Average Lifespan of OEM MBP Battery

I was wondering if there is an average lifespan of MBP batteries. I have a 17" MBP 2.4 Core2Duo Model A1229, and have recently been experiencing random shutdown problems and I am curious if a battery replacement is in order. I bought this machine in late 2008 and have been using it reliably since then.

What makes you think your battery is the cause of the shutdowns? Suggest downloading the free "cocoanutBattery 2.7 application" and see what it says about your battery. You can paste it into your next reply.

You can also see if OSX is detecting any problems with the battery by holding down the "alt" key and clicking the battery status in your toolbar at the top.

- Simon

Results

Well I am having Random Shutdown Syndrome, and upon removing the battery and running it strait from the power cord it hasn't shut down for over an hour. It usually shuts down within 15-20 minutes after startup when everything is in place. OSX reports the battery condition as normal. Here is a screenshot of what Coconut Battery reported, it seems that everything is Kosher so maybe my shutdown problem is unrelated to the battery.



I put the battery back in, obviously, and it hasn't shut down in about 45 minutes, so I am at a loss as to what the problem could be.

No screen shot was attached. But if you say cocoanutBattery reports everything normal the random shutdowns may be caused by something else. Random shutdowns are usually related to hardware problems. Let it continue to run without the battery to see what if anything happens and if it shuts down again.

OK, I see where you put the battery back in and it hasn't shut down. As I said above, let it run for awhile. If it is some kind of a hardware problem, it'll show up again.

I saw somewhere to check the log file ( I can't remember exactly where it was) but when I checked it out I didn't see anything about crashing, what exactly should I look for, and could you tell me how to open that log file again so I can check it out.

Logs are located in two places:

/Users/your user name/Library/Logs/

MacIntosh HD/Library/Logs/

If no panic report was generated then there will not be a log entry. If you don't find any log entries relating to the shutdowns, that's OK.

Thanks, since there is no Kernel Panic message there are no entries in the log. I haven't experienced a shutdown since putting the battery back in. So as of right now everything seems to be Kosher, but if I know my luck I'm sure this is just, well , Luck, and it will the issue will come back with a vengeance. I will update if I experience this issue again. One last question: Should the battery be replaced every so often? On a full charge the time remaining is about 3:10, is this on par with late 2007 MBP's? Could a new or different brand of battery increase this?

No, I would keep on using that battery until it gets to where it won't hold a decent charge. Right now yours is doing OK. I've got an old Toshiba Satellite notebook from 2003 that I can still get 1+30 from the battery. Change it out when you need to. No sense in spending $100 or so when you don't have to.