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Battery at 39% Health

S

SoLibertyDies

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 16, 2006
164
0
Spanaway, Wa
Hey guys I know there's been alot of battery topics lately but here's one more.

My MBP usually stays at home and maybe comes off the charger for an hour to go upstairs or whatever but then comes back down.

recently I checked coconut and I see this:

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How can I work it's health back up, if I can?

I tried recallibrating and it actually made it drop a few points.

helpppp... it has an hour of battery life now.
 
No, more is not good. The battery needs to discharge every once in a while, but if you can keep the cycles low, and calibrate your battery once per month, it will last you a long time. To the OP: Have you calibrated your battery since you bought it (not just now, I mean, during the whole 13 months) ? If not, well there's your problem. At 147/13 months it should not have such a poor health.
 
triddent222 said:
If you didn't calibrate your battery during the past 13 months, I'm sorry to say it, but it's probably your fault =\.
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Nope. Failure to calibrate a battery will not damage it or otherwise cause the actual battery health to decline any faster.

The battery appears to be defective and if you're still under warranty, you should request a replacement.
 
triddent222 said:
Did you, or did you not calibrate it? If you did, your battery might be faulty, and you might get a replacement from Apple (assuming you bought AppleCare). If you didn't calibrate your battery during the past 13 months, I'm sorry to say it, but it's probably your fault =\.
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Calibration doesn't affect the health of a battery; calibration simply displays the correct charge and a more accurate "time left" indicator.

What is the OP's fault is not checking this earlier. Had he checked this out before the 1 year mark, Apple would have replaced his battery for him. OP, if you still have Applecare, then get yourself on that phone and call Apple ASAP. If you didn't buy Applecare, check to see if the credit card you bought it on offers an extended warranty service. Mine does for an extra 12 months after the free year provided by Apple. If so, you can ask your CC company how the paperwork works out, but at least you'll save yourself $129(or whatever it is now).
If none of that works in your case, I think you'll have to buy a new battery out of your own pocket. :(
 
CalBoy said:
Calibration doesn't affect the health of a battery; calibration simply displays the correct charge and a more accurate "time left" indicator.
Click to expand...

Quick question: Since he allegedly has not calibrated his/her battery since the time s/he bought the MBP, the health of the battery might not be showing up accurately; wouldn't it be possible for the actual health to be higher ? My batt. went up by 1% the last time I calibrated my battery.

I know calibration just "updates" the internal chip that reads the relative health of the battery (defining what's "empty" and what's "full"), btw.
 
triddent222 said:
Quick question: Since he allegedly has not calibrated his/her battery since the time s/he bought the MBP, the health of the battery might not be showing up accurately; wouldn't it be possible for the actual health to be higher ?
Click to expand...

Since the OP stated an actual runtime of only about an hour, I would say its reported capacity is pretty close to accurate.
 
triddent222 said:
Quick question: Since he allegedly has not calibrated his/her battery since the time s/he bought the MBP, the health of the battery might not be showing up accurately; wouldn't it be possible for the actual health to be higher ? My batt. went up by 1% the last time I calibrated my battery.
Click to expand...

It's a possibility but it's a remote one. Since modern notebook batteries lose their maximum charge even when not in use (the shipping time from China is rumored to remove 1-2% of the maximum charge alone!:eek:), even a battery that isn't in use would still be losing it's max charge at a slow and steady rate. I think the OP started out with a bum battery from the beginning, but since he never used it too much, he never noticed it.

Your battery might have gone up by 1% last time because the previous calibration might have been slightly off too. It isn't an absolutely perfect process, but it is a pretty accurate one most of the time.
 
Just for fun, I'll post mine. I should mention that I bought my machine refurbished in November 2006, and it included a new battery with zero cycles when I received it. So that's 241 cycles in 11 months, not 21 months. Not too bad, I suppose.
 

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I've had my MacBook for just about 15 months now and my battery health was anywhere from 50% to 70% recently. I just took it to the Genius Bar tonight as it started shutting itself off at 40% charge and they replaced it no questions asked. Of course, I have AppleCare which helped.

I would suggest you do the same if your battery health is at 39%!
 
CalBoy said:
What is the OP's fault is not checking this earlier. Had he checked this out before the 1 year mark, Apple would have replaced his battery for him.
Click to expand...

No fault ... if the battery is indeed a bad battery, it's covered up to two years after purchase even if you don't have AppleCare. See http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/

This is the most relevant part - you are eligible if:
Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
Click to expand...

Edit: Should there be a sticky about this? I think this is the fourth time in the past two weeks I've posted about the battery replacement program.
 
plinden said:
No fault ... if the battery is indeed a bad battery, it's covered up to two years after purchase even if you don't have AppleCare. See http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/

This is the most relevant part - you are eligible if:
Click to expand...

That's great news for the OP (I didn't know Apple had implemented this policy :eek:). I believe he does qualify because it seems like has has a CD that isn't providing an adequate charge.
 
I actually find it scary to read that the general consensus here thought that it is normal to find your battery capacity to dip below 100% after less than 1 year of normal use.

As for myself, I listened to the suggestions of some, and did the calibration right after I start up the computer for the first time.

This is how mine looks like right now.
 

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Zegna said:
I actually find it scary to read that the general consensus here thought that it is normal to find your battery capacity to dip below 100% after less than 1 year of normal use.
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What's scary about it? Even while a battery sits on the store shelf, it gradually loses its maximum possible charge. It really can't be helped. However, when you consider the fact that they retain 80% of their maximum charge after 300 cycles, you see that they really are quite durable. And, as time goes on, they become cheaper and of better quality.
 
I saw this thread and decided to test my battery. How can the current capacity be higher than the original capacity?
 

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I read into the article posted and this looks like I fall under the affected ones. I'm going into the bar next week when I'm on that side of town.

No I hadn't callibrated once a month or anywhere near it, but I don't feel like I should have to to keep my battery alive for a year...

sigh.

my poor battery...
 
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