2008 Unibody Battery Issue

[callmedodge]

Over the past few months my '08 Unibody has started to consume battery power while plugged into the mains. Where it shows the battery life it sometimes says "Not Charging" and may occasionally say "Calculating..." but rarely does it actually charge and provide the time stamp. This occurs even when I'm running no programs.

Whenever it does charge it will provide me with an obcene length of time (I've seen up to 20 hours charge time) and it is currently showing 15 hours to full recharge at 62% battery power. If not, it eventually dies despite being plugged into the mains.

I've tried resetting the PRAM and the VRAM to no avail several times. Does anyone know what might be the issue or should I just get a new laptop?

Unfortunately, goiing to an Apple Store is not an option as I'm currently living in Tokyo and trying to communicate this problem is beyond my language skills.

I can wait another month when I'll be back in Ireland but I'll only be there for a week and I don't want to have to deal with potential problems of shipping the laptop around.

Anyone have any idea what might the problem or if there's anything I could do short of gettiing a new battery?

I'm currently running OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and have upgraded the RAM from 2GB to 4GB.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[iLog.Genius]

I don't think it's the computer itself. It's probably something wrong with the battery. If you're able to use the computer while plugged in, I'd just wait until you get to Ireland and see if a new battery will fix the problem.

 

[callmedodge]

Did a test yesterday. Took the battery out and ran the laptop. Worked fine for a few hours but then turned off after opening a few video tabs in Firefox.

Video Card issue?

 

[GGJstudios]

Over the past few months my '08 Unibody has started to consume battery power while plugged into the mains.

During periods of high demand, it's normal for a Mac to draw both from AC power and from the battery.

Where it shows the battery life it sometimes says "Not Charging" and may occasionally say "Calculating..." but rarely does it actually charge and provide the time stamp. This occurs even when I'm running no programs.

If your Mac is on, it's running many things. Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

I've tried resetting the PRAM and the VRAM to no avail several times.

PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do with battery/power/charging issues. Resetting it will not help. Only resetting the SMC addresses such issues.

Anyone have any idea what might the problem or if there's anything I could do short of gettiing a new battery?

Try calibrating your battery. Instructions are in the link below. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​