I need to turn my laptop back on, but its battery has bloated dangerously

[Drifty_Child]

I have to do something a bit nerve wracking.

My 2018 Macbook Pro's battery has bloated up to a dangerous size. So I called Apple, and they sent me a box to ship my laptop to them for repairs.

It came with instructions. They want me to disable my firmware password and location tracking before I mail it to them.

But had I drained my battery to keep it from bloating up. So to disable those things, I'll need to plug my laptop back in, turn it back on, and go to the settings to turn those things off.

But I'm nervous that turning it back on for longer could risk the battery finally bursting. What should I do?

 

[bhodinut]

Did you explain to them that your laptop looks like it's gonna have tiny iphones? Pretty swollen. I'd call them again. If they insist I'd get a face shield and disable everything real fast somewhere outside on concrete. On second thought. Let Apple deal with it. They are better equipped.

 

[KPOM]

It is safe to power on to do what Apple says. Lithium batteries are designed to expand to avoid exploding. But get it fixed soon. The same thing happened to my sister’s MacBook Air 2 years ago. The hardest part was that the expansion made it difficult to use the trackpad to finish the backup. But after that we were able to send it to get the battery replaced.

 

[Analias]

Second that. These batteries expand all the time, and how many have you heard of rupturing catastrophically. Some people just continue using them regardless.

 

[Fishrrman]

Turn it on.
Disable the firmware password (not a good idea to have one, anyway).
Turn it back off.
Ship it in.

 

[UBS28]

I would not do it. Not worth the risk. Let Apple deal with it.