Hey guys, so i have a macbook pro and was on it earlier today and within moments of using it the battery icon indicated i only had 50 minutes left after a full charge. I clicked on the battery icon and it says "Service Battery" with a little warning icon next to it. I rang my local apple store and they said that i would have to bring it in for a genius appointment to which i then asked whether or not a battery replacement would cost anything, to which he then said $199. Has anyone else had an issue like this and if so did you have to buy a new battery? I bought my macbook pro in october 2007 and also bought apple care with it so its still under warranty, so i really dont want to have to pay more money for it, especially cause im a poor student.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Battery needs service???
- Thread starter Burntfender
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you bought AppleCare then you shouldn't have to pay anything for a new battery - it should be covered. Obviously the guy on the phone isn't allowed to just take your word for it and say that they'll replace it, but it should be all good to go once they verify your serial number and see that you're covered.
Cool, thanks. Do you know if this is a common issue because it seems like its not just the battery naturally running out as it never came up with "Replace Soon" or "Replace Now" in the battery icon. Last night it was fine, and then today all of a sudden here comes this "Service Battery" warning without any indication of poor battery functionality.
Did you install Snow Leopard recently? If so, this has been a common problem among those who have. Apple apparently has no fix for it yet, but like Ivan P said, if you're under warranty Apple should be kind enough to give you a new battery.
YES! I got it a week after it came out. So its a common issue amongst those who upgraded to snow leopard? This couldn't affect all my hard drive and everything else? Cause i would actually die if i lost it all, as im getting really close to exams and all my school stuff is on here!
There is no fix because its not an issue, its a feature. Windows has done it for a while (since XP SP2 I believe). It's telling you that you should probably consider getting a new battery. TUAW wrote an article about it http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/24/10-6-falsely-reports-service-battery-i-think-not/