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Battery health down to 99% after 31 cycles - Why God, why?!

Neutral Gamer

Neutral Gamer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 8, 2007
504
1
The fitting blend of Socialism and Capitalism that
I knew this day would come eventually, but I still felt like I'd been punched in the stomach when I saw the health no longer at the 100% I was accustomed to in iStat.

Why God, why?!

Death is the only option for me now that my MBP is no longer perfect. I feel dirty using it - despite the 1% drop it's only half the laptop it used to be in my opinion! Time to buy a new one me thinks ... :D

Seriously though, is this normal? I've had it for 3 months now; is this what you'd expect to happen after that amount of time? Should I use it more on the battery to prevent it falling to 98% as quick?

Also, can I expect the drops to be linear or should I brace myself for one day seeing the battery health fall several percent at once? :eek:
 
mrwizardno2 said:
Mine's at 96% after 49 cycles, if that makes you feel any better!
Click to expand...

Eeek! So that's what I've got to look forward to! I'll write that figure down and see how it compares when I reach the same milestone. :)

xUKHCx said:
Have you calibrated your battery recently or ever.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've calibrated a couple of times although it's been several weeks since I last did so. How often do you calibrate yours?

Also am I doing it properly, as on the calibration instructions at point 5 it says:

"Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or longer."

Does that mean that you should turn it off for five hours or only let it sleep for five hours?
 
It's over, put it up on ebay and for God's sake don't tell anyone about this defect.
 
Well, it's perfectly normal, here is my powerbooks battery after 2,5 years:

Bild 2.png
 
i've only calibrated once but then again I haven't had my machine for very long. I think the suggested time is once every month. I ran my computer until it sent itself to sleep then left it for about 7 hours by which time it had completely turned itself off. I think the point for the suggested time of 5 hours is to make sure there is no charge left in the battery what so ever.

You can use Coconutbattery to view the health of your battery and save reports from time to time to see how your battery health is going.
 
Neutral Gamer said:
Yeah, I've calibrated a couple of times although it's been several weeks since I last did so. How often do you calibrate yours?

Also am I doing it properly, as on the calibration instructions at point 5 it says:

"Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or longer."

Does that mean that you should turn it off for five hours or only let it sleep for five hours?
Click to expand...

Either.

I think that if the batteries are being cycled that much intentionally, it's being overdone. Mine's 8 months old, been deep-cycled about six times, and never been "properly" calibrated, or at least exactly as the KB article specifies. At that, I've gained battery capacity (5328 mAh available now vs. 5200 in May).
 
178 cycles on mbp, 94% health. lol. never calibrated but, will do so today. probably run cputest to drain it quickly.
 
after about 500 cycles mines down to under 30%!!!

It'll do about 30 minutes on a good day!

(new battery for xmas??)
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
At that, I've gained battery capacity (5328 mAh available now vs. 5200 in May).
Click to expand...

Wow. You're battery capacity's actually gone up? That's amazing!

I better start calibrating my battery more. But part of me just thinks, just use it how I want without thinking about it and then when the health becomes unacceptable just buy myself a new battery. It's only £99!

Cos at the moment I'm always obsessed with it and prepare myself every day to see if the health has gone down - that's too stressful man!

fluidedge said:
It'll do about 30 minutes on a good day!

(new battery for xmas??)
Click to expand...

I think Santa Claus needs to get your house quick! ;)
 
After 134 cycles my batteries still at 100%. I honestly have no idea why, I mean its used daily for a few hours and I don't take particularly good care of the battery...
 
Wow, one percent? Nothing to cry over, and nothing to buy a new computer over, just buy a new battery...
 
10-Dee-Q said:
i have 1 year old black macbook
and it stated:

cycles:449
health:100%:eek:

i coulndt believe it but that's the fact :p
Click to expand...
I think that's physically impossible. If it really does report those numbers to you, there must be a bug somewhere in the hardware or software that generates that info.

I'm at 97% after 19 cycles. I'm not sure, but it sounds like the OP needs to find a hobby or something.
 
Yeesh. When I got my MB, it was at 1 load cycle at 99% already. Now, it's at 93 cycles, 87% capacity.
 
A Miracle !

My friends, Christmas is near and I feel a miracle has occurred. I calibrated my battery today and low and behold after 32 cycles I'm back up at 100% health again in iStat.

But just to make sure I downloaded coconutBattery as xUKHCx recommended and as the attached screenshot below shows, things are looking pretty good! I've got more battery capacity than I started with.

Now I can go back to using / loving my Macbook Pro rather than worrying about lost health.

It may be early but I say Merry Christmas ! :D
 

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So if after 59 cycles my battery like is 87%, should I think about seeing if it is one of those batteries that needs replacement? (My MBP is about 7 mo. old)
 
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