MacBook Pro won't run off battery

[steve_hill4]

Just a feeler topic.

For the first time in a while, I decided to use my MBP away from my desk. Every few days or so, I will unplug the mains from the machine to let the battery get some exercise and usually at least once a month, I will let it fully discharge and leave overnight, (as per instructions). I also take the battery out at times when I know I will be running off the mains for extended periods.

I am already experiencing a few battery issues since my replacement was issued and need to contact Apple. When I unplugged the mains today though, something quite odd happened, the machine cut straight out. I pressed the power button several times, but every time the machine made the normal first few seconds of noise and then shut down. With the battery in and running off the mains, it says I'm fully charged, so no problems recognising it and it's only been a few days since I last ran off the battery.

Does anyone think resetting the Power Management will do the trick, (which I was planning to do the next time I restart)? Has anyone else experienced this as of yet?

 

[WildCowboy]

I would absolutely start with resetting the SMC.

 

[topgunn]

I had a similar problem with one of my users Macbooks. She never ran off the battery. One day she tried, and it died a second or two after unplugging it from the wall. She had me look at it. The computer reported that the battery was 97% full and wasn't trying to charge it anymore. I read a couple of threads saying 97% was the new 100% so I moved on. The battery indicator always showed a full charge. I assumed it was the battery and had her take it to the Apple store. They confirmed that it was the battery and replaced it for her on the spot. It is working great now.

 

[steve_hill4]

I had a similar problem with one of my users Macbooks. She never ran off the battery. One day she tried, and it died a second or two after unplugging it from the wall. She had me look at it. The computer reported that the battery was 97% full and wasn't trying to charge it anymore. I read a couple of threads saying 97% was the new 100% so I moved on. The battery indicator always showed a full charge. I assumed it was the battery and had her take it to the Apple store. They confirmed that it was the battery and replaced it for her on the spot. It is working great now.

Will try resetting the SMC in a short while, (need to get a few things done before I restart), but I have had some recent problems with my battery anyway. My first battery was replaced quite early into Apple's replacement scheme for MBPs. Even though it never fell below 91% maximum charge, (I have checked frequently since day one with coconutBattery), I decided better safe than sorry. I found the new battery was showing a charge above the maximum and was chuffed, carried on checking for the next month every other day and it didn't dip below 98%.

About 6 weeks after I got the new one, and two weeks since my last record, I checked and it was 77%. I thought it must be wrong or a one off and continued to check on and off for the next month or so, where it went up to 84% the next time and then it has hovered around 80-84% ever since. Today, it's 76%.

I'm going to demand a new battery and have a screen grab from coconutBattery if Apple want to see it's progress. I took it to work last week, tried the battery in a display MBP and even though the percentage was the same, it was showing about 1:25 left rather than the 1:10, which concerned me a little, but that did not have any running apps, airport and bluetooth switched off, so I attribute the difference to these.

 

[steve_hill4]

Well, I tried resetting SMC and nada.

I'll be ringing Apple tomorrow and demanding a new battery at the very least, the only issue I have is that I dropped my MBP about 6-7 months back while suffering from chicken pox, it has a big dent on the corner and I'm afraid if Apple claimed it was a notebook issue, they would try and pass the blame onto this and not repair. That's why I'll push for a new battery and take it from there. I do however have a second year warranty free from work and enough people have known about the dropping and have seen it working since then for me to try and get any other issues repaired that way.

topgunn, you said it was stuck on 97%, which mine is also at the moment. Was there anything you said to Apple, or they said to you which can help me out when i ring them? I really don't want to have to send off a notebook I use daily when I don't need to, especially as it sounds like you had the same problem and a new battery fixed it.

 

[topgunn]

I personally didn't talk to them. I sent the user into an Apple store where basically she showed them how it turned off after a second or two of being on battery.

 

[steve_hill4]

I personally didn't talk to them. I sent the user into an Apple store where basically she showed them how it turned off after a second or two of being on battery.

Closest Apple Store is a good 30 miles away, and it's difficult for me to get to, (as I don't drive and refuse to pay almost the price of a new battery to get there and back at this late notice). Other than that we have an unofficial franchised store, (extremely popular way for Apple to retail in UK), a short drive/bus journey away and our store which sells Apple. Neither can replace Apple parts themselves and merely refer you back to Apple.

First chance to ring them today and just got off phone. They're sending me a new battery and I'm returning the old one, (they better not charge me either). I did explain what I had done and how I tested it elsewhere and they seemed fine, (after the first guy took 5 minutes to get my serial number right). It's now showing under coconutBattery 76% of original charge as maximum and claiming it's fully charged on 95% of that. I told the guy about it not switching on, (switching off when switching to battery under OSX), when on battery, even though it says full under the status bar. His response was "yes, it's sounds like a battery problem you have there."

If yours worked with a replacement, I sure hope mine is equally successful.

 

[Collin973]

This happened to me the other day. I run my laptop off the battery a lot, especially taking it with me to class. Last week, I unplugged it and my MBP shut off. Tried it again. Shut off. So, I called apple and they had me reset the PRAM and the PMU but that didn't fix it. So, they told me to bring it to an Apple Store or an authorized reseller. So, I did that friday and Monday I had a new battery. Excellent service.

So, in conclusion, you need a new battery. Mine was at 92% with 52 cycles on it when mine failed. Hope you get yours fixed!

 

[steve_hill4]

This happened to me the other day. I run my laptop off the battery a lot, especially taking it with me to class. Last week, I unplugged it and my MBP shut off. Tried it again. Shut off. So, I called apple and they had me reset the PRAM and the PMU but that didn't fix it. So, they told me to bring it to an Apple Store or an authorized reseller. So, I did that friday and Monday I had a new battery. Excellent service.

So, in conclusion, you need a new battery. Mine was at 92% with 52 cycles on it when mine failed. Hope you get yours fixed!

From the reaction of the assistant that served me, it sounded like a reasonably common problem, which fills me with hope for myself and dread for others who may get this.

I'll update when it arrives.

 

[steve_hill4]

Well, I was going to ring Apple before problems not running off battery, but in many ways I'm glad I waited as the more problems with it when I returned it the better. Thanks again to topgunn for the help, the new battery arrived and worked immediately without problems shutting down.

Did a full condition on it immediately, charged it up after it had been off overnight and holy crap, coconutBattery stated a mere 86% of original charge was left at full charge. I was getting worried it was the machine then, but as long as it wasn't shutting down for now or it wasn't going to drain to 70% or less within months, I could cope with a battery not holding all its charge. Went through periods over the next few days of running off battery, charging, running off mains with battery in and charged, running off mains without battery and so on. Slowly it's going back to maximum charge as I work it in.

Checked case id status and they've received my old battery too. Just make sure they don't charge me for it over the next month and all should be sorted.

 

[dornoforpyros]

Awesome, so my MBP just started exhibiting this problem, judging from the apple support forums I'm not alone:

battery fully charged - laptop shuts down when power lead removed
MACBOOK PRO SHUTS DOWN WITHOUT WARNING

Since I'm outside of my 90 purchase window (purchased Nov '06) I can't say I"m looking forward to calling apple.

 

[Collin973]

If you can, take it to an apple store or authorized reseller. I called about this problem and they told me to take it to an apple store to test the battery then replace it. Save yourself some time.

Thanks

 

[dornoforpyros]

If you can, take it to an apple store or authorized reseller. I called about this problem and they told me to take it to an apple store to test the battery then replace it. Save yourself some time.

Thanks

Yeah that's what they told me since I wasn't gonna pay $59(cnd) for them to tell me my battery needs to be replaced, so I'm gonna swing down to my local dealer tomorrow.

 

[deadpixels]

Since I'm outside of my 90 purchase window (purchased Nov '06) I can't say I"m looking forward to calling apple.

i called apple about problems when i had a titanium pbook and alubook, long after the 90 days phone support and they never charged me for anything i'm in europe.

 

[Sensfan67]

Awesome, so my MBP just started exhibiting this problem, judging from the apple support forums I'm not alone:

battery fully charged - laptop shuts down when power lead removed
MACBOOK PRO SHUTS DOWN WITHOUT WARNING

Since I'm outside of my 90 purchase window (purchased Nov '06) I can't say I"m looking forward to calling apple.

No...because you're still under the apple care 1 year warranty, it would be covered.

 

[dornoforpyros]

No...because you're still under the apple care 1 year warranty, it would be covered.

Yes I agree, but the guy I spoke with today wanted to charge me $60 for the privilege of having him tell me what I already know, the battery is fubared.

So I'm gonna try calling one of the authorized resellers in town tomorrow (even though I bought online) and just see if I can get them to confirm what I already know without charging me an arm & leg.

From reading the apple discussion forums it's obvious what the problem is, I've reset the PRAM and the SMC and still, pull the plug, laptop goes dead. So I refuse to pay for knowledge I already have.

*EDIT*
If anyone has any tips for dealing with apple phone support when you already know what the problem and the solution is let me know.

 

[KyleC]

me too!!! This just started on my 4 month old mac book pro.

will be calling tomorrow.

 

[Marlon_JBT]

me too!!! This just started on my 4 month old mac book pro.

will be calling tomorrow.

Been there, done that.

I'm about tired of the power issues I've had with my MBP. I've only got a few weeks left of warranty too... what in the world will I do with it after that?

 

[dornoforpyros]

me too!!! This just started on my 4 month old mac book pro.

will be calling tomorrow.

Mine's 5 months, from reading the apple forums this seems to be popping up for most people between 3-6 months of ownership. I'm hoping to get a call from the repair shop along the lines of "We popped a new battery in and it works like butter"

I certainly hope this is just a bad batch of batteries from the early c2d models and doesn't indicate that we'll all be buying/replacing the battery twice a year.

 

[javiergiraldo]

im in problems

hi i dont know much english but i need some help.
i have a macbook (black) the battery dont charge and the leds in the battery dont blinking or lighting, what can i do for get my machine good anothertime? really a need this machine for work and now i only can work with ac power connection. please help me.
javiergiraldo@etb.net.co

 

[MacMedic]

Full battery - won't run

Mine does the same thing... at about 25 cycles, the health suddenly went from a consistant 97 - 99% to 85%. Tried a calibration and it went to 79%. Life of the battery was about 30 - 50 min shorter than I had been getting. It had also randomly shut off without warning a couple times lately, and now at 30 cycles it won't run off battery at all. Charge shows at 100% and the machine recognizes the battery just fine - but as soon as I unplug the power cord... lights out.
My MBP is only about 2 months old... (early Nov 07) and is my second one already - the first one was only 2 weeks old when I sent it back with stuck pixels - Apple replace it since it was under 30 days old. This one also had a couple pixels stick on two occasions, but they un-stuck shortly after... though this does not make me very optimistic about how well this switching to Mac experience is going to go for me. Between the pixels and now this battery problem... I have to say - I'm tempted to sell it and go back to a PC notebook. Hmm.
I'll post an update after I contact Apple re: this battery problem. I presume they'll replace it - or maybe I'll go to my local Apple store. Stay Tuned...

 

[MacMedic]

Mine does the same thing... at about 25 cycles, the health suddenly went from a consistant 97 - 99% to 85%. Tried a calibration and it went to 79%. Life of the battery was about 30 - 50 min shorter than I had been getting. It had also randomly shut off without warning a couple times lately, and now at 30 cycles it won't run off battery at all. Charge shows at 100% and the machine recognizes the battery just fine - but as soon as I unplug the power cord... lights out.
My MBP is only about 2 months old... (early Nov 07) and is my second one already - the first one was only 2 weeks old when I sent it back with stuck pixels - Apple replace it since it was under 30 days old. This one also had a couple pixels stick on two occasions, but they un-stuck shortly after... though this does not make me very optimistic about how well this switching to Mac experience is going to go for me. Between the pixels and now this battery problem... I have to say - I'm tempted to sell it and go back to a PC notebook. Hmm.
I'll post an update after I contact Apple re: this battery problem. I presume they'll replace it - or maybe I'll go to my local Apple store. Stay Tuned...

Just got off the phone with Apple - new battery on the way (no charge). Hopfully it lasts at least 10 times as long!

 

[MacMedic]

Just got off the phone with Apple - new battery on the way (no charge). Hopfully it lasts at least 10 times as long!

Wow - new battery shipped out yesterday evening, got it today just after lunch! Less than 24 hours after calling Apple, and shipped from Pennsylvania to London Ontario! Can't complain about the service - that's for sure. I'll definitely be getting applecare for this machine with the number of issues it's had already - extend that good service for another 2 years...