Macbook battery bad, ‘replace battery’ warning

Hello,
I have a white MacBook 13 in. laptop and recently the ‘replace battery’ warning has been coming on. I figured that since I never use it unplugged, I wouldn’t need to replace it, just keep running it plugged in. Well, my wife went to log on and nothing at all… no power, no light on the plug in, nothing! My question is, will I have to replace the battery even though I seldom use it ‘unplugged’ from an AC source?

I can't remember if it affects the older MB's but on later models the performance takes a hit and my concern would be that its constantly trying to charge a bad battery which could kill the power supply board and charger not to mention the possibility of added heat and swollen battery.

I think it's from 2008-- Any idea on how I would check any of these potential issues?

DanaJJ said:

Hello,
I have a white MacBook 13 in. laptop and recently the ‘replace battery’ warning has been coming on. I figured that since I never use it unplugged, I wouldn’t need to replace it, just keep running it plugged in. Well, my wife went to log on and nothing at all… no power, no light on the plug in, nothing! My question is, will I have to replace the battery even though I seldom use it ‘unplugged’ from an AC source?

Click to expand...

How about telling us how many charge/discharge cycles this battery has? I don't know what OS version you're running. To determine this:

If you're running 10.6:

- Apple Menu
- About this Mac
- Click on "More Info"
- Click on "Power" in the left margin of that window
- In the right side of the window it will say "Cycle Count"

If you're running 10.7 or 10.8:

- Apple Menu
- About this Mac
- Click on "More Info"
- Click on "System Report"
- Click on "Power" in the left margin of that window
- In the right side of the window it will say "Cycle Count"

Tell us the "Cycle Count" number.

- Nick

Because I am not able to power it on, I won't be able to do that, however, this is the info on the battery itself:

model no. A1185 10.8V --- 55Wh

Also, I think the OS is pretty up-to-date, it's a 2.4GHZ processor

That doesn't tell us anything. However, since the "replace battery" warning is on, you very likely need to replace it. The battery for your MacBook can be purchased direct from Apple or from Other World Computing (Mac Sales).

Here's the LINK to purchase from Mac Sales. ($89.00)

Ok, I will replace the battery on it... so I guess that it cannot be run with AC power if the battery is bad then....?

DanaJJ said:

Ok, I will replace the battery on it... so I guess that it cannot be run with AC power if the battery is bad then....?

Click to expand...

For what it's worth...I just removed the battery from my 2008 MacBook...and it boots up and runs fine. Usually it is not recommended to run an Apple laptop without a battery (sometimes there are performance issues...slower). But as I said...my MacBook boots up & runs fine with its battery removed.

- Nick

I will get that battery! Thanks everyone!