Computer shutting down at 20% battery

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Ok, my MB used to shut down when I had like 2 or 3 minutes of battery left, but lately its been shutting down at about 30 or so minutes left (says 20% battery life left when it starts back up). The problem this causes is that when it gets to 10 minutes of life left it gives you a warning, and then I'd go plug it in, but now if I dont watch the meter it just dies on my all of a sudden.

I can't seem to find any setting like widows has where you tell it at what percent of battery life left to shut down. My battery is on a "custom" power scheme, maybe that changes it? Any help would be great
 
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Most people are asleep or working most of the hours between midnight and 10am. Give people time before bumping.
 
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Most people are asleep or working most of the hours between midnight and 10am. Give people time before bumping.

yes, I know most people are not at their computers that late, which is why I then bumped it in the morning so that it was towards the top of the "get new" list

From what I have read on the net, this might be a bad battery problem, is your macbook under warranty, they shouldn't charge you to replace it

thanks for the input. The computer is no longer under warranty (1.5 years old about) and the 1 year mark slipped by me before I bought the Apple Care extension. I'll try the battery calibration thing that you do when you first get the computer and see if that makes a difference. I usually keep my MB plugged in, which I know with cell phones can shorten the battery life.
 
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I was faced with a similar problem on my MB Pro which wasn't even 7 months old. It would shut off completely randomly, even when the battery power would read around 44%. I downloaded a cool little program from the Apple.com downloads section called Coconut Battery which monitors your battery life. As it turns out, I just had a completely defective battery and my local Apple Store replaced it for free.

I'm not sure that keeping the computer plugged in on the MB shortens the battery life as it does with cell phones. I would download Coconut Battery and check that stuff out.
 
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Under what category did you find coconut battery? I have been looking under untilities, developers tools, productivity tools and cant find it in there... is there an easy way to find these cool apps?
 
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Google worked for me.
 
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well, looks like I may need a new battery then (although its charging up from a re-calibration) :)

at 19 months old, looks like I should have gotten the AppleCare protection plan

Picture 1.jpg
 
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wow u have a lot of lifecycles. i'm on 25 months and only 50 lifecycles. originally i was only getting 60% capacity but i just keep running the charge down to nothing and recharging it fully and i did that for at least 5 cycles and its now back on 89% which i still fell is a little low for only 50 cycles.
 
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Its weird Coconut went from 46% capacity to 38% (I had to restart the computer because while trying to re-calibrate the battery I got a black screen error) and now that I'm re-calibrating again, it says I have 55% capacity. Hopefully a few re-re-re-calibrations will help the battery life enough that I wont need a $120 battery soon
 
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wow u have a lot of lifecycles. i'm on 25 months and only 50 lifecycles. originally i was only getting 60% capacity but i just keep running the charge down to nothing and recharging it fully and i did that for at least 5 cycles and its now back on 89% which i still fell is a little low for only 50 cycles.

Wow I've had my santa rosa for 3 months and I already have 97 lifecycles, but 99% health and I've never re-calibrated it.
 
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after re-calibrating twice my battery went up to 73% total capacity, but then I slept it for a few hours not plugged in and its at 70% total capacity. So either this program isn't functioning very well or my battery really is just crapping out. I'll try calibrating it for a third time tomorrow to see if that makes a difference.

One thing I've noticed with CoconutBattery. If it is running and you put the computer to sleep, when it wakes up you will get the dark screen error message telling you to restart.
 
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Well the other day, without thinking, I tried to start up the MacBook after I had drained the battery, as I pushed the button I remembered it was supposed to be dead and wouldn't turn on, but it turned on! The computer had died before the battery was truly empty. So I let it drain all the way again to the point when it wouldn't turn on. I took the battery out of the computer and let it sit for 2 days completely drained, and then tried to recharge it last night.

However now it is doing something weird. It got to about 75% of a charge (I had the computer off, but was monitoring the LEDs on the battery itself) and the light would be flashing saying it was charging, but then it'd go steady, like it wasn't charging and the MagSafe would turn from red to green for a second. Then the MagSafe would go back to red and the battery would flash as if charging. I turned on the computer and then status menu says how much time is left until full charge, but the MagSafe keeps going to green and then the status says "calculating..." and then it'll come back with a time different from 5 seconds ago!

Very frustrating until I came upon this: http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/
I did the update when it came out, and it says it extends the warranty to 2 years for the battery! One of the symptoms ("low performance/life at full charge with less than 300 cycles") fits my situation, although I barely squeaked under the cycle limit. I shall be going to my local Apple Authorized Service Center tomorrow before work :)
 
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Ok, my MB used to shut down when I had like 2 or 3 minutes of battery left, but lately its been shutting down at about 30 or so minutes left (says 20% battery life left when it starts back up). The problem this causes is that when it gets to 10 minutes of life left it gives you a warning, and then I'd go plug it in, but now if I dont watch the meter it just dies on my all of a sudden.

I can't seem to find any setting like widows has where you tell it at what percent of battery life left to shut down. My battery is on a "custom" power scheme, maybe that changes it? Any help would be great

i actually have the same problem sometimes...my MB just shuts down when the timer indicates about 30 mins of battery life left... very weird
 
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well my battery is at 302 loadcycles, and the extended warranty covers batteries up to 2 years with less than 300 loadcycles, so the Authorized Apple Service Center said too bad.....regardless of the fact that I have done multiple calibrations, which by simple math puts the loadcycle count at <300 when the problem began, and regardless of logic saying that the battery did not lose half of its capacity in 3 loadcycles.

I'll be calling AppleCare soon
 
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I have the same problem and question..

Hi all, just discovered since a few weeks I have the same problem with my Macbook battery. The mac just completely shuts down at about 20%. Reading here it could mean my battery is almost finished. My macbook isn't even 2 years old. My question is where do I find out how many so called 'lifecycles' my battery has done. first time i hear about that. And yes, I do have the battery update since May 2007. If I understand it right that would mean the battery should have a 2 year warranty and with a bit of luck and a run to an apple store I could get a new battery.. All help is welcome.
 
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Found it already

Meantime i found where the lifecycles are mentioned. 319, too bad...
So let me get this straight: a lifecycle is added each time the battery has to load again from almost empty to 100%??
Must be correct as I'm in the habit to unplug electricity and to work on the battery each time it has fully loaded itself.
So I was saving electricity but maybe shortening the life of my battery??
Now since a few days it does not load up to he 100 % anymore, it stops loading at 98%. And I did find coconutbattery, it says my battery capacity is now 77%. My macbook is 21 months old. Well, I'm learning something.
Anyone a lot of experience with keeping the life of your battery longer!! Is there still anything I can do at this point??
As far as I know calibrating only works when you can let the battery go almost to empty..

Meantime, I guess I'll work with the electricity plugged in a bit more from now on.. Oh well, better late than never..
Cheers and have a good day..
 
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MBasile
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Called AppleCare today. The guy had to talk to two different departments and twist some arms, but he got me a new battery even though I was 3 or 4 cycles over the cut off point.

I will buy from Apple again in the future :)
 
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I just re calibrated mine (2nd time in a row) and it went from 49% capacity to 53%.

I'm currently charging it to full for the recalibration but i know previously it would charge to 98% and hang there for more then 20 minutes until it would go up to 99%.

Anyways, i did that battery update, i'm at 290 cycles and my macs 18months old, can i get a warranty exchange? If so what to do i tell them at apple, and how will they attempt to prove what i say at the store?
 
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I just re calibrated mine (2nd time in a row) and it went from 49% capacity to 53%.

I'm currently charging it to full for the recalibration but i know previously it would charge to 98% and hang there for more then 20 minutes until it would go up to 99%.

Anyways, i did that battery update, i'm at 290 cycles and my macs 18months old, can i get a warranty exchange? If so what to do i tell them at apple, and how will they attempt to prove what i say at the store?

well if you go into the apple store you'll have to bring your laptop in with you anyways, so they will verify the information there. If you call them you'll give them the info (laptop was bought between specific time period that the update applied to, it is less than 2 yrs old, battery cycle count is at 290, update from April 07 extends the battery warranty to 2yrs for specific problems, this being one of them) and then they will send you a new battery and you send them your old one. They will also ask for a credit card number and they will charge you the full price of the battery if you dont send your old one back, and probably if when you get the old one they see from the battery's info that you lied they'll charge you too.


Anyways, I talked to AppleCare yesterday, got my new battery today :)
 

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