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Apple says, DONT remove battery, but remove it to clean screen!?

P

Politis

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 10, 2010
125
0
Here's a funny, kinda confusing thing.

My Macbook Pro booklet 'Everything Mac' WARNS: 'The battery in your Macbook can be replaced only by and Apple Authorized Service Provider, or an Apple Retail Store' (page 31). I was even warned, 'mess with the battery and you lose guarantee rights'.

OK - I wont touch the battery, but, hey Mr Apple, how do I clean my screen?

So I look it up on my Apple sanctioned 'Macbook pro users guide' in pdf:
'To clean your MacBook Pro screen, do the following: Shut down your MacBook Pro, unplug the power adapter, and REMOVE the battery.' (page 109)

Appart from the contradicting information, we have to remove the battery to clean our screen?!?
 
Rubydoppler

Rubydoppler

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2010
942
0
USA
Politis said:
Here's a funny, kinda confusing thing.

My Macbook Pro booklet 'Everything Mac' WARNS: 'The battery in your Macbook can be replaced only by and Apple Authorized Service Provider, or an Apple Retail Store' (page 31). I was even warned, 'mess with the battery and you lose guarantee rights'.

OK - I wont touch the battery, but, hey Mr Apple, how do I clean my screen?

So I look it up on my Apple sanctioned 'Macbook pro users guide' in pdf:
'To clean your MacBook Pro screen, do the following: Shut down your MacBook Pro, unplug the power adapter, and REMOVE the battery.' (page 109)

Appart from the contradicting information, we have to remove the battery to clean our screen?!?
Click to expand...

Call Apple
 
Apple OC

Apple OC

macrumors 68040
Oct 14, 2010
3,667
4,328
Hogtown
Politis said:
So I look it up on my Apple sanctioned 'Macbook pro users guide' in pdf:
'To clean your MacBook Pro screen, do the following: Shut down your MacBook Pro, unplug the power adapter, and REMOVE the battery.
Click to expand...

seems like an old PDF ... carried over from the older MBPs :cool:
 
yamabushi

yamabushi

macrumors 65816
Oct 6, 2003
1,009
1
The user guide probably needs to be updated to reflect batteries that are no longer intended to be removed by users. Good catch.
 
shyam09

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
Politis said:
Here's a funny, kinda confusing thing.

My Macbook Pro booklet 'Everything Mac' WARNS: 'The battery in your Macbook can be replaced only by and Apple Authorized Service Provider, or an Apple Retail Store' (page 31). I was even warned, 'mess with the battery and you lose guarantee rights'.

OK - I wont touch the battery, but, hey Mr Apple, how do I clean my screen?

So I look it up on my Apple sanctioned 'Macbook pro users guide' in pdf:
'To clean your MacBook Pro screen, do the following: Shut down your MacBook Pro, unplug the power adapter, and REMOVE the battery.' (page 109)

Appart from the contradicting information, we have to remove the battery to clean our screen?!?
Click to expand...

the way i see it, is "mess with the battery" means replacing it or hacking it somehow to give you blazingly better battery life (yeah right)
the information is not contradicting in a sense.
what apple is stretching for is: Do not replace the battery. if you just going to clean the screen, you should have no problem.
but when you take it to the apple store in [lets hope not, but for example purposes: tomorrow], they will look at the battery and if it is not the one that came with apple they will be like, "oh this is not apple, this is 3rd party. sry your warranty is screwed.. sucks for u!"

so i figure, that as long as you dont REPLACE the battery, and put it back they really wont care. its just the whole 3rd party battery problem and all..
you can still call them, but those are my own 2 cents

this might seem confusing so i will spell it out

1. if you remove battery, make sure that battery you put back is apple's and it is in the exact position, and the exact manner.. there should be instructions on how to take out the battery.
2. your warranty is void if the battery is NOT apple's
 
P

pricej636

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2010
390
1
Florida
shyam09 said:
the way i see it, is "mess with the battery" means replacing it or hacking it somehow to give you blazingly better battery life (yeah right)
the information is not contradicting in a sense.
what apple is stretching for is: Do not replace the battery. if you just going to clean the screen, you should have no problem.
but when you take it to the apple store in [lets hope not, but for example purposes: tomorrow], they will look at the battery and if it is not the one that came with apple they will be like, "oh this is not apple, this is 3rd party. sry your warranty is screwed.. sucks for u!"

so i figure, that as long as you dont REPLACE the battery, and put it back they really wont care. its just the whole 3rd party battery problem and all..
you can still call them, but those are my own 2 cents

this might seem confusing so i will spell it out

1. if you remove battery, make sure that battery you put back is apple's and it is in the exact position, and the exact manner.. there should be instructions on how to take out the battery.
2. your warranty is void if the battery is NOT apple's
Click to expand...

The warranty is void if you remove the battery on a machine that doesn't have a user serviceable battery. That is how apple looks at it, end of discussion. If you decide to remove the battery on your own for any reason, even if you put it back exactly as it was, you are taking a risk of voiding your warranty.

Anything that reads different on the apple support site was designed for older machines that had user serviceable batteries.
 
Anonymous Freak

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,561
1,252
Cascadia
The current User Guide (page 71) says nothing about removing the battery to clean the screen. Don't quote a current manual for one section, but an old manual for a different section.

Of course the manuals for versions that have a removable battery say to remove the battery. Just as manuals for versions with fixed batteries won't tell you such.
 
shyam09

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
pricej636 said:
The warranty is void if you remove the battery on a machine that doesn't have a user serviceable battery. That is how apple looks at it, end of discussion. If you decide to remove the battery on your own for any reason, even if you put it back exactly as it was, you are taking a risk of voiding your warranty.

Anything that reads different on the apple support site was designed for older machines that had user serviceable batteries.
Click to expand...

oh haha i didnt look at the website. lol!
thanks for clarifying that :)

but we do need to make something clear (to the OP and all)
what is the gen. of his MBP? without knowing anything we are giving advice.. shouldnt we know what gen he is talking about?
 
P

Politis

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 10, 2010
125
0
Remove battery to clean the screen?

The Macbook Pro is the latest 15-inch: 2.4GHz

But why remove the battery if you want to clean the screen? It sounds like, remove the batter of your car before you wash it.
I'll contact Apple
 
P

pricej636

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2010
390
1
Florida
Politis said:
The Macbook Pro is the latest 15-inch: 2.4GHz

But why remove the battery if you want to clean the screen? It sounds like, remove the batter of your car before you wash it.
I'll contact Apple
Click to expand...

Anytime you apply any kind of liquid to a screen or any piece of electronics its best to remove all power sources if possible. That way if a drop of fluid hits the logic board it shouldn't short anything out.

If you have the latest 15" MBP, these direction do NOT apply. Please, do not remove the battery to clean your screen.
 
G

guitargoddsjm

macrumors 6502
Feb 25, 2008
391
0
MA
Politis said:
The Macbook Pro is the latest 15-inch: 2.4GHz

But why remove the battery if you want to clean the screen? It sounds like, remove the batter of your car before you wash it.
I'll contact Apple
Click to expand...

If it's the latest 15-inch 2.4GHz MBP, then re-read the following post. You might have to do it a few times.

And to answer your question, they instruct you to remove the battery in older models to remove the (already minimal) risk of damaging your computer when cleaning the screen by removing all power sources. As I said, it's a very very small risk, so it's 100% fine to clean your screen without your battery.

Anonymous Freak said:
The current User Guide (page 71) says nothing about removing the battery to clean the screen. Don't quote a current manual for one section, but an old manual for a different section.

Of course the manuals for versions that have a removable battery say to remove the battery. Just as manuals for versions with fixed batteries won't tell you such.
Click to expand...
 
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