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Holy Crappy Battery Batman!

I

IslanderWags

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 6, 2008
2
0
So I've had my Macbook Pro for a solid two and half months now and the battery was phenomenal. It consistently held 100% charging capacity.

Last Friday I checked it, and it had dropped down to 98%. Then Monday morning, it dropped to 96%. I figured I would would ahead and calibrate the battery last night. Before doing it, it was down 92%.

So I calibrated the battery booted it up this morning and it's down to 84%!

Is it even possible to the battery capacity to drop by 15% in a matter of 3 days!?
 
IslanderWags said:
So I've had my Macbook Pro for a solid two and half months now and the battery was phenomenal. It consistently held 100% charging capacity.

Last Friday I checked it, and it had dropped down to 98%. Then Monday morning, it dropped to 96%. I figured I would would ahead and calibrate the battery last night. Before doing it, it was down 92%.

So I calibrated the battery booted it up this morning and it's down to 84%!

Is it even possible to the battery capacity to drop by 15% in a matter of 3 days!?
Click to expand...

Tell me about it, in the span of a few days I had my battery drop down from 95% to 84% to 28% to 19% to now 12% with only 89 cycles. And now I can't get it to go past 12% and less than half an hour of use.

Useless.
 
Simple. If that happens then you should be able to get Apple to give you a replacement for free. They should still have 80% capicity after 300 charge cycles, so yeah.
 
7031 said:
Simple. If that happens then you should be able to get Apple to give you a replacement for free. They should still have 80% capicity after 300 charge cycles, so yeah.
Click to expand...

Seriously...both of you, go get your batteries replaced.
 
Apple support is very easy to deal with and they will take care of you. Call them and tell explain the issue. They will ask the number of cycles and age of the battery and then ship a replacement right away.

I didn't even know the percent on my battery, just that I got less then 1.5 hours use after 10 months.
 
I had similar issues...

I had similar issues with a one yr old MBP. Apple replaced the battery twice in a 6 month period, then had me bring it in. Under my Apple Care plan they replaced the audio cards (I think that's what this part is), a thermal module w/temp sensor, and the bottom case assembly w/temp sensor. Somehow all that was related to the battery. It also would get really hot. I was super diligent about calibrating it. The one time I tried to watch a 2 hour movie on it, it died after 1 hour and 45 minutes. A family member inherited it after it's repair so I don't know if the battery is still messed up. I now have a new Black Macbook. This battery is giving me 4 good hours with WiFi and zillions of programs running. This seems like a recurring MBP issue.
 
err404 said:
Apple support is very easy to deal with and they will take care of you. Call them and tell explain the issue. They will ask the number of cycles and age of the battery and then ship a replacement right away.
Click to expand...

Batteries are only covered for 1 year after purchase even if you have Apple Care.
 
iAmRod said:
Batteries are only covered for 1 year after purchase even if you have Apple Care.
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Maybe, but if you have an ongoing documented issue they still take care of it cause they can see they haven't solved the problem yet. I got my computer 3/07 and shortly thereafter received the replacement battery from the recall issue. Then they gave me a battery in 12/07 and finally new battery and the repair in 5/07. I had a well documented issue with all the times I had called in about it.
 
MacLadybug said:
Maybe, but if you have an ongoing documented issue they still take care of it cause they can see they haven't solved the problem yet.
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Yeah, I'm sure Apple will *try* to take care of its customers (and they seem to do that pretty well), but your anecdote is simply an exception to the rule, it's not the actual policy. I just wanted to be sure to make that distinction. :)

I learned the hard way (well, if I would have read my Apple Care policy more thoroughly it wouldn't have been a surprise) that when a battery goes and it's beyond the initial year (with no history of problems) you're out of luck.
 
Batteries

iAmRod said:
Yeah, I'm sure Apple will *try* to take care of its customers (and they seem to do that pretty well), but your anecdote is simply an exception to the rule, it's not the actual policy. I just wanted to be sure to make that distinction. :)

I learned the hard way (well, if I would have read my Apple Care policy more thoroughly it wouldn't have been a surprise) that when a battery goes and it's beyond the initial year (with no history of problems) you're out of luck.
Click to expand...

THAT STINKS.
 
iAmRod said:
Batteries are only covered for 1 year after purchase even if you have Apple Care.
Click to expand...

I never said otherwise. The OP battery is only a few months old, so they will take care of it.

Basically if the Battery (not the whole laptop) is less then a 1yr old, with less then 300 cycles and is at less then 80% life, they will take care of it (regardless of having AppleCare or not).
 
MacLadybug said:
THAT STINKS.
Click to expand...

People need to have reasonable expectations. Apples policy is quite generous. A battery is a consumable part. Like brake pads on a car. Any heavily used battery will diminish in capacity over time.

The best advice is to check your battery periodically. Set a reminder in iCal at 11 months to remind you that it is almost expired. If your under 80% you can get a replacement. If you have gone over a yr, don't sweat it. Just buck up and get a new one. As I said it's meant to be consumable part don't get upset when it needs to be replaced.

BTW - They replaced your battery because it was under a year old, even if the laptop was older.
 
err404 said:
People need to have reasonable expectations. Apples policy is quite generous. A battery is a consumable part. Like brake pads on a car. Any heavily used battery will diminish in capacity over time.

The best advice is to check your battery after about 11 months. If your under 80% you can get a replacement. If you had gone over a yr, don't sweat it. Just buck up and get a new one. As I said it's meant to be consumable part don't get upset when it needs to be replaced.

BTW - They replaced your battery because it was under a year old, even if the laptop was older.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand. But still it seems that a MBP battery problem exists from all the different posts and threads. Mine never held a long life even out of the box. I knew it wasn't right but I didn't know how bad it was until I could compare it to my new laptop. I'd like to think that the new MBP on sale now have this problem corrected, but again, from comments I keep reading I'm not sure they do.
 
I dont feel its necessary to make a new thread for this question, it has probably been asked and answered before.

but...

When running the laptop at your desk as your main computer, will keeping the charge connected to the computer harm the battery life in the long run? Or should i disconnect the charger when the light turns green and let the battery run down before i connect it again?
 
It's fine to stay plugged in...

sundaydrive said:
I dont feel its necessary to make a new thread for this question, it has probably been asked and answered before.

but...

When running the laptop at your desk as your main computer, will keeping the charge connected to the computer harm the battery life in the long run? Or should i disconnect the charger when the light turns green and let the battery run down before i connect it again?
Click to expand...

I asked that question everytime I phoned Apple Support with my aforementioned battery stuff. Leaving it plugged into power has no effect on the battery. The issue is that it must be calibrated once a month to stay healthy. When power is plugged in and the battery is fully charged the battery is sort of by-passed so-to-speak. That's what all the techno geeks have told me.
 
Have had this macbook pro penryn for 3 months now. First week I had it, battery life was a good 4.5-5 hours. Now it's down to 96% and I only get 3.5 hours with only safari running.

Do i have a problem here? I'm pretty disappointed with the 3.5 hours considering how much I could get out of it not too long ago. I've calibrated once a month, but it has never reached 100%, always staying at 96 or 97 percent.:confused:
 
I swear something is wrong with the MBPs...

zer0tails said:
Have had this macbook pro penryn for 3 months now. First week I had it, battery life was a good 4.5-5 hours. Now it's down to 96% and I only get 3.5 hours with only safari running.

Do i have a problem here? I'm pretty disappointed with the 3.5 hours considering how much I could get out of it not too long ago. I've calibrated once a month, but it has never reached 100%, always staying at 96 or 97 percent.:confused:
Click to expand...

My new MB is always at 100%.
 
MacLadybug said:
Yes, I understand. But still it seems that a MBP battery problem exists from all the different posts and threads. Mine never held a long life even out of the box. I knew it wasn't right but I didn't know how bad it was until I could compare it to my new laptop. I'd like to think that the new MBP on sale now have this problem corrected, but again, from comments I keep reading I'm not sure they do.
Click to expand...
LOL, well that's a different story. I was just talking about the warranty policy. The MBP is a power hog compared to the MB. I'm sure the extra strain on the battery also reduces it's life faster.

I've been playing with Coolbook recently to undervolt to CPU. The laptop is running a bit cooler and the battery life seems longer as well. However I have not had a change to benchmark the life.
 
zer0tails said:
Have had this macbook pro penryn for 3 months now. First week I had it, battery life was a good 4.5-5 hours. Now it's down to 96% and I only get 3.5 hours with only safari running.
Click to expand...
That seems like a steep drop, however 4.5-5 hours sounds a bit optimistic. You may be installed something recently that is putting more stress on the CPU. Open Activity monitor and keep an eye on the overall load.

BTW - Browsers can be surprisingly CPU intensive apps if you have tabs open with Flash embedded in them.
 
err404 said:
LOL, well that's a different story. I was just talking about the warranty policy. The MBP is a power hog compared to the MB. I'm sure the extra strain on the battery also reduces it's life faster.

I've been playing with Coolbook recently to undervolt to CPU. The laptop is running a bit cooler and the battery life seems longer as well. However I have not had a change to benchmark the life.
Click to expand...

Good Point... I forget about the mammoth difference in power between the two since I really didn't use the full capabilities of the MBP. And it goes way beyond just the backlit keyboard. That's another reason I'm not missing it.
 
err404 said:
That seems like a steep drop, however 4.5-5 hours sounds a bit optimistic. You may be installed something recently that is putting more stress on the CPU. Open Activity monitor and keep an eye on the overall load.

BTW - Browsers can be surprisingly CPU intensive apps if you have tabs open with Flash embedded in them.
Click to expand...

well, spaces takes up 15% processes, and Safari around 30-35%. And I always have a bunch of tabs open.

I wonder if having more RAM affects the battery life? When I could get 4.5-5 hours (yes, i couldn't believe it at first either) I only had the factory installed 2 GB RAM.

Now I have 4GB of RAM. Maybe that could be it?
 
zer0tails said:
well, spaces takes up 15% processes, and Safari around 30-35%. And I always have a bunch of tabs open.

I wonder if having more RAM affects the battery life? When I could get 4.5-5 hours (yes, i couldn't believe it at first either) I only had the factory installed 2 GB RAM.

Now I have 4GB of RAM. Maybe that could be it?
Click to expand...

The CPU time for Spaces and Safari seem high. On my MBP using just Safari ( assuming that I don't have any flash pages open) the total CPU utilization is around 5-10%.

The way speedstep works on the C2D, The CPU changes speed and voltage depending on utilization. Even with only 35% utilization, your machine may be ramping up to a higher core speed, cutting down battery life. When on battery do you have the power settings for max battery life? This will enable more aggressive throttling.

I use a iStats (freeware) to add a CPU usage graph to my menu bar. If I see CPU time consistently over 25% I check it to see what's 'wrong'.

More RAM does take slightly more power, but it's very very little. Overall battery life would be decreased by a few minutes at most.
 
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