about a grey screen and an increase in fan speed.

Any others have the same problem? How long does it take for the machine to reboot? Does it require a manual power off, or it automatically restarts after a looooong while?

remind me to never update the SMC firmware again.

[Concorde Rules]

All went perfectly here. As every firmware update has gone for me!

On battery power at 30% too!

[yomamajomama]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

All went perfectly here. As every firmware update has gone for me!

On battery power at 30% too!

thx for the info. it ended up working after a manual shut down!

[JoeRito]

Originally Posted by dXTC

Aw man, you beat me. My 2010 MBP has 38, which surprised me. Even though I use it plugged in most of the time, I thought I would have cycled it more than that.

How do you tell how many cycles you've burned?

[pgapaul]

Originally Posted by daneoni

Mac Firmware updates usually scare the crap out of me.

EDIT:...and for good reason

Originally Posted by PinoyAko

Anyone tried this update that experienced an issue?

I got a gray screen followed by a terminal screen asking me to press any key. Lie. What is with Apple? releasing **** to it's bread-n-butter? So from what I'm reading here, I just need to keep restarting? try using option start to force the machine to see the drive? Tried that, didn't work. I'll have to hunt down my original Lion thumb-drive.

[Ben Johnson]

Hi please advice how long you have to wait until you should get concerned. It's been an hour and its still blank grey. Thank you

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by Ben Johnson

Hi please advice how long you have to wait until you should get concerned. It's been an hour and its still blank grey. Thank you

Mine restarted, booted to the firmware update screen within a few seconds, took about 20-30 seconds to do the flash and then restarted.

Total time from hitting restart to me being back at the desktop.. about 2 minutes.

[jbf68jlt]

Originally Posted by photographypro

OK, just did update on my LATE 2011 model, and now max battery capacity is 6230mAh, which is 90% of original 6900mAh. I use the app coconutBattery, and I did a test on the 6th of Feb, one week ago, and had 94% capacity, or 6459mAh. I don't think I would have dropped 4% in one week. I even ran my machine down to 2% power yesterday and did a full charge last night.

Just curious, I'd like to see someone check capacity just before and after doing this update.

I checked system stats before (and after) doing firmware update...
Mine is also a "late 2011 model" - fully charged with AC power attached, 6102 mAh capacity, ***cycle count = 1313*** & health condition is normal.
Also - I've had "Automatic Graphics Switching" disabled since I bought the MBP in late 2011 (bought brand new, first owner, not a refurb). So, the Mac consistently uses high-performance graphics... maybe this accounts for the minor wear/tear on the battery (??).
Yes, I use the MBP for work and I'm the only user - but I also use my iPad (of the 3rd kind, first owner & the Pad is probably the most-utilized device, but maybe not for extended time periods like the MBP) & I use my iPhone 4S (refurb & still works with absolutely no kinks, no new battery, etc., won't give it up even after buying & setting-up husband's "5"). During a usual work-day, I'm on a device approximately 15-20hrs per day, and I work about 60-70hrs per week 4 1/2 - 5 days per week, with maybe a full week away from whichever device, if left at home during travel or other circumstances - easier to "drag along" an iPad than. MBP).
I figured some of that info may be important to anyone calculating battery life, etc.

Curiosity - do those who feel 1000 is a high cycle count, understand that anytime the AC power cord is attached (for any length of time) when the battery is below 50%, a cycle is used/counted? This is probably useful info for folks who may not think that accidentally disconnecting the AC cord during the charge cycle (under 50%) does count as a full cycle. It counts. And the cords tend to disconnect easily (a feature I especially LIKE) ... and for folks constantly on-the-go with need of this much power/resource, it's hardly possible to methodically & systematically charge in any form or fashion. I'm lucky to get 50% during any ONE sit-down in my day - I do admit that it's the nature of my job and I like that the Mac keeps up with me. I don't usually give thought to charging the battery unless I'm traveling. I connect when I think about it (rare) or when the machine tells me it's low.

For some reason, I wasn't surprised to see **1313** as my cycle count & have no issues with the battery or power, in general. It's an almost 2-year-old battery, I'm happy with the life it has left, the count is probably correct & I took into consideration the fact that I have a Mac, it looks WAYYYYYY better than any MS laptop (or desktop!) for sale (even 2 years later), so I expect I'll need a new battery before I need a new machine.
It stands to reason that expensive items that require batteries, will have *relatively expensive* batteries. I don't want knock-off parts pushing power through my $1500 Mac. I'd rather pay for the battery than a new MacBook.

Just my thoughts & I do respect others' thoughts & opinions. Sometimes it comes down to pennies when needing critical parts like as a new laptop battery - and sometimes pennies are all that's available to spend, especially in this economy.


Update completed without hassle, no errors, typical auto-reboot.
Same system stats after update (the usual changes, such as Firmware Version).

Hope this was informative, if nothing else.
AND, thanks for sharing - your question piqued my curiosity and I wondered if it would remain the same, as well, after reading your question. Glad I didnt find the time to peruse news, do updates, etc. until this evening. Great experiment!

I wonder (now) if anyone else will add their results to your thread...

jlt

[photographypro]

Originally Posted by jbf68jlt

I checked system stats before (and after) doing firmware update...
Mine is also a "late 2011 model" - fully charged with AC power attached, 6102 mAh capacity, ***cycle count = 1313*** & health condition is normal.
Also - I've had "Automatic Graphics Switching" disabled since I bought the MBP in late 2011 (bought brand new, first owner, not a refurb). So, the Mac consistently uses high-performance graphics... maybe this accounts for the minor wear/tear on the battery (??).
Yes, I use the MBP for work and I'm the only user - but I also use my iPad (of the 3rd kind, first owner & the Pad is probably the most-utilized device, but maybe not for extended time periods like the MBP) & I use my iPhone 4S (refurb & still works with absolutely no kinks, no new battery, etc., won't give it up even after buying & setting-up husband's "5"). During a usual work-day, I'm on a device approximately 15-20hrs per day, and I work about 60-70hrs per week 4 1/2 - 5 days per week, with maybe a full week away from whichever device, if left at home during travel or other circumstances - easier to "drag along" an iPad than. MBP).
I figured some of that info may be important to anyone calculating battery life, etc.

Curiosity - do those who feel 1000 is a high cycle count, understand that anytime the AC power cord is attached (for any length of time) when the battery is below 50%, a cycle is used/counted? This is probably useful info for folks who may not think that accidentally disconnecting the AC cord during the charge cycle (under 50%) does count as a full cycle. It counts. And the cords tend to disconnect easily (a feature I especially LIKE) ... and for folks constantly on-the-go with need of this much power/resource, it's hardly possible to methodically & systematically charge in any form or fashion. I'm lucky to get 50% during any ONE sit-down in my day - I do admit that it's the nature of my job and I like that the Mac keeps up with me. I don't usually give thought to charging the battery unless I'm traveling. I connect when I think about it (rare) or when the machine tells me it's low.

For some reason, I wasn't surprised to see **1313** as my cycle count & have no issues with the battery or power, in general. It's an almost 2-year-old battery, I'm happy with the life it has left, the count is probably correct & I took into consideration the fact that I have a Mac, it looks WAYYYYYY better than any MS laptop (or desktop!) for sale (even 2 years later), so I expect I'll need a new battery before I need a new machine.
It stands to reason that expensive items that require batteries, will have *relatively expensive* batteries. I don't want knock-off parts pushing power through my $1500 Mac. I'd rather pay for the battery than a new MacBook.

Just my thoughts & I do respect others' thoughts & opinions. Sometimes it comes down to pennies when needing critical parts like as a new laptop battery - and sometimes pennies are all that's available to spend, especially in this economy.


Update completed without hassle, no errors, typical auto-reboot.
Same system stats after update (the usual changes, such as Firmware Version).

Hope this was informative, if nothing else.
AND, thanks for sharing - your question piqued my curiosity and I wondered if it would remain the same, as well, after reading your question. Glad I didnt find the time to peruse news, do updates, etc. until this evening. Great experiment!

I wonder (now) if anyone else will add their results to your thread...

jlt

Very informative. And off topic, was the iPhone 5 really that hard to set up? I have a 4S also, and plan to buy a 5S when I return to the US in July (a 64GB 5 is over $1000 here in Italy). I've owned all iPhones except the 5 and wonder what was so hard about setup.

[Brammy]

So, I applied the firmware update this weekend, and my late 2011 MBP is showing a 3900mAH, with 77 cycles, and the Service Battery warning. Lasts about two hours on battery now.

SMC resets don't do anything. GOing to bring it into Apple Monday to get it looked at.