Mid-2014 MBP Battery issue

[Peet_B]

Hi, the last couple of months my MBP battery has been a pain in the ***. At about 35% the MacBook turns itself off, and when I try to restart it, it shows the battery as 0%. Also, it only lasts about 2 hours on a full charge. This would't be weird if my battery had loads of cycles, but it only has 519 cycles on it (see screenshot). It shows battery status as OK, but it's far from OK and makes my MBP really unreliable. Also, when plugging it in, the percentage wil jump around like crazy. Can anyone help me with this? I don't think its the battery itself, but more like the battery management system that's doing some weird things.

This video shows what happens

 

[robvas]

Your battery is 5 years old so even with < 1,000 cycles it ca be bad. I would take it to get looked at (could be the motherboard) before Apple marks them as vintage and won't service them.

 

[savagewatts]

I have the same laptop with almost the same amount of cycles and mine is fine. There might be something wrong. There are lots of factors that come into play though.

 

[Peet_B]

It's really weird, I did a SMC/PRAM reset, charged to 100% and left it plugged in for 2 hours. After that I drained the battery and left it drained for 5 hours. Unfortunately still no result. I also don't want to pay a hell of a lot of money for a 6-year old MacBook to be fixed, I'm just a poor student😅... What would be the most cost-effective thing to do here?

 

[mightyjabba]

It's probably around $200 to get a new battery put in. It is possible to do yourself for less, although the quality of the replacement batteries isn't as good, and the replacement process itself can be a bit tricky due to them being glued in.

 

[ant1298]

If you do it yourself and then found the battery to be a dud like many others have, Apple will charge you more for the replacement.

My replacement with a 3rd party battery was going to be £401 instead of £199 as they weren’t getting their own battery back...

YMMV

 

[Fishrrman]

"What would be the most cost-effective thing to do here?"

Take it to a brick-n-mortar Apple Store genius bar.
Have them check it out.
If necessary have them install a NEW battery.

It should cost you $200 for the battery and install labor.
MAKE SURE you have agreement about this before you put it into their hands.

 

[Peet_B]

Thanks for the advice! Maybe I'll take the gamble and do it myself, got a 12-core Mac Pro at home, and from this point on I'm going to be working more and more from home so the MacBook is not being used as often as it once was... Still not sure though...

 

[Wilbo]

Your battery is 5 years old so even with < 1,000 cycles it ca be bad. I would take it to get looked at (could be the motherboard) before Apple marks them as vintage and won't service them.

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I have a related question.
I want to buy a boxed/new 2017 macbook air with a nice discount on the price. Would there be any negative effect from the battery not being used for all that time?

Mike

 

[Peet_B]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I have a related question.
I want to buy a boxed/new 2017 macbook air with a nice discount on the price. Would there be any negative effect from the battery not being used for all that time?

Mike

Well that depends on the state of charge it has been boxed with. Usually it's not that big of a deal, there should still be some charge in the machine after 2 years. It's not the optimal scenario for a battery, but definitely not a disaster.

 

[robvas]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I have a related question.
I want to buy a boxed/new 2017 macbook air with a nice discount on the price. Would there be any negative effect from the battery not being used for all that time?

Mike

Tough to say what the manufactured date is on that laptop. But it probably hasn't just been sitting since 2017