macbook pro battery help

[grooveattack]

hi there
so i kinda may have left my computer plugged in for a rather extended amount of time ( 4/5 weeks ) and i have noticed recently that my mac's battery is not holding as much charge as it should, and istat pro is telling me that my battery health is at a grizzly 59%.
I did not think that leaving it plugged into the wall could damage the battery?
Thinking something may be up so i looked at my system profile and this was there.....

is my battery bummed or is there a way to make it better?

 

[nerdbert]

IIRC the Macbook Pro's battery should hold more than 50% after going through 300 cycles. Based on my own battery experience I think 57% for 208 cycles is rather low.
Your numbers from System Profiler actually look quite strange. It says that the nominal full charge capacity of your battery is 3319, which is significantly lower than what my MBP's battery should hold (4994). We have different battery models, but the nominal capacity shouldn't be that far off.

Maybe it's not the battery, but the stats are simply wrong. Have you tried discharging it till the laptop hibernates? The system needs this from time to time in order to recalibrate the battery's stats.

 

[creator2456]

I highly doubt that leaving it plugged in is what caused this. My MBP was plugged in all summer while I was home from college and nothing happened. Your battery just decided to crap out while it was plugged in.

Call Apple and they will ask for the stats out of System Profiler. You should get a new battery sent to you no problem.

 

[chase331]

macbook pro

i just got a new battery for my mac. and in 1 week the battery life dropped 50%. is there something i should be doing to stop this from happening?

 

[nerdbert]

As in it runs for half the time it should?

Then it sounds like a faulty battery and you should send it back. If it just displays 50% in System Profiler but it still runs over 4 hours unplugged the stats are simply broken, but your battery is fine.

On the other hand there are certain hardware related problems which might cause this. For example I have an old Powerbook lying around here which has a loose/semi-broken power connector. It switches between charging and discharging rapidly, which kills the battery.
But such problems are usually noticeable.

So send it back and start worrying about your laptop if the same happens with the replacement.