Macbook Pro and battery life, yet again

[Archive]

Hi,


I just got off the phone with AppleCare here in Germany to tell them that the battery I have has a maximum charge of 2687 mAh (47%) after 23 cycles.

I want to note, this is a Macbook Pro, 2nd gen running OS X Leopard 10.5.6.
In addition, AppleCare already replaced the original battery after it had run down to about 50% health without question.

This guy at AppleCare I talked to told me that it was my fault for leaving the notebook plugged in all the time.
Is it really this bad? I have had this battery for about 9 months. It has 23 cycles and I have calibrated it twice in that time.
Was it really my fault that the battery is trashed now?

Btw: already tried PRAM/NVRAM and SMC resets to no avail

 

[SteveMobs]

When you run your battery do you charge it all the way then let it go down all the way, or do you just charge it randomly here and there?

 

[P90Xfit]

hum....I will keep an eye out on this post.

 

[Archive]

I charge it here an there most of the time. However, when I started running it down completely the machine would shut off without warning, so I didn't do that anymore.

 

[miggitymac]

I leave my MBP plugged in all the time too...but I calibrate it more often than you did...I do it every 4-6 weeks.

That Applecare guy doesn't know what he's talking about...Apple says it's ok to leave notebooks plugged in, as long as you calibrate regularly, right on their website.

 

[Archive]

I leave my MBP plugged in all the time too...but I calibrate it more often than you did...I do it every 4-6 weeks.

That Applecare guy doesn't know what he's talking about...Apple says it's ok to leave notebooks plugged in, as long as you calibrate regularly, right on their website.

He actually went to talk to a technician while I was on the phone with him. That took about 10 minutes. When he came back he said this happens only when you don't discharge it often enough.

Of course a buddy of mine discharges his MBP regularly, and he has 20% battery life after 123 cycles. But he's out of warranty and can't get it replaced.
So basically the same thing happens wether you discharge it or not?

 

[SteveMobs]

I'm fortunate enough so that the charging cycle works well with my schedule.

I run the battery down all the way when I'm at school. Then when I get home I charge it, when I go to bed it's at 100% and I go from there.

I'm on my 43 cycle and still at 100%.

Now you know my schedule, haha.

 

[miggitymac]

He actually went to talk to a technician while I was on the phone with him. That took about 10 minutes. When he came back he said this happens only when you don't discharge it often enough.

Of course a buddy of mine discharges his MBP regularly, and he has 20% battery life after 123 cycles. But he's out of warranty and can't get it replaced.
So basically the same thing happens wether you discharge it or not?

It shouldn't. It's supposed to be 80% after 300 cycles. For your case, maybe you weren't discharging regularly enough. For your friend's case, maybe he got a bad battery to start with.

With your new battery try discharging more often...every four weeks or so. Follow these instructions. See if that makes it last longer.

 

[Archive]

It shouldn't. It's supposed to be 80% after 300 cycles. For your case, maybe you weren't discharging regularly enough. For your friend's case, maybe he got a bad battery to start with.

With your new battery try discharging more often...every four weeks or so. Follow these instructions. See if that makes it last longer.

Thanks. But after I calibrated the first time (a month after I got it) the health went from 100% to 80% and its been downhill from there.

 

[miggitymac]

Thanks. But after I calibrated the first time (a month after I got it) the health went from 100% to 80% and its been downhill from there.

Might have been a bad battery then. Should have called Apple right there....there's no reason for such a drastic loss of capacity after callibration.

 

[eldy]

Did you notice the usage time of your laptop getting shorter proportionally to the indicated battery capacity?

 

[Archive]

Did you notice the usage time of your laptop getting shorter proportionally to the indicated battery capacity?

I don't know if it was really proportionately shorter. However it went down to something like 40 min from 100% to off. As I said, without a low battery warning.

 

[eldy]

You should have the battery replaced again under warranty. Maybe they can also take a look at the component that controls battery charging if it happens again.