Macbook Pro 15 - 2011 - Battery "Maximum Charge" continues to decline?

[MushroomMan]

First post from a Newbie here,

I've done some searching on google and this site, but haven't found anything relating to this issue specifically.

Firstly, some background:

• I recently purchased a used Macbook Pro 15 (early 2011) for a very nice price, but the catch was that the battery needed replacing. The battery which was in the laptop when I purchased it was 100% dead, so even under AC power it ran very slow. Everything else about the computer seemed to be excellent.

• My first upgrade was of course a new battery, so I hunted for a good deal on an A1382 (77.5Wh). Unfortunately, I was screwed around by my first fleabay supplier who incorrectly sent me an A1321 (73Wh), which I didn't realise as it fit perfectly and oddly the 'dead' battery I removed was also an A1321. Anyway after another failed attempt, I got lucky on the third time and purchased what is claimed to be a genuine Apple A1382 battery.

• I installed the new battery and when fully charged showed a full charge of 7017mAh, which I thought was great given that the "Design Capacity" is only 6900mAh. Unfortunately though, after a week of use (largely AC) and only 2 recorded "loadcycles" (to run the battery in), it now shows a maximum charge of only 6207mAh which is 90% of the design capacity.

So, I would like to know from the in-house experts what may be going on here? Is this normal, a case of operator error, or am I missing something completely here??

FWIW, on the 2 loadcycles so far, I drained the battery until it switched its self off the first time, and almost for the second time. In the first case it was only just under 10% and not 1 or 2% which I thought was strange, and the second time I plugged it in as soon as I got the OS low-battery warning.

Thank you very much in advance for assisting a newbie!

MM

 

[simonsi]

You new battery is either faulty or, more likely, fake.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

You new battery is either faulty or, more likely, fake.

Agreed if you buy tat off ebay you get what you pay for...

 

[MushroomMan]

Ahh, thanks for the quick replies.

I will certainly contact the seller now. The first battery I received was not genuine and I knew I was taking a risk there, however the final one I purchased was sold as a "Genuine OEM battery", (see the pic) - although it was clearly not purchased from Apple.....my bad and my learning I guess.

Now that the damage has been done, can anyone shed any light on the following:
1. Do you think the battery I purchased was fake?
2. Do you expect that the battery will continue to lose its charging ability this fast, or do the 'fake/aftermarket' batteries simply lose a large initial percentage and then behave 'normally'?

I am obviously in the learning phase here and open to your feedback both good and bad!

Realistically, my purchasing of a 4-year old laptop was just a cheap solution after my trusty 7-year old MacBookPro4,1's battery finally exploded, until the Skylake models come out hopefully in 12 - 18mths. So would you guys throw more cash at replacing this battery again, or just deal with it?

FWIW - I only Paid US$420 for the laptop (Early 2011 15 2.2GHz/8GB/750GB/HD 3000 512MB) here in Oz, so hopefully that deal wasn't too bad.

I will obviously be contacting the seller to see what they have to say - but as already mentioned I am most definitely learning the hard way!

Thanks again for your time helping out a newb.

PS: Is there any likelihood that this battery error could be caused by anything other than the battery its self, ie. faulty charger or something else?

 

[simonsi]

Now that the damage has been done, can anyone shed any light on the following:
1. Do you think the battery I purchased was fake?
2. Do you expect that the battery will continue to lose its charging ability this fast, or do the 'fake/aftermarket' batteries simply lose a large initial percentage and then behave 'normally'?

1. Yes - or it is VERY faulty
2. Who knows, it may simply be undersized or it could have cheap/faulty/failing cells. It could stay as it is, decline further or swell overnight, no-one can tell.

 

[MushroomMan]

Cheers for that Simonsi,

I'll be requesting a return for full refund from the seller and if that works out I will be purchasing a 'proper' one from an Apple reseller as I don't want any more dramas. I really didn't think there could be so many issues with batteries!

FWIW, to me it looks identical to the 'proper' Apple battery so that is a bit annoying, but as mentioned I do seem to be learning the hard way lol!

Thanks again.

 

[Mnowell69]

i have an after market battery in my mbp 17 (2009) and so far it is still on 101% after 3 months and 8 load cycles which was supplied by an 'authorised Mac repair shop" (whatever that means these days!!) So i'm reasonably happy, although i had hoped they would have sent me a genuine battery because it was this shop that supplied me the mbp with a faulty apple battery in the first place.

I assume that if somebody was to buy a supposedly Apple battery from ebay, there would be some way to check it's serial number with Apple??

 

[MushroomMan]

Good point,

Here is the battery information according to coconutBattery - from what I have quickly googled, it seems that SMP was the Apple supplier for that gen. of Macbook Pros. I'll see what the seller says and report back. Either way, I think I will go to a brick and mortar store for the next purchase!

Cheers again for the feedback.

 

[MushroomMan]

Just a quick question before I make a 4th attempt at replacing my battery, has anyone got any experience with the following battery sold by OWC (I'll be getting it from a local "Apple reseller" here in Oz):

Thanks again for the assistance,

 

[yjchua95]

Just a quick question before I make a 4th attempt at replacing my battery, has anyone got any experience with the following battery sold by OWC (I'll be getting it from a local "Apple reseller" here in Oz):

View attachment 557429
Thanks again for the assistance,

Why not just get it from the official Apple Stores? That's what I did. Don't mess around with 3rd party solutions, they almost always never give you intended results.

 

[MushroomMan]

Fair point yjchua95,

I haven't been able to find a link/info for a battery from the Apple store. I will give them a call tomorrow to compare but I assumed that OWC was generally accepted as 'just-as-good' or even better, but given my troubles I am not interested in taking any shortcuts.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Gav2k]

Fair point yjchua95,

I haven't been able to find a link/info for a battery from the Apple store. I will give them a call tomorrow to compare but I assumed that OWC was generally accepted as 'just-as-good' or even better, but given my troubles I am not interested in taking any shortcuts.

Thanks again for the input.

That's because apple have to do the job. It's aus$149 and takes them 5 minutes providing you book it in. If that's not an option pick a reputable source like ifixit for parts.

Just realised you linked owc. They are good too.

 

[MushroomMan]

Thanks for the Apple store info Gav2K - that will save me a call.

I live over 100k from an Apple store, so having one delivered would be preferable, but that said it will be AU$185 delivered from macfixit vs $149 involving 3hrs drive at an Apple store, so I guess I'll have to think about it.

Thanks again for the info!

 

[Gav2k]

Thanks for the Apple store info Gav2K - that will save me a call.

I live over 100k from an Apple store, so having one delivered would be preferable, but that said it will be AU$185 delivered from macfixit vs $149 involving 3hrs drive at an Apple store, so I guess I'll have to think about it.

Thanks again for the info!

If you decide to go to the Apple Store call them book it in and make sure they have the part before you go. Personally I would do the drive it's not far.

 

[MushroomMan]

Well, gave Apple (AU) a call earlier and am not really impressed by their information so far.

• Was not able to be given any specific price/availability information by the main call centre - I was simply told it may be 2 - 5 days.
• Was then told to contact a retail store.
• Was then told that it "should be" a one-day turnaround, and that the clerk "guessed" the price was $179 but didn't have the system needed to confirm this price at his disposal, ie. I need to bring it in and get it diagnostically checked by a technician (who I could not speak to on the phone) to confirm what I 99.9% already know.....that I need a new battery.

I understand that Apple is a large organisation, and need you to jump through a few hoops in order for them to deliver their services. It is sounding far simpler to just go to Macfixit and grab the NuPower battery for basically the same $, and install it myself and still have a 12-month warranty.

The only difference I can really see is that the Apple store would run my laptop through a diagnostic test, but as it is out of warranty/Apple Care I don't really see much value in this?? I have full confidence in the NuPower battery supplied by OWC...or anything supplied by OWC for that matter.

Sorry for the rant, I will keep you guys posted!

 

[Gav2k]

The owc batteries are fine. I understand your frustration. It's a pain not being local to a store.

 

[MushroomMan]

Yeah, I'm sure I am not the only one but it just seems this battery replacement has taught me a few lessons lol. As you did mention - I think it is worth the drive, but if there are any hiccups I am just worried it will turn into 2 day trips yadda yadda...

My ebay seller has agreed to accept the return, so I will probably go ahead with the OWC NuPower 78Wh battery form Macfixit. Thanks again for the input, really helped!

 

[simonsi]

Here is the battery information according to coconutBattery - from what I have quickly googled, it seems that SMP was the Apple supplier for that gen. of Macbook Pros.

You can buy "reset chips" for certain toner cartridges to enable printing beyond the manufacturer-supplied page count limit. The fake batteries need some sort of chip in them to get the Mac to recognise and use them at all, I'd be amazed if they hadn't cloned a genuine chip which would also give the batt manufacturer details by now...

 

[MushroomMan]

You can buy "reset chips" for certain toner cartridges to enable printing beyond the manufacturer-supplied page count limit. The fake batteries need some sort of chip in them to get the Mac to recognise and use them at all, I'd be amazed if they hadn't cloned a genuine chip which would also give the batt manufacturer details by now...

Interesting - sounds so simple that I can't believe I was naive enough to just believe the fleabay listing.

The first seller had sold over 30 of the same units, and the second seller had sold just under 90, so I am a bit surprised that I haven't read more online about these suspicious replacement batteries.

I hadn't found any other examples of similar situations online.

To the credit of the second seller (shown earlier in the thread) they are accepting my return no questions asked - very unlike the first battery seller I dealt with.

Hopefully this thread may assist others in the future debating on which battery to purchase!

 

[MushroomMan]

Ok, a bit of an update here:

1. Received and installed the new Newer Tech NuPower 78-Watt Hour battery
2. Used it right out of the box (had 52%), then once down to 5% powered down and let it charge for 12 hours
3. After 4 cycles it showed a max charging capacity of 7292 mAh
4. Then after inadvertently letting it run down to 0%, it now shows 7277 mAh which I can live with.

Thanks again for the help, some lessons learnt:

1. The cheaper (non Apple / OWC) batteries were not worth the effort for me (although if my 2nd battery had 'stayed' at a max charge of 90% it may be somewhat acceptable).
2. The cheaper batteries may be fake / used / something else, but mine showed a lower build quality in terms of the cable gluing on the rear.
3. Nice to buy a battery that comes with the tools.
4. Evidently the 'soft' battery info can be reprogrammed so not always reliable

Here are some pics:

* EDIT - just realised I forgot to take a pic of the new battery installed! So that pic is of the one I swapped out for the NuPower one.

 

[Wyvernspirit]

Just a quick question before I make a 4th attempt at replacing my battery, has anyone got any experience with the following battery sold by OWC (I'll be getting it from a local "Apple reseller" here in Oz):

View attachment 557429
Thanks again for the assistance,

This is the battery I got for my mid 2011 MacBook Pro (first upgrade I made) Mine says the design capacity is 7200 but I get 7275.

 

[Dark Void]

OWC is reputable, you shouldn't have many problems with this newer one. For the future though, batteries are something that, when purchasing aftermarket or third-party, is always a nightmare. It is best to go through the manufacturer, but I read your posts and understand your situation.

Good luck to you, hope your new battery works out!

 

[MushroomMan]

^^
Glad to hear that the NuPower is working for you Wyvernspirit, I am now really hoping that my battery dramas are over, and hope some others may benefit from the info and thanks again for all the input!

 

[Wyvernspirit]

^^
Glad to hear that the NuPower is working for you Wyvernspirit, I am now really hoping that my battery dramas are over, and hope some others may benefit from the info and thanks again for all the input!

Mine's been through 10 cycles so far since April. I chose them because I didn't want to experience what you went through.

 

[Smoothie]

I recently bought a replacement battery from iFixit for my mid-2009 MBP. (The original battery lasted almost 6 years.) The replacement battery had a test certification on the box indicating it had a capacity of 5828 mAh. After installing it, Coconut Battery showed a design capacity of 5770 and a maximum charge of 5404. This represents about 93 percent of maximum measured capacity right out of the box.

My original battery reached 93 percent after more than two years of use. I contacted iFixit, and they told me to give it at least a month for the battery to settle in. It's remained the same after two months. To their credit, iFixit offered to exchange the battery if it didn't improve. I assume iFixit sells authentic OEM batteries, and maybe I got a bad one. The battery was manufactured 10 months ago, and I suppose there could be some loss of capacity just sitting on the shelf without being used.