Help with Replacing Battery of UMBP in Apple Store

[WareWolf]

Hey guys i need your help.

Here's my situation, for the past month or so ive been having problems with my Late 2009 Uniboody Macbook pro 15 inch model battery. Ive been getting the "Service Battery" sign and i've checked using istat pro an other apps, my battery health has been going down and up from 50% to maximum 80% (Whether i calibrated it or not). My laptop is 10 month old (Under the 12 month warranty) its battery has 240 cycles as of today and it holds a charge of 2 hours if im simply watching a video.

I decided that i need to take my mac to an apple store and have the battery replaced. I havent faced this issue before of having to take my laptop in as this is my first Mac and i need your help to figure out a few things:

1) Will the battery be replaced for no charge since its under warranty, or will the guys at apple try to dig out cash from me because my battery has 240 cycles within 10 months (BTW as of now my battery health is 50%)

2)What can i do or how should i approach the guys at apple to make sure that they replace my battery under the warranty. I checked the apple website support section and it says "Apple warrants your battery against manufacturing defects" So is my situation concidered as a manufacturing defect?

3) My laptop has a few gigs of Movies and stuff that i downloaded. Should i be worried of giving my laptop to these guys?

4) How long does it take to replace the battery in the store cause im gonna fly to the UK mainly for that reason and will have maybe 3-5 days free.

5) Do i need to book an appointment before going into the store or just go straight in with my laptop to the receptionist?

Basicly can you guys give me any information about how i should go by replacing my laptops battery and feel free to share your expirience with this kind of stuff, i want to be fully informed when i do this.

I appreciate any help you can give me

 

[spinnerlys]

1) Will the battery be replaced for no charge since its under warranty, or will the guys at apple try to dig out cash from me because my battery has 240 cycles within 10 months (BTW as of now my battery health is 50%)

Yes - it will be replaced. No charge. Also Apple has a policy of replacing batteries within the first year of purchase with less than 80% battery health in less than 300 cycles.

2)What can i do or how should i approach the guys at apple to make sure that they replace my battery under the warranty. I checked the apple website support section and it says "Apple warrants your battery against manufacturing defects" So is my situation concidered as a manufacturing defect?

Yes.

3) My laptop has a few gigs of Movies and stuff that i downloaded. Should i be worried of giving my laptop to these guys?

It's best to make a backup and protect the user account with a password. But since they only will replace the battery, they might not need to use the Mac OS X on there.

4) How long does it take to replace the battery in the store cause im gonna fly to the UK mainly for that reason and will have maybe 3-5 days free.

An hour or two if you made an appointment.

5) Do i need to book an appointment before going into the store or just go straight in with my laptop to the receptionist?

You should.

Basicly can you guys give me any information about how i should go by replacing my laptops battery and feel free to share your expirience with this kind of stuff, i want to be fully informed when i do this.

I appreciate any help you can give me

MRoogle will give you plenty of answers.

 

[WareWolf]

I already feel better thank you

I kinda thought that a manufacturing defect meant like if the laptop came with a huge dent under it.

Im not sure how long apples laptop batteries last, i somehow feel that my situation occured because of my general ignorance of the way the laptop is meant to be used.

1)I used to leave my laptop connected to the charging cable when i gamed or watched movies
2)I used to recharge over 50%
3)I used to do other stupid things like disconnecting and reconnecting my charge cable

Also side note is it bad to leave your laptop on Sleep Mode and not shutting it down for the night? I rarely shutdown my laptop.

Now i know better and treat my laptop much better.

So basicly i dont need to worry apple will replace my battery for free?

 

[spinnerlys]

I already feel better thank you

I kinda thought that a manufacturing defect meant like if the laptop came with a huge dent under it.

Im not sure how long apples laptop batteries last, i somehow feel that my situation occured because of my general ignorance of the way the laptop is meant to be used.

1)I used to leave my laptop connected to the charging cable when i gamed or watched movies
2)I used to recharge over 50%
3)I used to do other stupid things like disconnecting and reconnecting my charge cable

Also side note is it bad to leave your laptop on Sleep Mode and not shutting it down for the night? I rarely shutdown my laptop.

Now i know better and treat my laptop much better.

So basicly i dont need to worry apple will replace my battery for free?

Take a look at www.apple.com/batteries and use MRoogle for many, many, many, many, ...., many battery threads and the proper use of them.

Sleep mode does not damage the battery, it uses it if you're not connected to a power plug.

Apple should replace your battery, as it seems to be a faulty one.

Manufacturing defects are most of the time not visible, as the outer shel is just that. a shell to protect and house the complex nature of the inner parts, which might have manufacturing defects due to mass production.

Btw, why is manufacturing still used as a word for mass produced products, as human hands are hardly involved anymore?

 

[WareWolf]

Is my situation not so common or widespread?
I First noticed the Service Battery sign on the battery indicator during the start of this year and my batteries heath was flactuating quite unusually and unpredictably

My brother bought the same laptop as me only the 13 inch model he has about 80 cycles with a steady 88% health and he hasnt yet calibrated it while i have almost 6 times this year.

BTW heres some pics and info on my battery

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial:xxxxxxx
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0003
Hardware Revision: 0003
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1006
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3296
Health Information:
Cycle count: 241
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1686
Voltage (mV): 10973

System Power Settings:

AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On LAN: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
GPUSwitch: 2
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 6
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Current Power Source: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
GPUSwitch: 2
Reduce Brightness: Yes

Hardware Configuration:

UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

Connected: No
Charging: No

 

[TheIguana]

Btw, why is manufacturing still used as a word for mass produced products, as human hands are hardly involved anymore?

Manufacturing: The making of articles on a large scale through the use of machinery. (from the New Oxford American Dictionary)

 

[spinnerlys]

Manufacturing: The making of articles on a large scale through the use of machinery. (from the New Oxford American Dictionary)

Thanks, I've read that too, but since it comes from "manus (manus)" for hand and "factura" for a making, it is quite strange, that this word is still used in that fashion.

 

[WareWolf]

Is it normal though to have this kind of issue.
240 cycles within 10 months, i mean this is my main computer i use it at work and home

will the battery start to deplete so much within 10 months and 240 cycles or should it stay within the range of 88-95% health?

I dont know how it got to this that my battery got so screwed up :S

 

[kny3twalker]

Thats a lot of cycles for 10 months. But Apple guarantees up to 300 cycles and more than 80% left to the battery. So I would not worry about it. Get it replaced. It does not sound like a big deal.

 

[WareWolf]

The only weird thing is that i notice my battery sometimes increases its health when i leave charging for a few hours after its fully charged. Like yesterday my batterys health was 50% and today i noticed it to be 61%. Sometimes it even went up to 80% for a few days and started decliing again.

I just hope that my battery doesnt screw me over when i go to the apple store and the guys say "Uhm it says the health is at 80% which is perfectly reasonable"

How am i supposed to prove them wrong if something weird like that happens, its my word against theirs :S

 

[spinnerlys]

Make screen shots from System Profiler > Hardware > Battery, CoconutBattery and iStat Pro, preferable all in the sam shot, at various times.

 

[Aboo]

So, I thought that the newer (Mid-09) unibodies with the 7 hr or 8 hr batteries are rated for 1000 charge/discharge cycles?

 

[spinnerlys]

So, I thought that the newer (Mid-09) unibodies with the 7 hr or 8 hr batteries are rated for 1000 charge/discharge cycles?

Yes, they are. But they can get faulty too.
Or was your comment/question regarded to something specific?