MBP shuts down abruptly

[supercooled]

Hello,

I've had this MBP since November '06 and to be honest, it has not really been used on the battery charge that many times. iStats indicates it's on its 22nd cycle charge but none of those charges were ever started from a completely drained cell. I rarely take it off my desk and use it somewhere else but on the odd occassion, less than 10x I've used it in the "John" and would immediately replug it back so this battery has not been "maintained" as it were. The LED indicator shows about 80% but if I were to take the mag-safe off, I'd be lucky to get 10 minutes of usage before the system just shuts down! When that happens, I naturally check the health of my cell which is at 80% with just 1-2 LED dimmed.

Is this a clear indication that my cell is fubar? NO warranty left so am I looking at a new cell?

Thanks

 

[mad jew]

Well, calibrate your battery before writing it off.

 

[Wireless Buddy]

Hello,

I've had this MBP since November '06 and to be honest, it has not really been used on the battery charge that many times. iStats indicates it's on its 22nd cycle charge but none of those charges were ever started from a completely drained cell. I rarely take it off my desk and use it somewhere else but on the odd occassion, less than 10x I've used it in the "John" and would immediately replug it back so this battery has not been "maintained" as it were. The LED indicator shows about 80% but if I were to take the mag-safe off, I'd be lucky to get 10 minutes of usage before the system just shuts down! When that happens, I naturally check the health of my cell which is at 80% with just 1-2 LED dimmed.

Is this a clear indication that my cell is fubar? NO warranty left so am I looking at a new cell?

Thanks

If you usually use the power adapter anyway, there is no point in spending so much money on a new battery you would never use...

 

[iClamp]

I am not sure if this will help, but it sounds like you and I both got our MacBook Pros around the same time. My MBP did this also. After doing some research, it turns out that there are faulty batteries on MBPs of that period. I called Apple, and they asked for my serial number. They sent me a new battery, free of charge, and I had to return the old battery in their box.

I hope this helps.

 

[supercooled]

Well, calibrate your battery before writing it off.

I've tried that but the thing says OS X would give a warning. I don't get any prompts of low charge, it just shuts down completely and abruptly.

I may just buy another cell to see if it's a problem with my stock one or the MBP itself. I'm hoping it's a software issue but any little quirks about my barely one year old notebook scares me to death. Warranty just ended and I decided not to buy so the whole Murphy's Law thing scares me. I don't know if I can afford a Mac Pro this coming new year so that's iffy. I wont' settle for a Mac Mini or MacBook.

Off on a tangent but ah. Thanks for the link though, I'll try to recalibrate it again. So far down to 94% and roughly about 10 minutes. *knocks on particle board - curses Ikea craftsmanship*

 

[mad jew]

Maybe try resetting your SMC and then re-calibrate. That may get things back to normal. FWIW, you should calibrate monthly.