Battery Qs

[Boomba05]

I have a Macbook I bought last July, and the battery life has declined significantly in the less than a year I have owned it. I went from over four hours of battery life to roughly 1.5 hours. I take good care of my computer (don't leave it on for days, let the batter die 100% before charging if I can help it). I don't think I've made any changes in the way I use it either (screen is same brightness, mainly used for web/email, nothing processor intensive).

I was wondering if Apple would be likely to replace the battery. I know there have been battery issues in the past, but I was reading on the support site, and it says this regarding the battery update 1.2:

"This battery update should be run on all MacBook and MacBook Pro computers and extra batteries that were purchased between February 2006 and April 2007. "

Does this mean that only Macbooks purchased between those times are likely to be eligible for a battery exchange? I'd hate to make the 3 hour round trip to my Apple store just to be turned away. Also, how would they test the battery life in-store? I'm worried they have some funny machine that will say my battery is fine, even though in real-world conditions it isn't.

Thanks in advance!

 

[zaney]

Have you tried calibrating the battery?
You've said that you don't let the battery fall to nothing, which is exactly what you SHOULD do for long battery life.
The article is on the apple website somewhere, but basically, let your battery go COMPLETELY flat, then recharge it to 100%, then repeat. This should re-calibrate the chip in the battery, and give you a more accurate figure of your actually battery life.

Hope this helps.

 

[Boomba05]

Maybe I was unclear when I first posted, I meant to say that I DO drain the battery all the way before I charge it if possible, which is 95% of the time.

 

[scienide09]

Apple's usual policy is that if the battery holds less than 80% charge capacity and less than 300 cycles, they will replace it.

Call Apple.
They will ask you to report some numbers from within System Profiler.
If you qualify, they will send you a pre-addressed, pre-paid box containing a new battery.
Put your old battery in, return the box to Apple, and you're done.

 

[zaney]

Maybe I was unclear when I first posted, I meant to say that I DO drain the battery all the way before I charge it if possible, which is 95% of the time.

Perhaps, or maybe I just misread it. Either way if you're charging it properly, and it's not that old, then you should return it.
I have no idea about their policies, but apparently scienide09 above does, and they seem pretty good about it.