MacBook battery acting up

[comda]

Greetings.

I own a Macbook 3,1 with a brand new battery. Purchased Early September last week of August i believe. Throughout university first term i would use the new one 100% health and then swap it for the old one if i needed more power that day. Got along great. Last week i came back from school and pulled the new one putting in the old for a while. Last night i started using the new one again and shut the laptop down at about 30% battery life. Today i power it on to see 0% charge and my health on the battery drop from 99% to 72. it only has 73 cycles on it. Is this normal for these batteries and can i get back to having 99% health? i cant afford a new laptop and i shelled out $129+tax for this battery and although to some thats cheap to a University student who has the School cleaning out my bank account its not. I need this system to work. Any thoughts ideas? Im charging the battery now. Decided i should charge like i always do. Full charge full drain. will that bring it back?

 

[Altemose]

Greetings.

I own a Macbook 3,1 with a brand new battery. Purchased Early September last week of August i believe. Throughout university first term i would use the new one 100% health and then swap it for the old one if i needed more power that day. Got along great. Last week i came back from school and pulled the new one putting in the old for a while. Last night i started using the new one again and shut the laptop down at about 30% battery life. Today i power it on to see 0% charge and my health on the battery drop from 99% to 72. it only has 73 cycles on it. Is this normal for these batteries and can i get back to having 99% health? i cant afford a new laptop and i shelled out $129+tax for this battery and although to some thats cheap to a University student who has the School cleaning out my bank account its not. I need this system to work. Any thoughts ideas? Im charging the battery now. Decided i should charge like i always do. Full charge full drain. will that bring it back?

I would do a full cycle of the battery and report back. When you select the battery icon in the menu bar does it say "Service Battery"? If this is a legitimate battery from Apple then I would bring the battery, your MacBook, and power adapter in for inspection at a Genius Bar. There is no reason to see the health drop so radically and quickly.

 

[comda]

fully charged and now only at 72%?! whats going on discharge now?

 

[Altemose]

fully charged and now only at 72%?! whats going on discharge now?

What condition does it show for the battery in System Profiler and the battery menu bar applet?

 

[comda]

So after i charged the battery up to full, it still remained at 73%. I was mad. I actually have an appointment to the apple store at 2pm today. Im just frustrated. But we shall see what they offer me. Just now i realized i left the packaging from the battery and my Uni dorm which is unavailable to me currently. Anyways. After i charged it up i unplugged the Macbook and left it. And sure enough after half an hour the health rises back up to 94 then 98%. Check the screen shot..

 

[Altemose]

They will probably chalk it up as a glitch and unless Service Battery warnings appear they probably won't do much.

 

[comda]

well i paid $149 for this battery, and i need it to work for me. So im currently waiting at the Genius bar with this Relic of a laptop. Guess we shall find out what they do for me. Sadly i didnt take a Screen shot of when it showed me to 'service battery'. They might not believe me. All i have is Coconut battery log saved of when the health went to 73%.

----------

Another thing i noticed. I did have Lion 10.7.5 on this machine before it began to act up and coconut battery told me that although i purchased this battery in September, the battery itself was made in January. Im back in snow leopard now and using a slightly older version of coconut battery and it doesnt display that information..

 

[Altemose]

well i paid $149 for this battery, and i need it to work for me. So im currently waiting at the Genius bar with this Relic of a laptop. Guess we shall find out what they do for me. Sadly i didnt take a Screen shot of when it showed me to 'service battery'. They might not believe me. All i have is Coconut battery log saved of when the health went to 73%.

----------

Another thing i noticed. I did have Lion 10.7.5 on this machine before it began to act up and coconut battery told me that although i purchased this battery in September, the battery itself was made in January. Im back in snow leopard now and using a slightly older version of coconut battery and it doesnt display that information..

They will definitely help you, but they may not swap the battery right away. Batteries often sit on shelves awaiting for purchase for months.

 

[comda]

Well. To my surprise my apple store visit went a LOT better than the last time i went with my relic of a mac. Last time i got sent home without any help at all because the technician refused to help me because if he broke something they didnt have parts to replace my old macbook, that was in 2012 when i was having some heat issues. Last night went absolutely different. I brought my system in waited for about a good 20 minutes for an available technician and although i technically had no proof of the battery dropping to 0% and being told to 'service battery' i showed the technician the coconut battery showing me only 73% of my battery and explained that i need this system starting from the 4th for school again. The young guy (im almost 20 and he seemed my age so haha im a hypocrite and sound old 'young guy') decided to run a diagnostics on system and we had a nice conversation about my Kingston SSD in this machine and so on and so forth. After some thinking from him and a stock check, he came with a brand new battery, informed me i had a year warranty so until August 30th (a year from the original battery purchase) and that we will do a swap because everything else including my adapter checks out. The battery when i powered on the system shows 100% health and although my old one did as well for about 2 months this one seems to be working a little longer i find. I got the battery at 40% charged and since noon ive been checking my mail browsing the web and even wrote a document and ive only lost 8%. the last one i got about 3.5-4 and thats with the SSD. I was told these batteries get that on a spindle drive so with the SSD i was expecting more. Perhaps i just had a defective model. All in all i have to say this apple experience was better then my previous 3 with my macbook and the last 2 with my iphone 5. Long live the plastic macbook, Thanks for your help guys, have a happy new year!

 

[JHUFrank]

I'm really surprised that on the visit before the techs wouldn't work on your box because it was a "relic". I would expect much better customer service out of Apple Geniuses.

 

[NT1440]

I'm really surprised that on the visit before the techs wouldn't work on your box because it was a "relic". I would expect much better customer service out of Apple Geniuses.

There is an end of life date on every mac in the system that geniuses have to adhere to. Obviously they will make exceptions, but I think a 3,1 crossed that line a while ago.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1752

 

[comda]

There is an end of life date on every mac in the system that geniuses have to adhere to. Obviously they will make exceptions, but I think a 3,1 crossed that line a while ago.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1752

According to this document from apple that is correct. However the first time i took it to the Genius bar was in early 2012. I remember as my boss told me to take it in when i was having over heating issues so that they could replace the thermal paste on the CPU. (ended up doing it myself) It was then still within its 5 years as a few months before that i had apple replace the top case on it free because of the cracking. My laptop was purchased in December 2007 boxing week to be exact and was manufactured November 26th, 2007 so yes now its 7 years old and yet this technician had no problem taking a look. Im glad he did as i have a new battery with 1 cycle (well 3 now haha) and im a happy customer. Even after 7 long great years.

I never understood why customers became so attached to their machines until now. This was my first macbook, my first laptop, my first new computer and it has never failed on me. I love it. And i will keep it until it can longer keep up or it dies on me.

 

[Altemose]

I never understood why customers became so attached to their machines until now. This was my first macbook, my first laptop, my first new computer and it has never failed on me. I love it. And i will keep it until it can longer keep up or it dies on me.

What shape is it in being 7 years old now? I have a iBook G3 that still runs like the day it was bought.

 

[comda]

Its in almost perfect shape! I've loved it since the day it was purchased. Its been upgraded quite well, now running on 4gb RAM ddr2, 240gb Kingston SSd and very clean. Its never been dropped. Its been carried to school through out 3 of my 5 years of highschool (was afraid to take it to school to avoid it being stolen) and now my first term of university. I have a laptop bag i carried it in. 2 years ago i purchased a knock off case for it so its somewhat protected. The only thing that ever done to it sadly was when I ran into the school building I slipped and the laptop smashed into the wall. WHen i opened it up the metal bracket holding the casing around the DVD drive was broken and bent closed so i couldnt insert any DVD's. But i fixed that re-applied thermal paste and shes still going. The keys are a little dirty but not very visible and i will be cleaning it up soon. So after my repairs its in pretty good nick. With a New Battery and the SSD its flying with Snow leopard.

It was funny when i took it to another apple store when getting my girlfriends iphone replaced a few technicians where shocked to see im still using it and in good shape.

 

[Altemose]

Those white MacBooks would run forever if taken care of like you take care of yours.

 

[comda]

Those white MacBooks would run forever if taken care of like you take care of yours.

GOOD cause minimum i'd like it to make it through the next 3.5 years of my university Experience. Ive given it love. lol hope my girlfriend isnt jealous

 

[NT1440]

According to this document from apple that is correct. However the first time i took it to the Genius bar was in early 2012. I remember as my boss told me to take it in when i was having over heating issues so that they could replace the thermal paste on the CPU. (ended up doing it myself) It was then still within its 5 years as a few months before that i had apple replace the top case on it free because of the cracking. My laptop was purchased in December 2007 boxing week to be exact and was manufactured November 26th, 2007 so yes now its 7 years old and yet this technician had no problem taking a look. Im glad he did as i have a new battery with 1 cycle (well 3 now haha) and im a happy customer. Even after 7 long great years.

I never understood why customers became so attached to their machines until now. This was my first macbook, my first laptop, my first new computer and it has never failed on me. I love it. And i will keep it until it can longer keep up or it dies on me.

Yea, good managers at Apple Stores tend to bend the rules towards taking care of customers, which is the right thing to do.

I miss my 2009 MBP, mine got soda spilled on it on my birthday this year while I was 300 miles away in the woods.

I use a raspberry pi now until I can afford to replace it.

 

[comda]

Yea, good managers at Apple Stores tend to bend the rules towards taking care of customers, which is the right thing to do.

I miss my 2009 MBP, mine got soda spilled on it on my birthday this year while I was 300 miles away in the woods.

I use a raspberry pi now until I can afford to replace it.

Well thats a shame. Who ever did it while you where away should have paid for the damage. I love my Macbook and i dont allow anyone to use it nor do i allow food next to it.