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10.5.5 and Batteries

I have a june2007 santa rosa 17" MBP.

after 10.5.5 the mbp died too early. after calibrating(failed because comp died, but somehow it still worked) battery health fell from 95>-47% and shut down in time.

last night it had a 4min battery left when i closed the lid. when i woke up it had shut down, starting up grayish from deep sleep. the trackpad button wasnt working. i checked the battery and it had swelled up about 3mm.

will take it to my local apple store and get a new battery. any advice on what pages to direct them to if they dont want to do it for free?
 
My problem is no where near some of the other posters' on here, but since 10.5.5 I don't get the low battery warning anymore when I'm using the battery.
:confused:
 
I'd hate to bring up this thread, but I'm afraid that I too am suffering from the same problem as the OP, and I feel that another set of data can help us all find a solution.

I have an SR mbp from last June and my battery has about 31 cycles. I had never experienced this problem prior to 10.5.5, and because I don't wear down my battery too often, I only noticed the problem last Saturday. Sure enough, it repeated itself last Sunday as well when I attempted to calibrate the battery.

As far as I can tell, the computer shuts down on its own when the battery hits between 33-35%. I attempted to calibrate it, but after 8+ hours, when I plugged it in again, the battery displayed 35%.

Like others, I notice that the rate of power decay is consistent with my battery. It gave me about 2.5 hours for 65% of battery usage, which is on par with my pre-10.5.5 battery life.

And for the record (in case it's important) my battery has no swelling occurring.

I really hope this is merely a software issue so I don't have to go through the hassle of getting a new battery from Apple.

Discostu7 said:
Remove your battery with the power plugged in.

Continue using your laptop without your battery.
Click to expand...

This is not recommended as it will cause your computer will be underclocked and should the power cord become disconnected, your computer will effectively shut down.
 
there is no harm in leaving the battery in.

the battery will charge when it needs to, and as stated above, is needed for the computer to run at full speed. The battery is also a sort of power buffer/conditioner.
 
CalBoy said:
And for the record (in case it's important) my battery has no swelling occurring.
Click to expand...

i am pretty sure you will have swelling. i have heard from a lot of people and they have the same cronological order with swelling coming last. since you seem to use your battery very seldom it might take longer for you but i think the odds of swelling is high...
 
roblin said:
i am pretty sure you will have swelling. i have heard from a lot of people and they have the same cronological order with swelling coming last. since you seem to use your battery very seldom it might take longer for you but i think the odds of swelling is high...
Click to expand...

I will be sure to keep a sharp lookout for swelling, but so far nothing to report. *crosses fingers*
 
Add me to the list as well. No swelling, etc. The problem started after installing 10.5.5. Additionally, I an able to duplicate the problem using a coworkers battery installed in my MBP. Sure sounds like a bug in 10.5.5.
 
Has anyone found a way to fix this problem? I want to bring my MBP to the Apple Store but it's hard to find the time. I'm really hoping that a new battery will fix the problem.
 
Jesus Christ, thank GOD (somehow) I'm not alone.

We got 2 Macbooks in our home:
- SR white Macbook (my mum)
- 1st Gen 2.0 Ghz MBP (me)
Both have 10.5.5 installed since the day it appeared.

I got a replacement battery for the MBP just because my old battery already hat 470 cycles on it although it still is in pretty good shape for its age. Got about < 2hrs out of it, still. Nevertheless I bought a new battery (off eBay unfortunately) and installed it. Battery performance is great, as new.
When the battery power is on reserve (last 10 mins) the warning pops up but then POOF and off it goes, like a blackout. No sleep state, no data saved, nothing. Hopefully, this is a software failure. As most of the other posters and the OP said, it's impossible to calibrate the battery like that. Tried to reset the SMC, PRAM etc - nothing.

Mum's MB was even funnier. About 3 weeks ago when the led indicator was showing green (like it does at 100%) she unplugged the cable to get in front of the TV or whatever. POOF - blackout, directly after she unplugged.
We got a replacement from the local Apple store without problems. I charged it once for 100%, then wanted to discharge it entirely for calibration purposes. Reserve warning, then at 1 min left or something the standby procedure starts, screen goes black, standby light starts to flicker - POOF. Yep. Blackout again. Now I'm in cycle 2 and its all under surveillance. I'll keep an eye on that. Well f*** that, I say.

I don't want to judge too quickly but I doubt it's a coincidence - 10.5.5, new battery, both cases similar? I'd definitely like to hear from Apple ASAP. Keep us updated, OP :)

*bookmarks thread*
 
rata911 said:
I don't want to judge too quickly but I doubt it's a coincidence - 10.5.5, new battery, both cases similar? I'd definitely like to hear from Apple ASAP. Keep us updated, OP :)

*bookmarks thread*
Click to expand...
Definitely not going to purchase a new battery until there's some movement on this. I get less than an hour on a battery with ~50 cycles on it, but there's no point in subjecting another battery to 10.5.5. if its just going to exhibit the same behavior.
 
^Did you call Apple support? Just curious. I think I'll do so tomorrow although it's 12ct/min here.
 
I'm having the same problem. No matter what I reset, it comes back. Sometimes it doesn't even go away.
This past month or so, my GF, who is running tiger (the latest - can't remember the numbers) have begun experiencing the same thing.
Mine, however, shuts down sometimes at 31-39 percent, sometimes as high as 68 percent (for an entire day – I was going nuts!).
This leads me to believe it is one of the security updates or something like that. Or perhaps they "designed" it to make people buy new computers (haha, sorry, I just had to throw in a little paranoia).

boardopboy said:
Awesome! A fine contribution!

I hadn't thought of that, and I am willing to bet no one else did either!

Well played.

Seriously... I love it. I was starting to get concerned about the physical condition of the battery, what with all this unusual stress on it, and this is perfect for resting my mind! Just pull it out. So simple, that it was completely over looked.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
The problem with that solution is that the computer will run at lower speeds. It does this when no battery is inserted.
 
Been experimenting a bit and did the following: Yesterday night I used my MBP to the point of a low battery warning, then shut the lid immediately and let it rest overnight. Light flickering, standby is on, everything ok.
This morning the light was off and my mind mumbled some curse words towards the computer, having shut off again. Connected the AC cable, power button...YAY, white bars!
Ye olde notebook buccaneer went into deep sleep mode, yarr!
I'm charging the thing as we speak, hope this somehow helped as it actually should be a calibration process, if I'm not mistaken? Not quite sure if the computer is supposed to initialize the sleep mode by itself.

What else did I notice: When I plug the AC connecter in after the MBP suffered a sudden death, for the first minutes or so the battery stats (like coconut battery and the like) show interesting facts, always the same:
a) 0% charge level
b) remaining time: 10:00 in Finder bar, 65535 hrs in Coconut battery. I just guess that this is the programmers' set value for "infinity" (65535 being an int with all zeros) although the Apple guys did a better scaling job :p

Just observing, I really want to know wtf is going on there. Wouldn't be surprised if this will silently go away with 10.5.6 or another BatteryUpdate.
 
Yay, this actually worked :)
Actually it went to sleep as it should after the procedure mentioned above.

- Use notebook until shortly before the point you think it might shut down.
- Close lid, let it go to standby and let it rest until flickering lights go out.

At least it worked for me, though.
 
rata911 said:
Yay, this actually worked :)
Actually it went to sleep as it should after the procedure mentioned above.

- Use notebook until shortly before the point you think it might shut down.
- Close lid, let it go to standby and let it rest until flickering lights go out.

At least it worked for me, though.
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the tip rata911! I'll try this as soon as I can and get back to you guys.
 
Well my problem has seemingly resolved itself because I have a clear diagnosis: swelling.

Today it gave out at 65%, and sure enough, I saw readily apparent swelling.

I'm hoping Apple quickly replaces this battery for me and I'll report back after. :)
 
Ok, it didn't work. I had to go to apple to get a new battery. So far so good. I did a calibration on it last night, and everything went smoothly. Good luck, everyone!
 
sash said:
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
Click to expand...

No two year warranty for my battery was the message I got...

Macbook Pro, Core2Duo 17"..

Same problem as TS describes, and swollen battery, I figured that would be an obvious thing to get replaced without any hassle, but no...
 
boardopboy said:
I'll keep any interested parties up to date. Never fear, your batteries may just rise again!
Click to expand...

Unless they fix the physical swelling, that won't happen...

There is obviously something going on here, so just being told by Apple Support that they won't do anything is pretty annoying. I hope they don't try to just gloss over this if this was caused by software.. (Alá, issue an update and pretend nothing happened and continue to refuse to replace my battery...)

Edit:
Just got a new battery (which I had to pay for..), have anyone gotten a new battery and then experienced the same problem with the new one..? Just contemplating whether I should take the chance or just wait a little while before I use it..
 
im having mine replaced by apple: mine would never make it to 5% or 18% but rather shut the computer down at 80% or 40% and it took only 5-10 minutes to make it those stops. quite a small desktop but i bought it to take it with me!
 
The system died after twenty minutes and 85% capacity displayed in the menubar.
Since this started with 10.5.5., Im curious to see if 10.5.6 has any effect.
 
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