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Macbook Pro Battery Health

with mbp batteries i find that they do fluctuate, and it tends to happen when you plug them in. Somehow it thinks its healthier...I havent calibrated mine yet, but its at 96% and fluctuates to 99% with 34 cycles. it is a few months old. When you discharge the battery, towards the end of its capacity it also fluctuates its health.
 
I got my new battery this morning. I popped it into to my MBP and it had only a 20 minute charge so I plugged it in. I will let you know what is says after it hits 100%, but according to iStat, it is at 98% health, System profiler says 5433 mAH out of 5500 mAH. So it seems that these batteries don't ship with 100% health. There was conflict in the stat reporting form coconut, which said I had 47 cycles, whereas iStat and system profiler says I only had 7. Apple does not go by the third party software, but will listen to what you have to say with regard to iStat as they offer it as a widget download. In order to get your new battery, don't let them bog you down with stats that are "acceptable", tell them that your use time if way off than it was originally. Off by two hours is a big deal and they should replace it.
 
coconut battery as of yet is still incompatible with Leopard. It does not report the correct status of the battery and should not be relied on.
 
i don't know what's wrong, but since this morning, my battery has been stuck at 3% while plugged into the wall.

- it jumps to 4% for a split second and then back down to 3%

- i unplugged and replugged, and now it's jumping back and forth between 11% and 13%

- and when i select show/ time it just reads (Calculating...)

what's going on? please help!
 
i've turned off my mbp and left it to charge for about 2 hours... now it says 0%... what's going on?
 
I called apple as well. After 3 phone calls they decided to replace my battery too!!!. Keep at them and you can break them down. They really seemed to be concerned when I said how long it was lasting. Not so much the percentage of charge.
 
I'm also having MBP battery issues.

According to iStat, my battery's health is 36 percent, I seem to only be getting 30 minutes to an hour of power from it, and I don't even get a low battery warning - it just shuts off randomly, sometimes when I supposedly have as much as 40 minutes of power left!:mad:
Plus, the battery has only had 129 cycles, while my friend's year-old MBP battery has had 256 cycles and has 96% health! :confused:

I purchased my MBP in June, just after the processor update, so it's only about seven months old.

I'm going to the Apple Store on Wednesday to see what they can do about it.
 
TheSailerMan said:
I'm also having MBP battery issues.

According to iStat, my battery's health is 36 percent, I seem to only be getting 30 minutes to an hour of power from it, and I don't even get a low battery warning - it just shuts off randomly, sometimes when I supposedly have as much as 40 minutes of power left!:mad:
Plus, the battery has only had 129 cycles, while my friend's year-old MBP battery has had 256 cycles and has 96% health! :confused:

I purchased my MBP in June, just after the processor update, so it's only about seven months old.

I'm going to the Apple Store on Wednesday to see what they can do about it.
Click to expand...


Dont worry about it, because Apple WILL replace that battery. Thats a bad battery. If they try not to ( which they wont) stick to it and put your foot down. Eventually they will give in. my battery was at 83 and i bought mine in June as well and they switched it out for me. good luck
 
I had a similar situation with my battery for my MBP. It's about 13 months old, was a year old when it was acting up. I plugged in the adapter and I looked at the health and it was around 30 or so percent. It was previously around the high 90s to 100% maybe, and suddenly it would fluctuate from 4%-29%. Luckily, the warranty was about to end only a month or so later, and it was covered I think. Took it to the Apple store in San Diego and the Genius Bar got it replaced for free, and the battery is great now.

I took out iStat and use CoconutBattery now, since I heard iStat isn't necessarily too accurate all the time (heard the same about CB though but still). Coconut Battery shows pretty much what my System Profiler says about the battery capacity, voltage, etc. and the percentages seem very reliable for the most part. Since checking CB, I've been sort of paranoid about checking the battery health every once and a while to make sure it's still good lol It would fluctuate between 99% down to 96% at the lowest point that I've checked. Shouldn't have been too big a deal but it wasn't something I wanted to see from a fresh battery. But now the max capacity is 5557 compared to the initial 5500. I'll take it haha I just want to make sure it's good, and now it's above 100% again so it's hopefully all good. :D
 
I nearly always use my macbook unplugged and generally plug it back in to charge over night when it gets low. I am running Leopard and just ran coconut and it says;

Battery Loadcycles = 5
Battery Cycles = 91
Age of Mac = 9 months
Current Battery Capacity = 87%

Is this ok? Is the way I am using it and charging it going to shorten its lifespan?

Also how do I calibrate my battery and is it something I should be doing a lot off?

I am a bit worried that I have only had it 9 months and the battery has already lost 20% of its capacity, how can I improve this?
 
The new battery they sent me read only 98% health. It said it would last 3.5 hours, when I was getting 4.5 before, and ended up only lasting 1.5 hours. Then, it started to get burning hot, hotter than any laptop I have ever owned (anyone that has owned the ever-overheating Toshiba Satellites know what I am talking about). I called back and told them I never experience this overheating issue until I received the new battery. I was asked to hold, then the customer service representative asked me did I plug it in after I installed the battery and I replied "Of course since they ship with 5% battery power." He asked me to hold again. I was then told that they are replacing my battery and my magsafe adapter. I specifically asked him if he was sure it was the battery and the magsafe adapter and not the MBP and he said he was and that they both needed to be replaced. It arrived less than 24 hours later. I will keep you guys updated. I am charging the new battery, it's health is reading 99%. I guess it is better than the last new battery they sent me that was 98% health. Maybe this one will be twenty degree cooler than the last one.
 
First gen MBP:

1st battery was 54% capacity at 300 cycles (which was replaced by Apple)
current battery is at 95% capacity at 8 cycles.
 
I don't know if this info could be useful, yet I post it.

I was lucky and my battery, after almost 2 years and 509 cycles, still has the 60% of the original capacity (it's 3323 mAh, according to battery health monitor).

Sometimes batteries work well on MBP.
 
Not trying to revive a (semi) dead post, but my MacBook Pro is only 7.5 months old and I've see a pretty big drop in the mAh. It is down to 3453 after 134 cycles. I wear down the battery to pretty low regularly, but the health seems to be going down rather fast. It was at 80ish%, now it is down to 63%. I will calibrate it and see if that helps before I call Apple. I don't have AppleCare though...
 
Thought I would piggy back on this thread with my battery question. As an earlier person posted I also use my MBP unplugged and then charge it overnight. I got it in Sept so it is 5 months old. I've noticed that I now only get around 2 hours in a charge. I just downloaded that istats widget and it says 88% health, 147 cycles, charge 93% and 2:07 remaining. Does this sound normal? Should I be using it plugged in more often? I normally let it run right down. I didn't realize I had charged it so many cycles. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Marilynfan said:
Thought I would piggy back on this thread with my battery question. As an earlier person posted I also use my MBP unplugged and then charge it overnight. I got it in Sept so it is 5 months old. I've noticed that I now only get around 2 hours in a charge. I just downloaded that istats widget and it says 88% health, 147 cycles, charge 93% and 2:07 remaining. Does this sound normal? Should I be using it plugged in more often? I normally let it run right down. I didn't realize I had charged it so many cycles. Any advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

How often do you calibrate it? That goes a long way in reflecting an accurate battery status.

MacDann
 
Hello everyone
My notebook is just 4 months old and has 95% health after 25 cycles... Im a bit surprised, I would like to take my notebook out w/ me to class or something but Im beginning to worry that the battery will just continue to decline rapidly.
Is there anything I can do, or will it all be downhill from here.
Thanks
 
My battery health jumps around a lot and I wish it didn't. Some days iStatPro and Hardware Profiler will report numbers like 76% and "Fair" capacity while other days it will magically jump to 88% or like now, 91%. I haven't really perceived a noticeable drop in the amount of actual usage time I have on my battery, even though I guess I should, since I tend to untether the thing once a day at least.

This is on a battery with only 29 cycles on MBP I purchased in October.

It's driving me nuts but I'm not going to bother with support until it either gets a lot worse or becomes noticeable in regular usage.
 
I have a 20 month old Macbook with a battery that has held a decent battery life of about 2-3 hours. Yesterday, however, I plugged it in when the battery died at 0% and the percentage never went back up. I restarted and it finally recharged, but it had a new battery life of 50 minutes. I check with istat, coconutbattery, and system profiler and have a 13% battery life with 364 cycles (662 mAh). I'm currently calibrating the battery (which I do on occasion, though unfortunately not as often as I should), hopefully this will improve things, but I'm not so optimistic.
Any opinions on whether to pursue this with apple, or this is a lost cause?
 
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