2010 MBP Battery Dying?

Hey,
I have a question for you guys. I think my MBP's battery is failing. According to Coconut Battery, my original battery still retains 93 percent of it's design capacity. That's very good considering my MBP is over 2 years old. Yet, since last night the amount of battery the charge holds is greatly decreased. Currently, I'm on ethernet with my wifi off, only Word, safari, open. I have Splashtop 2, Alfred, and VMWareFusion running in the background. Not really much in the area of labor intensive. I've probably used 6 percent of the battery in the past 10 minutes. That's not right - at all. Yet, Coconut Battery thinks it's fine. Is there another cause for this? Is Coconut Battery wrong? Should I call apple?

Cocoanut Battery gives an approximation of the % of remaining battery based on past usage (number of charge recharge cycles) and age. Since you didn't tell us how many cycles are on the battery, it would be difficult to judge whether the battery is at fault or not. Rule of thumb here though is since your machine is a 2010 model, it has a longer lasting battery (1000 cycles). If you have Apple care still effective for your MBP, Apple will replace the battery if it should prove to be defective.

My Mac is 29 months old with 208 load cycles. I do have my AppleCare Warranty - but I'm a college student and I use my laptop for homework; I don't want to send it off if it's just my imagination.

In the past 15 minutes, it has dropped 6 percent and half of that time it was closed... Dang it!

If you can hold off until Xmas break and if you have access to an Apple store nearby or at home, take it on in and have them check it out. If the battery does turn out to be defective, they'll replace it for free. Since your battery only has 208 load cycles, it probably should be doing better than what you described.

BTW, Apple would not have to keep your machine any length of time to just change out a battery. That's something they can do rather quickly right there at the store. (If the battery is in stock.)

The nearest Apple store is 3 hours away. I'd have to take it to a repair center 30 mins from my school.

Make sure you call ahead and ask if they have the battery in stock. And don't let them replace it with a substitute because that will certainly void the warranty. I've giving you a heads up on this because not all Apple authorized repair centers do the same kind of work that the Apple store technicians do.

Thanks. I will call ahead and make sure I get the correct battery. I want my warranty to stay in effect, just in case!