MacBook Pro battery cycle is almost 2000. Should I replace or not?

[kel2]

Hello folks. I have a mid 2009 macbook pro and its battery cycles are sitting at 1955 as of today. Ive been getting the "replace soon" message (on battery indicator button on top of the screen) for a few months now. I have noticed that the macbook starts to slow down a bit when i have a good few windows open.

Playback of videos has also been terrible if there are a lot of windows open. Never had that problem before. Only started up a few months ago. It very well could be the whole issue with Flash player though. Or is it the battery that causes this too? Here is a screenshot of coconut battery.

Do you guys reckon i should change the battery out now or would it be safe to continue using it for a while?

 

[Astroboy907]

Hello folks. I have a mid 2009 macbook pro and its battery cycles are sitting at 1955 as of today. Ive been getting the replace son message (on battery indicator button on top of the screen) for a few months now. I have noticed that the macbook starts to slow down a bit when i have a good few windows open.

Playback of videos has also been terrible if there are a lot of windows open. Never had that problem before. Only started up a few months ago. It very well could be the whole issue with Flash player though. Or is it the battery that causes this too? Here is a screenshot of coconut battery.

Do you guys reckon i should change the battery out now or would it be safe to continue using it for a while?

http://imgur.com/j6FpZsi

2000 cycles?!?! I'm suprised it still works. Try downloading coconutbattery and tell us what the stats are, Id like to see! Edit: duh they are there already, my phone didn't parse the link right

I would recommend replacement.

 

[Shrink]

Hello folks. I have a mid 2009 macbook pro and its battery cycles are sitting at 1955 as of today. Ive been getting the replace son message (on battery indicator button on top of the screen) for a few months now. I have noticed that the macbook starts to slow down a bit when i have a good few windows open.

Playback of videos has also been terrible if there are a lot of windows open. Never had that problem before. Only started up a few months ago. It very well could be the whole issue with Flash player though. Or is it the battery that causes this too? Here is a screenshot of coconut battery.

Do you guys reckon i should change the battery out now or would it be safe to continue using it for a while?

Screen shot 2013-07-28 at 15.37.14

Nah, don't change the battery just because you get a warning that the battery needs changing. It's like that "Oil" light in your car...just ignore it!

OK, so much for the snotty part of this missive. You might want to check your Battery Health...which I'm guessing might be a tad below the 80% recommended battery change level. Personally, when the Battery Health goes below 80%, and I showed a warning that the battery needed to be replaced...I would replace the battery.

But what do I know!



Edit: just saw the Coconut information...Health is 66%...I would change it.

 

[kel2]

Tried adding the pic but it didnt work so have added a link to it above. Ya it still works fine. It does get really hot after using it all day and apart from the video and internet tabs lagging works just fine!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

The slowdown is probably due to your Mac not having enough RAM.

Open Activity Monitor and go to the System Memory* tab and look for Page Outs and Swap used and report back.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage​

* Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor​

As for the battery, why does it have that many cycles? It has been drained completely and recharged completely 1.4 times per day as it seems, which does not seem necessary, unless you have to have to use it every day on battery power and never have access to your power adapter.

Or do you disconnect the power adapter after it has been charged to full? If so, it is not necessary.

______________________________________________________
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by https://forums.macrumors.com/members/186377/​

As for battery replacement, if you have a mid 2009 MBP, Apple has to do it for you, as you cannot get replacement batteries that easy.

 

[kel2]

Nah, don't change the battery just because you get a warning that the battery needs changing. It's like that "Oil" light in your car...just ignore it!

OK, so much for the snotty part of this missive. You might want to check your Battery Health...which I'm guessing might be a tad below the 80% recommended battery change level. Personally, when the Battery Health goes below 80%, and I showed a warning that the battery needed to be replaced...I would replace the battery.

But what do I know!

Ya battery health is down in the 60's right now. Im going to calibrate it tonight. havent done so in a long time. Guess im just waiting for the "Replace Soon" message to turn into "Replace Now"

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Tried adding the pic but it didnt work so have added a link to it above.

How to attach an image to your MR post.​

Ya it still works fine. It does get really hot after using it all day and apart from the video and internet tabs lagging works just fine!

Open Activity Monitor and select All Processes and then sort by CPU to show you the process(es) slowing down your Mac or speeding up your fan(s) or causing more heat.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage​

 

[kel2]

The slowdown is probably due to your Mac not having enough RAM.

Open Activity Monitor and go to the System Memory* tab and look for Page Outs and Swap used and report back.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage​

* Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor​

As for the battery, why does it have that many cycles? It has been drained completely and recharged completely 1.4 times per day as it seems, which does not seem necessary, unless you have to have to use it every day on battery power and never have access to your power adapter.

Or do you disconnect the power adapter after it has been charged to full? If so, it is not necessary.

______________________________________________________
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by https://forums.macrumors.com/members/186377/​

As for battery replacement, if you have a mid 2009 MBP, Apple has to do it for you, as you cannot get replacement batteries that easy.

Well its got 4gb ram so that should fine no? I use the laptop all day every day! Work on it and after work just hit with movies and shows so it goes through a lot.Id normally never let it go down below 40% unless i fall asleep watching something. I do disconnect the adapter a few mins after it hits 100%. Sometimes it would be anything up to half an hour/ 45mins before i take it out.

Ya i dont mind getting Apple to replace it. Id rather them and get an original battery than some repair shop and they stick in a lesser quality battery. But what im wondering is that if I were to continue using it as it is would there be a chance of damage to the laptop?

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[URL="https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11836587#post11836587"]How to attach an image to your MR post.​

​

Open Activity Monitor and select All Processes and then sort by CPU to show you the process(es) slowing down your Mac or speeding up your fan(s) or causing more heat.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage​

I barely have more than two processes running at one time. Its always just google chrome and maybe itunes(very rarely though)

 

[Astroboy907]

The slowdown is probably due to your Mac not having enough RAM.

Open Activity Monitor and go to the System Memory* tab and look for Page Outs and Swap used and report back.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage​

* Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor​

As for the battery, why does it have that many cycles? It has been drained completely and recharged completely 1.4 times per day as it seems, which does not seem necessary, unless you have to have to use it every day on battery power and never have access to your power adapter.

Or do you disconnect the power adapter after it has been charged to full? If so, it is not necessary.

______________________________________________________
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by https://forums.macrumors.com/members/186377/​

As for battery replacement, if you have a mid 2009 MBP, Apple has to do it for you, as you cannot get replacement batteries that easy.

+1 except for the apple battery replacement. It's most likely RAM (you can have 8gb max in that model I think), so check that out, but the CPU could be throttling due to a lack of available battery power. What wattage is your charger?

As for the battery, on the mid 2009 model it is pretty easy to fix DIY. You just need a new battery (genuine apple on eBay or something) and a few screwdrivers. There is an iFixit.com guide about it.

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I do disconnect the adapter a few mins after it hits 100%. Sometimes it would be anything up to half an hour/ 45mins before i take it out.

Yeah you really do not need to do that. It actually would be better to leave it plugged in much of the time. Actually, plugged in it would be faster probably because there is battery and ac power.

 

[Shrink]

Well its got 4gb ram so that should fine no? I use the laptop all day every day! Work on it and after work just hit with movies and shows so it goes through a lot.Id normally never let it go down below 40% unless i fall asleep watching something. I do disconnect the adapter a few mins after it hits 100%. Sometimes it would be anything up to half an hour/ 45mins before i take it out.

Ya i dont mind getting Apple to replace it. Id rather them and get an original battery than some repair shop and they stick in a lesser quality battery. But what im wondering is that if I were to continue using it as it is would there be a chance of damage to the laptop?

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I barely have more than two processes running at one time. Its always just google chrome and maybe itunes(very rarely though)

Image

If you want to check if you have enough RAM....

Do a re-boot. After an hour, check your "page outs". If you have a bunch of page outs, it's indicating that you can use some more RAM. Adding RAM will make the computer run faster and smoother.

 

[kel2]

+1 except for the apple battery replacement. It's most likely RAM (you can have 8gb max in that model I think), so check that out, but the CPU could be throttling due to a lack of available battery power. What wattage is your charger?

As for the battery, on the mid 2009 model it is pretty easy to fix DIY. You just need a new battery (genuine apple on eBay or something) and a few screwdrivers. There is an iFixit.com guide about it.

Thanks for the reply Astroboy. I could look into upgrading the ram from 4gb to 8gb. Have no funds at the moment but definitely going to follow up with that. Regarding the charger its the standard 60w magsafe adapter. but i charge to 100% and disconnect and continue using on battery power until it goes below 40%

Ahh thats great if i can buy a battery and do it myself. Shouldnt be a problem and would save me some money too!

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Whats all the page out stuff about? Im not quite sure what that is folks but from the activity monitor picture it says its 2.1mb and the laptop has been on for about 6hours now

 

[0dev]

Your lag could be coming from Chrome. Using Chrome makes my 2012 MBP lag like mad if I keep it open for too long.

 

[Shrink]

Thanks for the reply Astroboy. I could look into upgrading the ram from 4gb to 8gb. Have no funds at the moment but definitely going to follow up with that. Regarding the charger its the standard 60w magsafe adapter. but i charge to 100% and disconnect and continue using on battery power until it goes below 40%

Ahh thats great if i can buy a battery and do it myself. Shouldnt be a problem and would save me some money too!

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Whats all the page out stuff about? Im not quite sure what that is folks but from the activity monitor picture it says its 2.1mb and the laptop has been on for about 6hours now

Check this out...it will explain what "page outs" are. The short version is that if you have a bunch of page outs, your RAM is overloaded and you can use more RAM.

 

[kel2]

Check this out...it will explain what "page outs" are. The short version is that if you have a bunch of page outs, your RAM is overloaded and you can use more RAM.

Well it does say the more free ram the better. Ive got 600mb free as shown in the above pic. Dont know if that is good enough. Had a look at the specs of my macbook and it has two 2gb ram modules. So ideally i would need to but two 4gb modules. Which including the new battery could set me back up to 150e. if thats what needs to be done so it shall be done. Not in the very near future though maybe i a few months id be able to get that!

 

[thundersteele]

If you still plan on using the MBP for a while, I think it would be worth replacing it. I've had a battery in a similar shape (although less cycles), and eventually the battery life estimate would start to be inaccurate (i.e. hard shutdowns with ~30 minutes left), and eventually the battery died and started expanding.

I'm not sure if the expanding part still happens with the more modern batteries, but it's not a very stable working environment if you don't know when the machine will just stop.

 

[thekb]

I'm pretty sure unplugging when it's fully charged is counterproductive. That's probably why you have such high battery cycle count.

 

[nickandre21]

you could still use the battery for some more time till you find its not giving a good back up. 2000 load cycles is like a lot! and to see your battery health is amazing.

 

[Yahooligan]

1955 cycles on a 42-month old battery. That's like 1.5 per day every day. You definitely should NOT be unplugging the charger whenever the battery is fully charged. I'm curious why you do that or what your logic is behind that as I don't know anyone that would recommend doing that. Once the battery is charged then it stops charging the battery and the laptop runs off of the power adapter. Generally speaking, you should just use the laptop and power adapter however it's most convenient, which for most people is...

If plugged in then just leave it plugged in, if you need to go mobile then unplug it, once you're back at your desk or wherever your charger is then just plug it back in and leave it plugged in.

These batteries have no "memory" so plugging it back in any any charge level is fine and won't hurt the battery performance or life, though Apple does recommend "exercising" the battery once a month. I haven't done that and have no problems with my battery.

FWIW, the battery is only rated for 1,000 cycles so to get nearly double is great, but your charging method is likely why you need to replace the battery now. Had you left it plugged in except for when carrying it around then it should've lasted a bit longer.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1519

Here's my stats, this laptop stays plugged in 90+% of the time.

 

[koulmj]

you could still use the battery for some more time till you find its not giving a good back up. 2000 load cycles is like a lot! and to see your battery health is amazing.

2k cycles is amazing, you shouldmsee if theresnamworldmrecord holder on this...

 

[nickandre21]

1955 cycles on a 42-month old battery. That's like 1.5 per day every day. You definitely should NOT be unplugging the charger whenever the battery is fully charged. I'm curious why you do that or what your logic is behind that as I don't know anyone that would recommend doing that. Once the battery is charged then it stops charging the battery and the laptop runs off of the power adapter. Generally speaking, you should just use the laptop and power adapter however it's most convenient, which for most people is...

If plugged in then just leave it plugged in, if you need to go mobile then unplug it, once you're back at your desk or wherever your charger is then just plug it back in and leave it plugged in.

These batteries have no "memory" so plugging it back in any any charge level is fine and won't hurt the battery performance or life, though Apple does recommend "exercising" the battery once a month. I haven't done that and have no problems with my battery.

FWIW, the battery is only rated for 1,000 cycles so to get nearly double is great, but your charging method is likely why you need to replace the battery now. Had you left it plugged in except for when carrying it around then it should've lasted a bit longer.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1519

Here's my stats, this laptop stays plugged in 90+% of the time.

for 20 load cycles your on 97% health . My retina macbook is not even a month old and has 53 load cycles with 100% health, I am mostly out of home and at places where there is no outlets near by when i do need to charge I hop on to a coffee shop. Work involves movie editing and graphics, some gaming and working on my music during free time. I feel the battery has to be replaced someday so why don't I use it.

 

[Yahooligan]

for 20 load cycles your on 97% health . My retina macbook is not even a month old and has 53 load cycles with 100% health, I am mostly out of home and at places where there is no outlets near by when i do need to charge I hop on to a coffee shop. Work involves movie editing and graphics, some gaming and working on my music during free time. I feel the battery has to be replaced someday so why don't I use it.

That's nice, but I never said not to use the battery or to use it as little as possible. I said to use it however is most convenient and not worry about a specific battery use/charge regimen or voodoo ritual or whatever.

Let me know what % health you have after 14 months.

 

[thundersteele]

That's nice, but I never said not to use the battery or to use it as little as possible. I said to use it however is most convenient and not worry about a specific battery use/charge regimen or voodoo ritual or whatever.

Let me know what % health you have after 14 months.

20 months, 275 cycles, 96-97% (fluctuates)

It's not so hard to run the battery down multiple times a day when working on the go. Doesn't seem to harm it at all.

 

[Yahooligan]

20 months, 275 cycles, 96-97% (fluctuates)

It's not so hard to run the battery down multiple times a day when working on the go. Doesn't seem to harm it at all.

Your .45 cycles per day is 1/3rd of what the OP does. The difference is one is excessive, the other isn't.

 

[kel2]

Bloody hell folks! the only reason i took out the charger after it was 100% was because i read an article about battery health that stated to disconnect once fully charged and rarely ever go below 40%. I think it was that it reduces the battery health. Can really remember. I went by that method and up until say 3 months ago the battery load cycles were like 1500/1600 and battery health was in the high 80's and sometimes 90's.

I wonder if 2000 cycles even counts to what i have put this battery through. As you guys stated maybe if i had left the charger the cycles would have been well below the current figure! Il continue to use it on the charger for a while until i can afford to put a new battery in. Just hope the battery doesnt explode or anything like that!

 

[thundersteele]

Bloody hell folks! the only reason i took out the charger after it was 100% was because i read an article about battery health that stated to disconnect once fully charged and rarely ever go below 40%. I think it was that it reduces the battery health. Can really remember. I went by that method and up until say 3 months ago the battery load cycles were like 1500/1600 and battery health was in the high 80's and sometimes 90's.

Well, you shouldn't listen to that kind of stupid advice, and instead read Apples battery manual.

However, I think that they cycle count really is secondary and at 4 years age, your battery is just used up and old. My previous MBPs battery gave up after about 40 month, with just about 200 cycles (used as desktop replacement mostly).