MacBook has erratic battery behaviour

Hi; hopefully somebody might know what this is caused by. I have built a MacBook up out of parts and am pleased with it, but the new non OEM SMC battery seems problematic. Firstly, it displays way more mAh than it should have inside it 7300+ instead of the correct 5000 mHa and the time till empty jumps from 7 to 4 hours and back again when fully charged. Not only that, when down to less than 40% it can cause the laptop to just shut off completely, and in this case it will sometimes but not always boot all the way back up again without power cord connected when the power button is pressed.

I may have done wrong by charging the brand new battery rather than discharging when first installed, and I have since read that they should either be discharged fully at first or charged without the computer on. I am wondering; is there any way to rectify this? Another thing I noticed is that when it is fully charged, I can remove the power for 5 seconds and re apply, and it will charge again for several minutes before saying fully charged again. I decided it was confused and tried doing this repeatedly for ages in order to actually fully charge the battery. So really, I think the problem is one of calibration, and I don't see any way out of this. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you

OS X is made to run on genuine Apple computers and laptops. By making your own "MacBook" (that shouldn't even be classified as being a MacBook, just a homemade laptop), I consider that it's normal for you to have some hardware bugs like this. If the battery is your only issue, try replacing it with an Apple battery...

...Or try Windows!

Cheers!

iBookMacBook said:

I have built a MacBook up out of parts...

Click to expand...

What sort of parts are we talking…where did they come from?

- Nick

Thanks for your reply. By "built up" a MacBook, I don't mean that I am a genius with the skills to actually manufacture a logic board and mould the plastic. I merely meant that I bought a "spares or repair" machine and replaced the component parts, namely the screen, battery, hard drive and keyboard cable. It's not much to shout about, but well i was pleased and it offered more satisfaction than spending loads more money for a fully functional one.

It is likely that the problem is the battery, as it weighs a third of the original which made me sceptical. As for Windows, well, I don't like it, and I doubt the battery management is much different either..

We always tell folks that non-OEM batteries can be hit & miss.

- Nick

Thanks Nick. I thought it might be suspect when I found it must be made of air! The OEM ones are 4 times the price though so I might actually try to find another second hand laptop that does not work but has a working battery, just to get a used OEM one and a bunch of spare parts.

Thanks

Yes the OEM battery is not cheap. Some folks have had success with the $25-$30 batteries. Sounds like you may have gotten one of the not so good ones.

Where did you get it…eBay? Maybe if it hasn't been too long you can return it.

- Nick

Wait wait wait, what? A non-OEM battery? Dude, get rid of it, now!
P.S: I didn't see that you are using a non-OEM battery in the original post

I took it apart. It will not be used again. Whereas the OEM one had 6 large mobile phone type batteries and some pretty well made and extensive looking circuitry, this one had three big cells staked on top of each other in a stepped type fashion to distribute the weight and make it feel full when it's not, and half the circuitry of the original. So now I am using the MacBook without a battery, and will try to source an OEM one when I can afford it. Thanks for the advice.