rapidly dwindling battery life on MacBook Pro

You have to recalibrate the battery or return it.

If you don't calibrate then OSX might think the battery is empty even when it is full.

To recalibrate charge it fully then use the laptop until it goes to sleep mode by itself. Leave it sleep over night (or longer) making sure the white sleep light has stopped pulsing and then charge it fully again. That should set the calibration and hopefully fix the problem you are having.

If that doesn't fix it, see: http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/macbookpro.html

DG

There seems to be some confusion here over what battery calibration actually means. The only thing calibration does is ensure the time remaining estimate (in your menu bar) is accurate. If your actual runtime is merely 10 or 15 minutes, calibrating the battery is not going to fix the problem. Your battery has likely died prematurely and you should contact Apple and talk about replacement.

If ya have Apple care just give them a call and get them to replace it. Thats what I did with my old battery that kept loosing its capacity.

aquajet said:

There seems to be some confusion here over what battery calibration actually means. The only thing calibration does is ensure the time remaining estimate (in your menu bar) is accurate. If your actual runtime is merely 10 or 15 minutes, calibrating the battery is not going to fix the problem. Your battery has likely died prematurely and you should contact Apple and talk about replacement.

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Yes and if OSX thinks your time has run out it will prematurely sleep the machine.

TBi said:

Yes and if OSX thinks your time has run out it will prematurely sleep the machine.

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No it won't. The meter will reflect 0% until the battery drops below its threshold voltage, at which point the machine will sleep. Sleep and charge states are determined by battery voltage, not the time remaining estimate.

Question, Apple says that one symptom of a bad battery is

Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.

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Anyone have an idea of what constitutes a "low charge capacity/runtime?" I just calibrated my battery and it is at 61% health after 133 cycles. If gives me anywhere from 1:45 minutes to 2:15 minutes of run time.

I would take it in. I think the rule of thumb is something like 80% after one year or 300 charges or something like that.

Mine went down to 71% after 15 cycles (which in reality was more like about 5 or 6 actual cycles). I did not hang around any further and got it replaced.

My daughter, after 16 months, started losing battery capacity in her MacBook like crazy. Recalibrating didn't resolve it.

We brought it to the local apple store. She had 330 cycles in 16 months (she uses it at her middle school, so basically 5-7 days a week she cycled the battery completely)

The genius at the Apple Store said that after a year or 300 cycles, approximately, they can consider the low battery capacity "normal" and it would not be covered. Since we were just over a year and 300 cycles, she had the discretion to either cover us under warranty or not. She covered us! So we got a new battery under the Apple Care warranty.

So, keep an eye on your max capacity, use Coconut Battery if it makes it easier. As you get close to 1 year old or 300 cycles (or well below), if your battery is losing its max capacity, check with Apple to see if you can get it replaced.