MBP unresponsive on low battery

[forza69]

Since getting my rMBP last Friday, the screen flashes weirdly when waking up from sleep after a few hours, the computer becomes completely unresponsive and freezes when on low battery (1%), and just now after waking from sleep it flashed a little bit, was awake for like a minute then suddenly went back to sleep without me doing something. Now, I don't know if I'm just overreacting, but should it be doing this or is it normal behavior? I really need to be sure something is wrong before taking a trip back to Best Buy and exchanging it for a new one. TYIA for any input.

 

[wonderspark]

At 1% charge, it's time to think about plugging in for a recharge. If it does that when there's a proper charge, then I'd be concerned.

 

[forza69]

At 1% charge, it's time to think about plugging in for a recharge. If it does that when there's a proper charge, then I'd be concerned.

I did that mainly because I do that with my iPhone to calibrate the battery. Not sure if it works the same but I wanted it to die completely and then I would charge it, but it never died. Just froze at 1%. I feel asleep around 12am, woke up at 7am and it was still on. Had to shut it down manually.

 

[Macman45]

I did that mainly because I do that with my iPhone to calibrate the battery. Not sure if it works the same but I wanted it to die completely and then I would charge it, but it never died. Just froze at 1%. I feel asleep around 12am, woke up at 7am and it was still on. Had to shut it down manually.

Re calibrate the SMC:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

And allow the Mac to charge fully. If the problem persists, return it to Apple.

 

[forza69]

Re calibrate the SMC:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

And allow the Mac to charge fully. If the problem persists, return it to Apple.

I did it. Is there any indication to know that I reset it successfully? I pressed shift+control+option+power buttons at the same time and let go after like 2 seconds at the same time, then booted it back up (which by the way I'm amazed at how fast that was).

 

[Macman45]

I did it. Is there any indication to know that I reset it successfully? I pressed shift+control+option+power buttons at the same time and let go after like 2 seconds at the same time, then booted it back up (which by the way I'm amazed at how fast that was).

No, now let it charge up and check that the issue is gone.

 

[forza69]

No, now let it charge up and check that the issue is gone.

It's already fully charged. I'm about to let it sleep for a few hours and I'll check to see if I still have the lid problem. Thanks again for your help!

 

[GGJstudios]

I did that mainly because I do that with my iPhone to calibrate the battery. Not sure if it works the same but I wanted it to die completely and then I would charge it, but it never died. Just froze at 1%. I feel asleep around 12am, woke up at 7am and it was still on. Had to shut it down manually.

The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries in older Apple notebooks.

Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery. Just make sure you don't run on AC power exclusively, as your battery needs to be used regularly to stay healthy. The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​