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10.5.5 and Batteries

B

boardopboy

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 19, 2008
31
0
I swear I am not trying to Spam the forums, but I have seen this 10.5.5 battery issue here and at the Apple Forums.

Here is a cut and post of my post at Apple:

Since updating to 10.5.5, when running my 1st Gen 2.16 gig Core Duo 17 inch MacBook Pro off the battery, at around 13 to 15% remaining on the battery, the machine just cuts out. Turns off, acts as though it has lost power completely. Poof and off.

No low battery warnings. No shutting down. It's as if the battery as been removed, though it has not.

Push the button on the battery and a light and a half illuminate.

The only way to get the machine back on, is to plug it in. At which point it turns on with no action from me (this may be because I have it set to turn on after power failure).

I have also noticed, while plugged in and charging, with less then a 15% charge, if I unplug it, it loses all power as well. More than a 15% charge and I unplug, it stays on until it drops below 15% or so.

I have reset the SMC, and still no joy.

I have found this link: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1970 but it doesn't really apply, as i have the the battery status in the menu bar (have since I got the machine) and it doesn't go to sleep (just turns off) to make the battery calibration work. And I usually re-calibrate the battery ever 6 weeks or so anyway.

As I said, this starting happening today. Just a day or so after I updated to 10.5.5.

Is this a bug in 10.5.5 or is 10.5.5 the victim of a horribly retched coincidence of bad timing due in part to the machines 26 month age?

I love this machine, she has been trouble free, even through the initial 10.5 upgrade. An extremely reliable work horse the never acts up. It's weird, but til now... she has operated flawlessly. I got pretty luck with it. I would hate to have to replace it.

Now, please don't dismiss this if it hasn't affected you. The range of machines and software running on those machines is gonna make this difficult to track down. It certainly has affected me.

I am sure there are plenty of people lurking here who had perfectly fine batteries on Monday, only to discover their batteries have go the way of the DoDo come Tuesday.

I can only conclude this is a software issue. Not hardware. And it sucks!

Again, not trying to spam the boards... I just want it made clear that this 10.5.5 battery fiasco is more wide spread than some may think.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
 
boardopboy said:
Since updating to 10.5.5, when running my 1st Gen 2.16 gig Core Duo 17 inch MacBook Pro off the battery, at around 13 to 15% remaining on the battery, the machine just cuts out. Turns off, acts as though it has lost power completely. Poof and off.
Click to expand...

Hi,

I've got _just the same_ thing going on when my battery has began to swell and bend. Absolutely the same.

Remove and check the battery for swelling etc. Even a small swell could affect the contacts.

You've got 2 years warranty for the battery.

sash
 
sash said:
Remove and check the battery for swelling etc. Even a small swell could affect the contacts.
Click to expand...

Excellent suggestion. However, since this machine is in that generation that had trouble with the initial batteries, I actually keep a very close eye on that, and there is no evidence of swelling or anything along those lines.

Like I said, battery was in perfect shape on Monday. Tuesday, after installing the 10.5.5 update, it quits on me.

I am considering a restore from time machine back to 10.5.4 (can that be done?) to see if it changes anything.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!
 
I did the 10.5.5 update a few days ago, and ran my battery down yesterday. It stayed awake until maybe 5%, gave me the power warning and shut down soon thereafter. At that point, the computer been running close to 5 hours, which is about the same as 10.5.4 was giving me with low use.
 
I long for my MBP to behave that way again! Just like it did on Monday!

Now, I don't even get the warning!
 
boardopboy said:
Excellent suggestion. However, since this machine is in that generation that had trouble with the initial batteries, I actually keep a very close eye on that, and there is no evidence of swelling or anything along those lines.
Click to expand...

Sorry, just a suggestion.

However, in the beginning I haven't seen a thing: the battery looked perfectly normal.

sash
 
Oh, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the suggestion!

And you can be assured I am gonna keep an even keener (a real word?) eye on that battery...
 
I wold like to take a moment to clraify something...

My battery's performance has not changed. It takes the same amount of time to charge, the same amount of time to drain down to this 15% threshold.

So anyway... today I am going to revert back to 10.5.4 (somehow!) and see what happens.

This is where I now praise Apple for including Time Machine!
 
@kgeier82:

Actually, I do that about every 6 weeks... Trouble is, I CAN'T do it now... The machine never makes it to that "deep sleep" state it needs to be in that is crucial to the calibration.

Like I said, 15% and the machine acts as if the battery were removed, and all power is lost, no sleep, no shutting down, just off. Everytime it happens it feels like a pane of glass hitting the pavement after being thrown off the Empire State building!

Thank you for trying though! I do appreciate it!
 
boardopboy said:
@kgeier82:

Actually, I do that about every 6 weeks... Trouble is, I CAN'T do it now... The machine never makes it to that "deep sleep" state it needs to be in that is crucial to the calibration.

Like I said, 15% and the machine acts as if the battery were removed, and all power is lost, no sleep, no shutting down, just off. Everytime it happens it feels like a pane of glass hitting the pavement after being thrown off the Empire State building!

Thank you for trying though! I do appreciate it!
Click to expand...


What happens if you plug in a USB device like a 2.5" USB powered HD?

Even with my MBP off it still powers these things.

Plug one in and see what happens?

My batteries down to 53% and a week ago I re-calibrated it to 88%.

Its been up and down like a yoyo, 95% last night.

Shame, calling applecare tomorrow.
 
boardopboy said:
@kgeier82:

Actually, I do that about every 6 weeks... Trouble is, I CAN'T do it now... The machine never makes it to that "deep sleep" state it needs to be in that is crucial to the calibration.

Like I said, 15% and the machine acts as if the battery were removed, and all power is lost, no sleep, no shutting down, just off. Everytime it happens it feels like a pane of glass hitting the pavement after being thrown off the Empire State building!

Thank you for trying though! I do appreciate it!
Click to expand...


Have you tried letting the machine sit for 5-6 hours after it just shuts off?

its supposed to when you calibrate it. It should also not turn on even if you hit the power button.
 
Concorde Rules said:
What happens if you plug in a USB device like a 2.5" USB powered HD?
Click to expand...

Dunno, don't own such a device. However, my iPod touch continues to charge if the machine is off with higher battery capacity.

kgeier82 said:
Have you tried letting the machine sit for 5-6 hours after it just shuts off?.
Click to expand...

Yup, did that on Thursday at work. Charged it overnight, when I got to work, I powered up the machine and let it sit on battery power, with the energy saver settings to never sleep and never turn off the display. Even set a timer on how long it went (2 hours 45 minutes) before power loss, again right around 15% remaining. Then it sat there off for the remainder of the day until I got home from work. Plugged it in (noted the battery said 5% when I turned it on) and let it charge over night. Then repeated the entire process yesterday at work... same thing happened. Died at 15% again.

I was gonna restore to 10.5.4 form Time Machine today, but couldn't find the install discs (we moved over the summer.) so now I am downloading the 10.5.5 Combo Updater and gonna run that and see if there is any change.

Thanks to you both for following my little saga here! I am not ready to give up on the battery. My gut tells me it's still good!
 
Well this is interesting.

So I just ran the 10.5.5 Combo update. Before I did here is what System Profiler had to say about my battery:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4084
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4084
Health Information:
Cycle count: 369
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 173
Voltage (mV): 12610

And after running the Combo Update:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5452
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5452
Health Information:
Cycle count: 369
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1719
Voltage (mV): 12148

Why the large difference?

I'm draining the battery now... currently floating at around 97% so in about 2 1/2 hours... I'll know for certain if there is any difference. If not... then I will have to dig through a few more boxes to find that install disc, and see if I can't restore to 10.5.4 through Time Machine.
 
I had the same issue a few months ago with my 2006-era battery. I bought a new one and it's been fine since (even with 10.5.5).
 
For those of you still following along, the 10.5.5 Combo Update actually made things worse... It cut out around 30% after the update.

Of course, I am kinda beating up on the battery right now trying to work this out... So, who knows.

Think I'll try one more thing before I throw in the towel.
 
Mines back up to 79% now.

Had it charging for 10 mins and it still wouldn't power off the battery.

I think mines knackered.
 
here's mine after a fresh cycle. before the update it was in the high 80's to mid 90's. now it's 26%.

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: Sony-ASMB012-370f-9e4b
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0003
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1483
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 1483
Health Information:
Cycle count: 22
Condition: Check battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12461
 
Hey guys!

Looks like we're getting somewhere.

Last week, along with starting this thread, I sent an email to Apple, today I got a call from their "Executive Support Director."

I am to call him back and schedule a conference call with him and some specialists in the very near future!

I'll keep you guys informed!
 
so as i'm using my mbp on battery the health has risen from 36% to 80%. wtf?
really weird. i knew my battery didn't just decide to go bad, but i am curious to what's going on with it.

well...i spoke too soon. minutes after posting my previous message, my mbp just shut off while on battery power. no warning, no nothing. just off.

here's what my battery status was on reboot. i'm clueless, but i think i'm calling apple tomorrow about it. not saying that the 10.5.5 update has anything to do with it, but it was not doing this before the update.

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: Sony-ASMB012-370f-9e4b
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0003
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 2797
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4491
Health Information:
Cycle count: 23
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 2499
Voltage (mV): 12067
 
Today I duplicated my issue (for the 15th or so time!), but this time instead of plugging the machine in to get it back up, I let it sit for a while. When I plugged it back in, and after booting up, the battery showed a 0% charge. I left it plugged in long enough to get to 6% and unplugged it... It immediately went into sleep mode (it DID NOT turnoff!). Currently, it is sitting in sleep mode, unplugged. I am going to let it sit this way until I get home from work tonight (about 5 hours from now) and plug it back in, in an attempt to calibrate the battery. This is the closest I have been able to get to doing such since the 10.5.5 update.

I’ll let you know how it goes!
 
now i'm up to 90% health and 98% charge with 23 cycles. i don't know what's up with the extreme fluctuations.
 
rychencop said:
now i'm up to 90% health and 98% charge with 23 cycles.
Click to expand...

You're getting this from coconutbattery i assume?

Last I checked, I was just the opposite 90 charge, 98 health, but I am at 370 cycles.

What's interesting to me, it's only the 17 inch MacBook Pro having this trouble. Far as I can tell anyway. I may have missed a 15 inch here or there... but they don't, nor the Macbooks, seem to charged up (pun intentional!) about this problem.

I'm Still waiting to hear back from Apple Engineering... Maybe this evening...
 
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