late 2011 MBP "battery needs servicing"

[MIKX]

Hi,

Yesterday, here in Japan I bought a late 2011 MBP. I'm running High Sierra 10.3.6

In the shop and later at home the battery seemed healthy with only 292 cycles shown.

Then I connected the MBP with power adapter to the wall power socket which is high up on the wall and appears to be dedicated to powering air-conditioners which I presume are setup to deliver more power than standard home lines.

Next boot, I got the "battery service " warning.

(Note : I know very little about volts, amps & ohms etc. but am willing to learn to avoid future problems. )

1st. Question : Did I damage the battery by connecting to the air-con power line wall socket ?

The odd thing is that now, connected to the ' normal ' home power line that I usually use for a spare Mac Book .. the MBP shows that the battery is charging but " show percentage " doesn't work.

2nd. Question : I Googled " reset MBP battery = Shut down + remove the battery + re-connect the power cord & boot up holding down Shift + Control + Option + Power button for 5 seconds and release all at he same time.

After replacing the battery. .. . that didn't work, still showed the ' service battery ' in the drop down tab.

3rd. Question : Are there other viable ways to RESET my battery ?

4th. Question : Has anyone been in a similar situation and successfully reset their battery to normal health ?

I saw one article that stated that one should let the battery run down to 0% and then connect the power adapter.

Thanks in advance.


EDIT : I just now booted the MBP ( no power adapter connected ) and the "Show Percentage" option is checked and it shows 97% but the ' service battery ' warning triangle ' is still there.

 

[Audit13]

Did you get an 13" or 15"?

I don't think the outlet has anything to do with the change in the battery's health status.

You could install Coconut Flavor to determine battery health, cycles, and date of manufacture.

If it's the original battery, I'm would not be surprised that the battery needs to be replaced. Time and cycles together are factors in determining battery health.

 

[MIKX]

Audit13

Thanks for your swift reply.

This battery only has 292 cycles on it. Its weird.

I found what is called the "SMC Static Discharge" method . . .

I'll try that tomorrow.

SMC - Static discharge

1. Take out the battery and disconnect MagSafe cord
( Note : No need to removed the battery -I'l just remove the battery cable )
2. Hold the power button for 30 seconds (static discharge)

3. Plug-in power adapter & MagSafe cord, wait until the cord LED is green

4. Put the battery back in while the MBP is powered up.

I'm not worried about having to buy a new battery, just want to find the solution if possible.

 

[Audit13]

I hope you find a suitable solution.

Please report back with your findings.

Did you get the 13" or 15"?

 

[MIKX]

I hope you find a suitable solution.

Please report back with your findings.

Did you get the 13" or 15"?

Yes, I will report back.

The 13"

 

[patwithamac]

1 - No
2 - N/A. Was there a question in there somewhere?
3 - No
4 - No. And anyone who claims to have been able to restore/reset a 7 year old battery with 292 cycles, is full of it.

Assuming the battery is original (ie. it's roughly 7-ish years old), it has reached the end of it's useful life.
Li-ion batteries (such as those used in our laptops) undergo fundamental, and irreversible, electro-chemical changes over time and charge-discharge cycles. You're living on borrowed time. It's time to replace it.

EDIT: Unfortunately, it's getting more and more difficult to find "freshly" manufactured batteries for the 2011 MBPs. There may be some out there tho. Just make sure the seller can provide the cycle count and a date code , so you know when it was manufactured.

 

[MIKX]

1 - No
2 - N/A. Was there a question in there somewhere?
3 - No
4 - No. And anyone who claims to have been able to restore/reset a 7 year old battery with 292 cycles, is full of it.

Assuming the battery is original (ie. it's roughly 7-ish years old), it has reached the end of it's useful life.
Li-ion batteries (such as those used in our laptops) undergo fundamental, and irreversible, electro-chemical changes over time and charge-discharge cycles. You're living on borrowed time. It's time to replace it.

EDIT: Unfortunately, it's getting more and more difficult to find "freshly" manufactured batteries for the 2011 MBPs. There are some out there tho. Just make sure the seller can provide the cycle count and a date code , so you know when it was manufactured.

I didn't say it was 7 years old in fact due to it having only 292 cycles on it. . I assumed that it was a replacement battery.

 

[Audit13]

The 13" 2011 MBP uses the same battery as a mid-2012 13".

I was asking if the laptop was a 13" or 15" is because the 2011 15" are known to suffer from GPU failures.

 

[leman]

It’s most likely an old battery and you should have it replaced, for safety reasons alone. Cycle count alone is not a reliable predictor of age.

 

[LogicalApex]

I didn't say it was 7 years old in fact due to it having only 292 cycles on it. . I assumed that it was a replacement battery.

Cycle count != battery age. Cycle count measures how much the battery was used but not its age.

If you stayed plugged in all the time you'll have a low cycle count on a very old battery...

 

[patwithamac]

I didn't say it was 7 years old in fact due to it having only 292 cycles on it. . I assumed that it was a replacement battery.

Fair enough...
Installing CoconutBattery could eliminate the assumptions by revealing the battery's date of manufacture ;-)

For example;

 

[seeforyourself]

I'm not sure about laptop batteries, but I know that age is a bigger factor than cycles in a hybrid vehicle. For example, many prius cabs here where I live in NYC have 300k miles on them (all city driving) and are on the original hybrid battery. My friends grandmother had a 2004 prius and recently had hybrid battery issues with ONLY 40k miles on it!

So I would think that it COULD of been an original battery, but that it is older.

 

[MIKX]

patwithamac

Good point ! That had not occurred to me.
it is in fact an old battery so I'll order a new one.

Thanks for your salient point.