So, I randomly clicked on my battery and noticed this "Service Battery" message. I had never seen it before. Obviously, this isn't a good thing. My Mac is 3 and a half years old so I'm not surprised this message poped up. So, I opened Coconut Battery and noticed my current battery capacity is at 65%. Even though charger says it's green, my battery isn't even charging. Should I make an appointment with Apple? My AppleCare expired so i'll have to buy a new battery when the time comes. I'm sure they're not cheap, either.
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MacBook "Service Battery" message
- Thread starter Samelson03
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As far as I know, service battery comes when it is recommended to get it changed but you can still use it at 65%. If it won't charge then you might have a different problem (or it could be the battery).
OS X is smart
WHen the battery isa as fully charged as it gets, the color of the LED on the charger is green. When it is charging, it turns orange.
true, but I am also having intermittent ( and very annoying) battery problems with my battery not charging. When the battery is not being charged ( and you get the 'not charging' message next to the battery icon ) you also get the green light, irrespective of battery charge state.
Resetting SMC worked!
Have had a "Service Battery" message under the battery icon for about a month, but the battery seemed to be working fine on my Unibody MacBook running Lion 10.7.1. Maybe my battery life was less than 2 hours active use, full screen brightness, Wi-fi and Bluetooth on, but it charged up to 100% relatively quickly, so I was not in a panic. However, I did my research today, found the comments about the SMC reset. So, I shut down, removed adaptor plug, opened battery cover and removed the battery, then held down the power button for a count of 5 (well, maybe 7) and then put the battery back and the adaptor and restarted my machine.
Now under the battery icon it says Battery Charged and Power Source: Power Adaptor, and with option click it now says Condition Normal. So I am happy again. Will see later if it has improved the battery life too. It started after I upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard and I notice that others got it after upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard, so maybe resetting SMC may need to be redone after some OS updates.
According to CoconutBattery, my current charge is 97% (Apple reports 98%), my current battery capacity is at 76%, my MacBook age is 35 months and my battery cycles are at 266. Should be good for another year or two.
Have had a "Service Battery" message under the battery icon for about a month, but the battery seemed to be working fine on my Unibody MacBook running Lion 10.7.1. Maybe my battery life was less than 2 hours active use, full screen brightness, Wi-fi and Bluetooth on, but it charged up to 100% relatively quickly, so I was not in a panic. However, I did my research today, found the comments about the SMC reset. So, I shut down, removed adaptor plug, opened battery cover and removed the battery, then held down the power button for a count of 5 (well, maybe 7) and then put the battery back and the adaptor and restarted my machine.
Now under the battery icon it says Battery Charged and Power Source: Power Adaptor, and with option click it now says Condition Normal. So I am happy again. Will see later if it has improved the battery life too. It started after I upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard and I notice that others got it after upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard, so maybe resetting SMC may need to be redone after some OS updates.
According to CoconutBattery, my current charge is 97% (Apple reports 98%), my current battery capacity is at 76%, my MacBook age is 35 months and my battery cycles are at 266. Should be good for another year or two.
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