2010 Macbook Air Throttling when battery half empty

[jimmysofat6864]

Here's my results from a session watching several 720p and 1080p videos from the battery:

The temperature remained static at 25 degrees. It might be worth checking with coconutBattery to see what the results are. I'm not informed enough to confirm whether this is an accurate method to gauge the battery. Perhaps others can clarify?

It appears that your battery is third party or counterfeit as having static values is something that seems to be a commonality with third party batteries only but on real apple batteries the values fluctuate as seen in the pictures below. Coconut battery's battery value is I believe a sensor on the MacBook but not actually on the battery cells or third party batteries only have one battery sensor but genuine apple batteries have three battery sensors that monitor temperature. I'm assuming the third party battery is sending back fake temperature values for sensor 1 and sensor 2 but that is just a prediction.

 

[alex_free]

There has been no throttling at all with the unbranded battery. In fact the new battery solved many power management issues: previously there was a noticeable delay in powering up the MBA, it would fail to resume from sleep and was erratic with rebooting correctly.



With the encouragement of a fellow MR member, I took a risk and it appears to have paid off. Subsequent research as to how and where Apple obtains its branded batteries in the first place (from Simplo and Dynapack) put my mind at ease.

One element of caution that I exercised was the avoidance of anything that appeared to be too good to be true in terms of pricing.



You're very welcome - I'm just glad that it will save you from needlessly pursuing NOS or having to abandon MacOS.

This is such an important topic for hardware preservation, Thank you.

 

[TheShortTimer]

It appears that your battery is third party or counterfeit as having static values is something that seems to be a commonality with third party batteries only but on real apple batteries the values fluctuate as seen in the pictures below.

The battery in the 2010 MBA is definitely third party. Nonetheless it works better than the original Apple unit which was swollen and on the verge of exploding.

Coconut battery's battery value is I believe a sensor on the MacBook but not actually on the battery cells or third party batteries only have one battery sensor but genuine apple batteries have three battery sensors that monitor temperature. I'm assuming the third party battery is sending back fake temperature values for sensor 1 and sensor 2 but that is just a prediction.

Here's the values from my 2012 MBP whose battery is the original stock unit from when I purchased the computer brand new in late 2013. Full disclosure - it reached the "replace now" stage years ago:

The temperatures initially fluctuated and I suspect that was due to the machine being inactive for a few months but they quickly stabilised at 34 degrees for both sensors and remained so for the rest of the session.

This is such an important topic for hardware preservation, Thank you.

You're welcome. I'm just glad that I'm able contribute information to the community that might be helpful.

 

[alex_free]

@TheShortTimer got any info on the 5,2 non unibody? My $20 battery is behaving like a $20 battery and I don't know what to look for.

 

[TheShortTimer]

@TheShortTimer got any info on the 5,2 non unibody? My $20 battery is behaving like a $20 battery and I don't know what to look for.

Unfortunately not. I'm in a similar situation myself because I foolishly allowed my 5,2 to lay dormant for too long and now its battery no longer charges.