unibody MB battery went from great to totally F'ed in one day, why?

[Merkyworks]

hey guys so I got to school this morning and im in class and all of a sudden you MB shuts off, thought that was weird because I fully charged it up last night. tried to turn it back on but nothing so i get out the wall charger and plug it in, it starts up and the battery is drained totally. open up coconut battery and system profile to find that my battery is totally F'ed system profiler say "check battery" under condition
yesterday i installed a mac OS (im on 10.5.8) system update but other than that I have done nothing out of the ordinary.

so yes my MB is oldish and I bought it when the unibody MB first came out ( like litreally the first day in stores ), so what are the chances of me going to the apple store and then replacing it? ya i know im crazy but i thought that remember reading something about 250 cycles and 80% health...blah blah.

 

[miles01110]

It's worth a shot asking for a replacement I guess, but typically the replaceable batteries are covered if it dips below 80% capacity within 1 year or 300 cycles, whichever comes first.

 

[Merkyworks]

Ya I figure the worst that would happen is the apple genious just laughs at me, haha.

So I'm guessing that I had a cell/cells just all of a sudden fail, what else would explain this?

 

[khunsanook]

Yep, I've had this happen to three MacBook batteries. My third one (14 months old, 180 cycles) started having this problem literally overnight about a month ago. Unfortunately my MacBook is approaching its 4th birthday, so I highly doubt Apple will cover this one without any AppleCare. I still plan to give it a shot next time I'm back in the States.

The fact that I've had to replace a failed battery every year, in addition to a logic board, two SuperDrives and a wall charger, doesn't speak very well for good ol' Apple QA.

 

[Merkyworks]

ok now this is weird!

I get to the library and find a spot thats got power outlet (no easy task mind you this close to finals) and i plug in and power up. open coconut and system profiler to keep an eye on the battery and WTF!

ok whats going on here, earlier it showed the "check engine light" in system profiler and now its all ok. im lost

 

[GfulDedFan]

When was the last time you Calibrated Your Battery?

 

[Merkyworks]

Hmmm it has been a while now that I think about it, didn't think that would effect the over status health of the battery, just the time approximation of time for power

 

[benrockwood]

It is weird... this is exactly what happened today. the battery was fine till suddenly it went dead. i tried to reset SMC, removed and re-seated the battery again.. but it was dead. it took it to genius bar and they replaced it with new battery for free. what i am curious.. why did it died .. in fact it was working till today morning and i was getting almost 4 hrs on the battery.. it is weird indeed

Ben

 

[Xenophon]

The fact that I've had to replace a failed battery every year, in addition to a logic board, two SuperDrives and a wall charger, doesn't speak very well for good ol' Apple QA.

Same here, battery failed after 13 months/142 cycles and forget any replacement under warranty (they told me it would not have been covered under AppleCare either, good thing I didn't get suckered into buying that one).

I'm finding horrorstories about those first gen. unibody macbook batteries all over the web. Not scientific, I know, but it seems to me like they have a real quality problem with those. Guess I'll be buying a new battery every year

If my logic board would fail before the machine is 2 years old that'll be the end of apple products for me. Expensive is one thing, but expensive and low quality...no way.

 

[Merkyworks]

It is weird... this is exactly what happened today. the battery was fine till suddenly it went dead. i tried to reset SMC, removed and re-seated the battery again.. but it was dead. it took it to genius bar and they replaced it with new battery for free. what i am curious.. why did it died .. in fact it was working till today morning and i was getting almost 4 hrs on the battery.. it is weird indeed

Ben

ya im as baffled as you are, im just happy that the battery is in fact good and i dont have to fork out $130 for a new one or even deal with apple and trying to get a new one. not that dealing with apple is bad but if i dont have to then i will avoid it.