Random MBP Shutdown (on Battery)

[smartalic34]

As the title implies, my MBP shuts down while running on battery, but here's the catch: it is always around 30-35% remaining capacity that this occurs. I am running 10.5.1, and am using a battery about 6 months old (got it thru the MBP battery exchange program). I have attempted to re-calibrate the battery, but it never makes it below 31%.

Any ideas? SMC reset didn't help...

 

[kajitox]

Is this a system crash of sorts or is this just a random shutdown? I think usually the computers shut down after the battery gets below 10 minutes, but perhaps it's a certain percent. You might want to download coconutbattery and check your battery health.

 

[smartalic34]

the computer should be going to sleep, not shutting down. It is a random shutdown though, not a crash. My battery's health is 4390 mAh, whereas original capacity is 5500 mAh, so health is only 79%. even so, the LED lights are indicating there's charge left (and the indicator shows 31%).

what's going on?

 

[kajitox]

This is interesting; is the problem consistently happening when the battery is at a certain percent? If so, have you tried replicating the problem with someone else's battery? That might limit possible problems down.

 

[Verschoren]

try restarting your Mac and do a P-Ram zap.

My mom had the same problem, and after doing a PRam, the battery didn't show up as 25% full (in her case), but would appear as 0%

 

[Pili]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D052; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

My dad's mbp is having the same problem but it sometimes completely shuts down within minutes of booting. I'm going to try and reset the pmu? when I get back home and see if that helps. Battery health is fine and its a 2.33ghz model.

 

[smartalic34]

I zapped the PRAM... and the MBP shut down when the battery was at 58%... so it has happened once at 31%, once at 35%, and now at 58%. My sister's MBP is currently getting a logic board replacement, so when it is shipped back, I'll test things with her battery and see if things change.

I wonder what could be causing this?

 

[kjryan]

I'm having the same problem on my 2.16 CD MBP, and it just started a few days go- the battery gets somewhere between 30-50% and it just shuts down without a warning. I've tried zapping the PRam without any results.

I saw two other people on the Apple discussion forums having the same problem, both within a few days ago too. Could this be from a recent update maybe?

I might head over to the store soon to check things out.