Battery "service"

[alkali]

I have a MBP 4,1
I didn't buy applecare, and I bought the computer in March 2008. I got a battery replacement at some point.

Now I don't have applecare, but my battery I got from apple is less than 1 yr old. It is at only 50 or so cycles with "service battery", 60% health, and it dies suddenly at some percentage.

Will they replace it for free?
Will they look at it for free? (when I click on the service battery thing in snow leopard, it pops up with a help article:

Service Battery: The battery isn’t functioning normally, and you may or may not notice a change in its behavior or the amount of charge it holds. Have your computer checked by an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP). You can continue to use your battery before it’s checked without harming your computer.

Will they check it for free?

And is there anything I can do to revive my battery?

__

The battery used to run fine under Leopard, but it started degrading when I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Its only been about 2 months since I upgraded my laptop and battery health has dropped from 95% or so to 60%.

Will applecare replace it for free?

 

[powerbook911]

Do you leave the computer connected to the power a lot even when it's turned off? I found leaving my Powerbook plugged it always hurt the batteries.

Since the replacement battery is less than 1 year old, you might ask Apple, but a replacement part I think is warranties only 90-180 days maybe?

If you have to get another battery, I think they sell them at Apple online. You can't revive your battery, but you can take steps to maybe make the next one last longer.

 

[nizmoz]

Do you leave the computer connected to the power a lot even when it's turned off? I found leaving my Powerbook plugged it always hurt the batteries.

Since the replacement battery is less than 1 year old, you might ask Apple, but a replacement part I think is warranties only 90-180 days maybe?

If you have to get another battery, I think they sell them at Apple online. You can't revive your battery, but you can take steps to maybe make the next one last longer.

Leaving a machine plugged in will not hurt the batteries. I would recommend cycling the battery a few times. Drain to nothing, then charge up, drain again and charge. Do it a few times and see what happens.

 

[m85476585]

Leaving the computer plugged in all the time will degrade the battery over time. I have a MBP4,1 and I'm on my second replacement battery, but since I have care they were free. They will check it for free but they will simply tell you that you need a new battery.

 

[mrheisman]

I have a MBP 4,1
I didn't buy applecare, and I bought the computer in March 2008. I got a battery replacement at some point.

Now I don't have applecare, but my battery I got from apple is less than 1 yr old. It is at only 50 or so cycles with "service battery", 60% health, and it dies suddenly at some percentage.

Will they replace it for free?
Will they look at it for free? (when I click on the service battery thing in snow leopard, it pops up with a help article:



Will they check it for free?

And is there anything I can do to revive my battery?

__

The battery used to run fine under Leopard, but it started degrading when I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Its only been about 2 months since I upgraded my laptop and battery health has dropped from 95% or so to 60%.

Will applecare replace it for free?

Same thing happened to me. It seems to be yet another SL issue.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2139186&start=0&tstart=0

 

[m85476585]

SL adds new battery statuses, like check battery and service battery. it's possible that the battery was already bad under leopard, and SL just started to indicate that in the battery meter. Also, it's possible that the battery was going bad anyway, and it just happened to drop to a low health shortly after SL was installed.

I think *all* the MBP 4,1 batteries are defective, and Apple should acknowledge that and cover them for 2-3 years even if Applecare was not purchased. I am already on the second replacement battery for my MBP4,1. from what I have read here, there are a large number of them dying before 300 cycles.

 

[Stridder44]

Same thing happened to me too! I've updated to 10.6.3 and nothing. I even tried doing a complete reformat and for a couple of weeks I didn't get the message. But just sometime during the past couple days, it showed up again and has not gone away since. I don't get it. I baby the crap out of my battery. Unless I got a bad egg, this must be a software problem. Come on Apple! Please help us!

 

[Pax]

I have a MBP 4,1
I didn't buy applecare, and I bought the computer in March 2008. I got a battery replacement at some point.

Now I don't have applecare, but my battery I got from apple is less than 1 yr old. It is at only 50 or so cycles with "service battery", 60% health, and it dies suddenly at some percentage.

Will they replace it for free?
Will they look at it for free? (when I click on the service battery thing in snow leopard, it pops up with a help article:

I think you are out of luck, Apple's legal stuff says that the replacement part is only covered for 90 days or the remainder of your original warranty. This is the UK legal stuff, I'm sure you can find similar for wherever you are. Maybe you have different consumer protection laws.
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/uk/Images/worldwidewarranty.html

But you might be able to talk them into it - it seems pretty poor behaviour. You might be able to convince them it would be good customer relations to swap it. But it seems it would be at their discretion.

Sorry. Batteries for that model are reasonably cheap at least.