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Service Battery warning?

I

iamsophie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 21, 2012
24
0
Australia
Hey everyone,
So today I decided that I would switch to using percentage as my battery indicator rather than how much time is left, and at the top there was something saying "Service Battery" with a warning sign to the right.
I clicked on it, yet it said that the topic could not be found.
My MB is a 2009 2.26GHZ C2D with 4GB ram (if that helps).
I know that this obviously means that I need to take the battery into service, but can I leave it in this state or is it important that I have it repaired?
I'll just leave a bit of info about the battery below :)
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 4081
Fully Charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 4106
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 653
Condition: Service Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12527
Hopefully you guys can help me out!
Thank you :)
 
If you're not already doing so, use iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) to get accurate readings of battery health and cycles and computer uptime, among many other things. A forum member has posted a copy of iStat Pro that has been "tweaked" to enhance compatibility with Mountain Lion. You can download it here.

The "Service Battery" warning appears when there is a problem with your battery. It also appears when your battery health (Full charge capacity) drops below 75%. You may be able to continue using your battery, but it may have reduced capacity. It's advisable to have your battery replaced, as some batteries have been known to swell near the end of their useful life. Such swelling could damage your Mac.

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.
 
I don't think you do need to replace your Mac's battery. That "service battery warning" is kinda dodgy, often giving off false warnings. My MacBook Pro has had that warning come up several times, however it has always gone away after a battery calibration. So try calibrating your battery, to see if that makes it go away. If your battery is still lasting for a decent amount of time, it's healthy no matter what the OS says, anyway. I've topped 1400 cycles on my MBP's battery, and it currently has no replacement warnings... So at 600 I doubt yours will be in danger anytime soon ;)

Just keep using your MacBook like normal until the battery is holding too little charge - And then replace it :)
 
mrsir2009 said:
I don't think you do need to replace your Mac's battery. That "service battery warning" is kinda dodgy, often giving off false warnings. My MacBook Pro has had that warning come up several times, however it has always gone away after a battery calibration. So try calibrating your battery, to see if that makes it go away. If your battery is still lasting for a decent amount of time, it's healthy no matter what the OS says, anyway. I've topped 1400 cycles on my MBP's battery, and it currently has no replacement warnings... So at 600 I doubt yours will be in danger anytime soon ;)

Just keep using your MacBook like normal until the battery is holding too little charge - And then replace it :)
Click to expand...

Thank you! To the other poster too :) My Macbook seems to have fine battery charge, I was watching DW for at least 2 hours the other day and it didn't run out... I'm still wondering how this comes up and why...
 
GGJstudios said:
If you're not already doing so, use iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) to get accurate readings of battery health and cycles and computer uptime, among many other things. A forum member has posted a copy of iStat Pro that has been "tweaked" to enhance compatibility with Mountain Lion. You can download it here.

The "Service Battery" warning appears when there is a problem with your battery. It also appears when your battery health (Full charge capacity) drops below 75%. You may be able to continue using your battery, but it may have reduced capacity. It's advisable to have your battery replaced, as some batteries have been known to swell near the end of their useful life. Such swelling could damage your Mac.

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.
Click to expand...

So I downloaded iStat like you recommended and it said my battery health is 77% so now it makes sense. So it's really 2% off service battery warning it should be but that's okay :) Thank you very much.
 
iMacC2D said:
Apple's internal battery diagnostics report "Service Battery" whenever the battery healthy drops below 80%, not 75%. I had a MacBook come in for service with 80.7% health and tested perfectly fine. By allowing it to run low, the estimated health would fall ever so slightly to 79.7%, throwing the Service Battery warning. The diagnostic tests that Apple runs during repairs also have a lower threshold of 80%.

This explains why with even 77% health your battery is reporting an issue, it's fallen just 3% below the normal operating ranges.

It's likely the battery will continue to function perfectly normally despite the Service Battery warning, it just won't hold as much charge as it used to. With 653 cycles, it's not supposed to occur, but as batteries degrade with time and use it's not unheard of either.

The only exception to this is if you notice the bottom case bending outward slightly, or the trackpad starts to become hard to click, then get it checked over as it means the battery is beginning to expand. However with Apple's newer integrated batteries (2009 onwards), I haven't found this to occur anywhere near as often. As long as you attend to it at the first sign of this occurring (if it occurs at all, that is), it shouldn't do any harm to your machine.
Click to expand...

Simply not true.

My battery is reporting it's in good condition at 79%. I'll report back when it hits 75%.
 

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