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QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Original poster
Mar 20, 2003
12,069
6,111
Bay Area
I've noticed that my trusty (7 years old this month!) 13" MacBook Pro no longer sits perfectly flat on my desk. There's a tiny wobble to it, and if I look closely, I can see a tiny gap between the desk and the rubber "feet." I've tried it on several surfaces, so I don't think it's the desk.

Some googling tells me this most likely means a swollen battery. It also tells me that this can be a safety issue. Do I need to stop using the MBP right away?

(as an aside, it's a $200 repair on a computer that's probably barely worth $200 at this point, but that's a decision for another day)

thank you!
 
You want to get that battery out ASAP. It can keep swelling and destroy the computer. I'd probably just put some cheap one in off Amazon with a lot of good review. It definitely isn't worth the cost to have it serviced. Maybe some discount battery place. But I'd rather the option of choosing a battery based on reviews.

Removal can be a pain. I'm not sure if they started gluing them down with that model.
 
You can certainly remove the bottom cover. A swelling battery is usually easily visible.
And, you could replace the battery yourself. Some instructions here (also shows you how to remove that bottom cover, so you can stop there if replacing the battery is not comfortable for you). You do need to know if your have an Early 2013, or a Late 2013 (different batteries!). And, yes, the 2013 MBPro battery is glued in place.
 
(as an aside, it's a $200 repair on a computer that's probably barely worth $200 at this point
That depends on how it was kitted out... If it's at least a 8GB / 512GB / i5 setup, then the $200 repair will net you a $400-ish machine. If it's anything 4GB, then no.
 
My 2018 15 inch are same with yours now. It no longer lay flat on desk. When I close lid I see small gaps on the left side where the right side is tightly closed.

This laptop are docked everyday, connected to 4K display. I suspect it was causing that issue?
 
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions guys. So I should at least get the bottom cover off as a start?

It’s a late 2013, i5 2.4 ghz, 256, 8 GB. It’s been my only Mac the last 7 years so it’s seen a lot of use.
 
Apple and Apple Auth Service Providers will both service it, and it is $200 as noted. You have a robust and reliable system which IMHO is worth servicing as that system has at least several years of life left in it unless you currently want to upgrade.
 
Had this not happened, I probably wouldn’t be upgrading. But with silicon macs coming soon, I’m not sure I can see pouring two hundred dollars into a 7 year old Mac that’s getting a bit slow. If I knew it would run well for another few years with that one repair, I’d do it, but my fear is that something else goes wrong sooner rather than later and it’s good money after bad.
 
Wow, are you me? I just noticed the same in my late 2013 - and I've had to replace the battery once already. The new one has only seen 130ish cycles, and I do plan on replacing the battery so I can hand it off... but in the meantime, I've also picked up a 2019. This thing is a dream.
 
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OP:

IF you have a brick-n-mortar Apple Store nearby, make an appt for the genius bar and take it to them and see if they'll do the replacement. The price of $199 (parts and labor) is A BARGAIN for this service.

IF you don't have an Apple Store nearby, you might call Apple directly. Not sure if they'll still do a "mail in" replacement on a 2013, but you never know. They will send you a prepaid shipping box, and you send it back to their repair facility, and it gets returned to you when done.

If neither of these options are available, you could either try it yourself or look for a 3rd-party independent shop that repairs Macs.

There are online tutorials and videos that can help.
 
Yeah I live less than a mile from an apple retail store, so it’s definitely an option.

One other thought - my wife has (had) a 2015 13” MBP on which she spilled water. She killed the SSD, but it will still boot from an external drive, so I *think* the SSD is the only thing that‘s dead. Could I pull the SSD from my 2013 and put it in her 2015? They’re compatible, right?
 
Update: I opened it up, and the battery is indeed swollen. Then I opened up my wife’s 2015 and swapped the SSD from my 2013 into her 2015. It booted up but seemed to be running very poorly (it’s a 2015 13” with 2.7 i5 and 8 GB RAM). When I went to enter my code for iCloud 2FA, it just shut off. Not... great. I’m going to give it a little time, but this 2015 was water damaged, so I’m wondering if maybe more was damaged than just the SSD.

If the 2015 proves stable, I’ll probably just leave the 2013 SSD in there and use it until it dies. If the 2015 keeps having random shut offs, then that one’s getting recycled, and I’ll probably just pay the $200 to replace the battery on the 2013.
 
Do any of you have any specific brands of batteries to purchase or avoid from Amazon? Have a mid 2012 MBP that will eventually need a new battery--battery health still okay. Will probably swap out the keyboard the same time to get functioning left shift alt control keys back.
 
Do any of you have any specific brands of batteries to purchase or avoid from Amazon? Have a mid 2012 MBP that will eventually need a new battery--battery health still okay.
The giant thread of people reporting their experiences with different brands is here. These days there's not many choices for 2nd gen replacements to have to sort through, anyway.
 
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When I went to enter my code for iCloud 2FA, it just shut off. Not... great. I’m going to give it a little time, but this 2015 was water damaged, so I’m wondering if maybe more was damaged than just the SSD.
You probably want to get into Recovery Mode and run first aid on the drive and then clone the drive and do an OS Reinstall-No-Erase or clean Reinstall, before you conclude anything dire. I wonder if something went wrong while it was trying to assign your Apple ID as the EFI lock, and found there already was one? It could be anything along those lines.
 
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You probably want to get into Recovery Mode and run first aid on the drive and then clone the drive and do an OS Reinstall-No-Erase or clean Reinstall, before you conclude anything dire. I wonder if something went wrong while it was trying to assign your Apple ID as the EFI lock, and found there already was one? It could be anything along those lines.
Thank you, those are good thoughts.
 
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