Brand New MacBook fully charged, battery indicator only shows 97%

[StuartGaia]

I got my wife a brand new MacBook for her birthday a week ago. The first couple of days, when fully charged it showed 100% on the battery charge indicator (upper right of screen). Then over a week's time it dropped gradually to where now it only shows 97% when the thing is fully charged (overnight).

We went to 2 Apple Stores and in both places their 'MacGenius' people gave what I felt were bullsh*t answers about what was going on. I feel that they are covering up an issue they know about. I feel it is either bad design, or bad implementation, for a week old laptop to not be able to achieve 100% charge after an all night charge.

Am I missing something? Has anyone else experienced a similar problem?

I myself have a 1 year old MacBook that gets to 100% every time I charge it. Sure the battery doesn't last as long as when it was new, but at least I know it's getting to 100% of the charge that it is still capable of.

 

[72930]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

 

[siurpeeman]

it's a protective measure to prevent too many charge/discharge cycles, saving the life of the battery.

 

[eXan]

Sometimes computer draws more power than the power supply can deliver so it drains the battery a bit. The reason it doesnt recharge right away is because Apple set a limit to when start recharging - I think its 95% and less. Its done to save charging cycles thus giving the battery longer life.

Or if you unplug the power for a short time draining only a couple of % and then plug it in again the battery wont recharge for the same reason.

No need to get mad.

 

[shoarthing]

I got my wife a brand new MacBook for her birthday a week ago. The first couple of days, when fully charged it showed 100% on the battery charge indicator (upper right of screen). Then over a week's time it dropped gradually to where now it only shows 97% when the thing is fully charged (overnight).

We went to 2 Apple Stores and in both places their 'MacGenius' people gave what I felt were bullsh*t answers about what was going on. I feel that they are covering up an issue they know about. I feel it is either bad design, or bad implementation, for a week old laptop to not be able to achieve 100% charge after an all night charge.

Am I missing something? Has anyone else experienced a similar problem?

I myself have a 1 year old MacBook that gets to 100% every time I charge it. Sure the battery doesn't last as long as when it was new, but at least I know it's getting to 100% of the charge that it is still capable of.

. . the issue is with the displayed [& estimated] battery life, not with the true life: the calibration link in psychofreak's post, or this more recent one, will sort you out.