Macbook pro battery suddenly died

[guigours]

I bought my macbook pro in 2009. I haven't replaced anything so far except the hard drive (SSD). That's a pretty long life for a laptop already and it was working like a charm until a few days ago.
I was using it, I unplugged the charger and the laptop just instantly stopped. I couldn't get it to turn back on at first, and thought it died, but when I plugged the charger back in, I was able to turn it on. Now when I use it I can't unplug the charger.

The "About this mac" section says: Battery charge cycles: 1316 / Battery status: Replace now.
I understand the battery is dead which is normal given the age of it. What I don't get though is that it was working like a charm just a few days ago. I mean the battery could last for 6-8 hours easily, I thought that if the battery died I would at least see it coming progressively.

Is this normal?
Thanks

 

[simonsi]

What is normal for an 8yr old battery??? I guess the failure wasn't just one of capacity decline if it went terminal that quickly. Equally something may have shorted between cells and the electronics have shut it down. Id be inclined to scrap it or repair it pretty quickly, if something chemical has happened you don't want it to suddenly swell or worse if you intend to repair it.

 

[Mockletoy]

I agree with simonsi ... if it starts swelling, it'll cause problems.

I was sitting in a restaurant once, waiting for my food, when I noticed that my iPhone 4 felt really warm in my pocket. By the time I'd gotten it out to see what was wrong with it, the battery had swelled so badly that it had cracked the screen in half and pushed the guts of the phone out of the body of the phone.

I never had any indication anything was wrong, either. It went from fine and normal to hot and destroyed and twice its normal size pretty much instantly.

 

[simonsi]

Eeek! These phone batteries pack some energy, if it starts going into heat via a short it gets scary real fast!

 

[Mockletoy]

My battery maintained its integrity and didn't leak or anything, but it looked like a puffed-up balloon. If it happens inside the sealed body of a Mac, though ... something has to give.

 

[ZapNZs]

This is not unusual at all. I imagine that Apple has integrated several safety mechanisms that are able to completely disconnect the battery's charging and usage ability if a potentially dangerous condition is detected (ex: signs of thermal runaway that come before 'venting'.) This is one possible cause - especially considering the REPLACE NOW message (although I am not sure what specific factors are used to determine when this message is displayed). Another potential cause is the chemical changes that occur inside a lithium cell over time, with usage, that are largely affected by heat and rate of charge - sudden dramatic capacity loss (that is, a capacity that falls lower than the threshold require to power a device) in lithium cells from this are known, although an area that still seems to be of great interest to battery gurus as it appears to not be fully understood (possibly partly because of the difficulties in studying something that can take 3, 5, or even 10 years to occur - further making it difficult to predict the safety factor in regards to your machine.) I agree that it is worth ensuring the battery is not swelling, and, if it were me, personally, I would not leave the machine plugged in while unattended, minimize my usage until service, and make it a priority to replace the battery ASAP. (Note, I am no battery expert.)