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Macbook, 683 cycles, Should I Be Worried?

MichaelMidnight

MichaelMidnight

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 20, 2008
400
115
Los Angeles
Hello everyone. I bought a Macbook in November 2006 and have been using it ever since. I don't know if I've been handling my battery the best way but I've always had it plugged in when I was near an outlet. Recently my power adapter hasn't been charging correctly. It would be plugged in but wouldn't charge or light up unless I moved the cord around. Then it would light up and charge. And since it still charged I never brought it to the Genius bar. Recently I just checked the battery cycle and it reads 683. Is this about right for 2 years or is this a bit much? Apple Profiler says the battery is in good condition.

Should I be worried?
 
If it's all working and holding enough charge for you then nah not really, if your under Applecare I would perhaps pop in though about your charger could be worn down a bit or the connector is getting a little old, if it's not hitting the mark first time ;)
 
MichaelMidnight said:
Hello everyone. I bought a Macbook in November 2006 and have been using it ever since. I don't know if I've been handling my battery the best way but I've always had it plugged in when I was near an outlet. Recently my power adapter hasn't been charging correctly. It would be plugged in but wouldn't charge or light up unless I moved the cord around. Then it would light up and charge. And since it still charged I never brought it to the Genius bar. Recently I just checked the battery cycle and it reads 683. Is this about right for 2 years or is this a bit much? Apple Profiler says the battery is in good condition.

Should I be worried?
Click to expand...

Wow that's quite a bit. You figure that in 2 years it's about 730 days so you pretty much used the battery at least once every day. Also 683 does seem to be quite a bit if it's reading right. Typically they start to go down hill after about 300 cycles. What percentage is your battery reading at?

Funny how some people complain when their batteries are at 75% health at 100 cycles :p You should recycle your battery and buy a new more reliable one, unless the one you got is still holding up good.
 
MichaelMidnight said:
Hello everyone. I bought a Macbook in November 2006 and have been using it ever since. I don't know if I've been handling my battery the best way but I've always had it plugged in when I was near an outlet. Recently my power adapter hasn't been charging correctly. It would be plugged in but wouldn't charge or light up unless I moved the cord around. Then it would light up and charge. And since it still charged I never brought it to the Genius bar. Recently I just checked the battery cycle and it reads 683. Is this about right for 2 years or is this a bit much? Apple Profiler says the battery is in good condition.

Should I be worried?
Click to expand...

I bought mine 2 months before you. I'm at 247 cycles. I use my MacBook M-F during the school year otherwise it's plugged in mostly 24/7.
 
Keep an eye on it. 300 cycles is usually the average life of a battery. With that many cycles on the battery you should be thinking about a new one plus perhaps getting a new AC Mag cord. Don't wait for the battery or the Mag cord to fail.

Regards.
 
At what point does it consider a cycle completed, a full discharge to a full charge? Or is there some low threshold like 20% to start counting? (Surely it doesn't count topping off as a cycle, right?)
 
I'd look into getting a new battery.

Well, by that I mean, I am looking into getting a new battery for my MBP as well. I've got 711 cycles on mine.

It sucks only having about an hour of battery life when just surfing the internet.

How long is your battery lasting under average load?
 
My MacBook's a month older than yours, bought in Oct 2006 and I have 234 cycles on the battery with 54% capacity left.

Just for your information...
 
Batteries are fickle things. I am not sure if any of you have had a problem with this, but my Powerbook battery usually stays at 93% (109 cycles) but sometimes drops to 60% if I drain it. Once I charge it for a few days, it goes back up. Very odd.
 
Thanks for all the response guys, but like that one poster wrote, "batteries are [indeed] fickle things". So I'm still around 680s in terms of battery cycle but my battery health is around 90%-95%, so I'm wondering if it's the cord. I've actually had some battery problems before and had Apple Care replace it one year after I got it. But again I have that problem that once the cord is plugged in, sometimes it doesn't charge. At this point, things are functional and I haven't actually checked how much time remains when I use the battering. Strange thing is that when I check the time for the battery to be charged, Apple gives me a time that's 1/2 of what iStat PRO says, like iStat would say 1 hour but Apple says 30 minutes.

I don't know. I still have Apple care. It's not bothering me too much besides all these initial questioning, but I might bring it in one day. I'm just afraid of when they take my Macbook - I hate being without it.
 
ive had my macbook since april, use it EVERY day regardless lol when i first got it i never really knew about how keeping the charger in didn't effect the battery much. So i almost always keep the charger in since i do use it in desktop mode most of the time. I'm at like 55 cycles with 100+% health :D

(aka the battery came with a max charge of 5020mHZ and now it can hold 5399 :DDDD)
 
Whats the Full charge capacity as reported by the Profiler?

Get CoconutBattery for ease with this stuff!
 
I'm on 146 loadcycles, and 35% original battery health :rolleyes:

Time for a new battery methinks, although I'll probably go for one of the FastMac upgraded batteries...
 
battery

i'm at 6 cycles,
makes sense because its a week old.

it says that the batteries capacity is 5225 mah, and the original capacity was 5020 mah does that mean the battery is above 100%
 
zachsilvey said:
i'm at 6 cycles,
makes sense because its a week old.

it says that the batteries capacity is 5225 mah, and the original capacity was 5020 mah does that mean the battery is above 100%
Click to expand...

Thats fine! Means you have a great battery which should chug along for a long time!
 
Just my opinion, but don't buy fast Mac batteries. Our school bought 2. One came completely dead and wouldn't charge and the second would hardly fit in the computer. They don't have the form-factor quite right. Plus, the color didn't match the MacBooks perfectly. The foot was also a olive green color rather than grey. One last complaint was the battery indicators didn't flash wile charging or show charge info until fully charged. Our school (and I) will always buy Apple batteries from now on.
 
battery

where do you buy apple batteries.
i looked on apple.com just to see prices and I couldn't find them anywhere
i'm guessing that you have to go to an apple store
 
I'm kind of confused on this subject. Some people tell me that keeping my MacBook connected to my A/C adaptor all day is a bad thing. I don't want to be wasting my battery by unplugging it while its sitting on my desk inches from my a/c adaptor.

I want to maximize my battery, and from what I've heard if I continue to keep it plugged in all the time and let it sit at 100% fully charged, I'm doing more harm then good?

I'm at 4 cycles with current capacity is 5024 mAh, compared to my original of 5020 mAh. My MacBook is only 5 weeks old (date it was built) according to cocunutBattery...
 
sn00pie said:
I'm kind of confused on this subject. Some people tell me that keeping my MacBook connected to my A/C adaptor all day is a bad thing. I don't want to be wasting my battery by unplugging it while its sitting on my desk inches from my a/c adaptor.

I want to maximize my battery, and from what I've heard if I continue to keep it plugged in all the time and let it sit at 100% fully charged, I'm doing more harm then good?

I'm at 4 cycles with current capacity is 5024 mAh, compared to my original of 5020 mAh. My MacBook is only 5 weeks old (date it was built) according to cocunutBattery...
Click to expand...

Run it down all the way once or twice in a month and you are good!

Edit:
Oh and BTW mine is 17 months old. 250 odd cycles and coconut battery reports battery health at a bit over 100%!!! Anyone knows why? I get 3+ hours on it so I don't think it is an error either!
 
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