08-11-2009, 11:53 PM

Hi everyone, I apologize if this has been posted before. I found something similar to it after searching, but nothing seemed to help me, so I figured I'd take the chance and just post my own problem.

I recently purchased a new battery for my two year old Macbook because the previous one I had began swelling. Now when ever I'm running off the battery life, and it runs down to the point where it says it will go into sleep mode in about ten minutes or so, it's ends up shutting off completely instead of just going to sleep. I've never experience this problem before and can't seem to figure out what I need to do.

I did the SMC reset by taking out the battery and AC plug, and then holding the power button down for 5 seconds with no change.

Is it possible this is due to the battery being defective? Any body have any thoughts? Thanks for ANY help I can get with this. It's really irking me especially since I've never had any issues with this kind of thing before.

PS. I read that because the swelling of the battery is a defect I should be able to get Apple to replace it even though I'm out of warranty. It was actually a refurbished replacement I was given during the 2007 recall. Should I pursue this again or let it go?

08-12-2009, 12:01 AM

draining ur battery all the time greatly depreciates its health. I would go to Apple. It couldn't hurt...

08-12-2009, 12:08 AM

I wish I could. There isn't one nearby. I called Apple today, and the guy I spoke with more or less refused to help me because I don't have a service agreement or whatever. I couldn't believe how unhelpful he was. All he did was email me a little blurb about when I should perform a SMC reset.

08-12-2009, 12:40 AM

If you are running out of choices how about doing another SMC reset then do a Battery Calibration here and then another reset of the SMC, see if that helps.

08-12-2009, 01:04 AM

Hey Collin, I just did a SMC reset again, and I followed the first couple steps mentioned in the battery recalibration. I'm now going to let the computer drain back down, but I'm not sure how this will work since my computer doesn't seem to go sleep (the problem), it just shuts off. I guess I'll go with it and leave it alone for the time it mentioned...

08-12-2009, 01:40 AM

Well, what you are calling your computer dying might be just the deep hibernation it does when the battery gets very low. It stores all of your computers status in the RAM.

Try plugging it back in and turn it on, you should see your desktop greyed with a progress bar as it comes out of deep hibernation.

08-13-2009, 03:01 AM

I have a somewhat similar problem with my laptop. Its 1-1/2 year old MacBook Pro. I rarely use it on battery power but the last two times I have, with about 1 hour left it just suddenly goes dead as if the battery has worn down completely. No warning or anything. It won't come back on till I plug it back in. I did try the Coconut program and it shows that I 69 battery load cycles. Any one have an idea as to why it just up and dies or am I just nearing the end of this battery's life?

08-13-2009, 03:26 AM

Originally Posted by decrink

I have a somewhat similar problem with my laptop. Its 1-1/2 year old MacBook Pro. I rarely use it on battery power but the last two times I have, with about 1 hour left it just suddenly goes dead as if the battery has worn down completely. No warning or anything. It won't come back on till I plug it back in. I did try the Coconut program and it shows that I 69 battery load cycles. Any one have an idea as to why it just up and dies or am I just nearing the end of this battery's life?

Doing a SMC reset here and a battery calibration here may get some of its capacity back but if u have not done a calibration in 18 months then a new battery is likely. U can try claiming on the battery but apple will want to test the charging function of MBP before stumping up and that takes time. Now i do a calibration every 45 days as my first battery lasted 69 cycles as well.

08-13-2009, 04:54 PM

Just a quick update on this situation. After I spoke with one VERY VERY unhelpful (and rude) person from AppleCare, I called back a few minutes later and spoke to another person. They suggested I try a friend's battery and see if my computer goes to sleep then. I did, and my Macbook did go to sleep when the battery life drained down to zero. I called Apple up telling them the results and they over nighted me a new battery, which I got this morning. I just tested this one out and my computer goes to sleep.

So this is battery number four. Hopefully it works out better this time.

(The first battery I had with this laptop was part of the recall. The second one began expanding and was in route to damage my trackpad so I had to pay for a new one, the third was the one mentioned in this thread).

Thanks for the suggestions guys!