Battery capacity and load cycles

tyson0016 · Jan 12, 2008

I've had my macbook pro for just over a year and a few months ago I had Apple send me a free replacement battery because my original was one of those that supposedly had defects.

Now this newer battery has started acting up and the computer will usually shut off instantly when the battery reaches between 20% - 30% and then it won't come back on even with AC power until the battery has charged up a little.

I used CoconutBattery to check, and it reports that the battery's capacity is down to 48% and only 80 load cycles.

Is this the result of mis-calibration or is there something wrong with my battery?

goobimama · Jan 12, 2008

Something wrong with the battery.

tyson0016 · Jan 12, 2008

Any chance Apple will replace it even though my 1 year warranty on the notebook is up?
That battery is hardly 6 months old.

goobimama · Jan 12, 2008

Well you could try. It is after all their fault that they took in your battery for replacement (or at least put it that way).

Tip: If you get a "No" from an Apple call centre, just call again you will get a different person who might agree to your demands.

kgeier82 · Jan 12, 2008

tyson0016 said:
Any chance Apple will replace it even though my 1 year warranty on the notebook is up?
That battery is hardly 6 months old.

from what im told, replacement parts carry a 90 day/ or remainder of the warranty on the mac, whichever is longer.

tyson0016 · Jan 13, 2008

Alright thanks. I'll probably just make do with it for awhile because I seldom run on battery anyway. This is my first mac and I guess you just get bad ones sometimes, but 2 bad batteries in a row isn't good.

smm · Jan 23, 2008

Similar problems

I too am experiencing a similar problem with my 15" MacBook Pro.
My machine is 23 months old and also had the replacement battery from Apple.

I was on holiday for a month so my laptop was off for that time. Since I returned in January I am getting about 45 minutes on the battery and Coconut reports that the battery has a current capacity of 1947 mAh when the original capacity was 5500 mAh.

I am wondering if this sudden loss of capacity is related to any of the recent apple updates. Running Tiger 10.4.11

iLindzo · Jan 23, 2008

OK.. me next! I got my 15" MBP in November of '06. The battery was working fine up until a couple months ago. My computer can't run on just batter power. If it's unplugged for about 20 minutes, the batter drains and the computer shuts off.

jogi · Jan 23, 2008

have you all tried calibrating your battery? Check for instructions on apples website

blackjack75 · Apr 26, 2008

Is this calibration a myth or does it work in anyway really? Anyone actually managed to get back a battery to work again doing this?

I had the same issue with my MBPro 2ghz (first gen), but the battery was pretty old and my AppleCare was over and I didn't feel like arguing, so I just paid for it without asking questions at a local shop.

Now it's been less than a year since I bought the second battery. It has 183 cycles according to coconutbattery and my battery capacity is down to 1131 from the 5500 mAh it had when it was new. (Update: now it's at 1083... )

The battery doesn't survive for more than a few minutes. After 5-10 minutes it will just shut off brutally without warning nor going to sleep.

My battery number isn't in the serial range they gave for the 2006 recall. I am just starting these batteries are just crappy and you have to buy one every 10 months.

tyson0016 · Apr 26, 2008

I have re calibrated my battery several times with no luck and I also just finished with a clean install upgrade to Leopard, but that didn't help either.

I don't mind buying a new battery IF that's what the problem is. The thing that makes me wonder is once the laptop has instantly died, it will not come back on for several minutes even if I completely remove the battery try to run it on straight AC. The magsafe light continues to rapidly flicker for awhile before it turns amber again and things come back to life.

Does anyone have an idea of what's supposed to be happening here? Does the magsafe adapter have any "intelligent" components that talk to the battery, or does it just passively charge? Why would the battery dying cause the adapter to stop charging for a time? To me it almost looks like a power problem in the motherboard *cringe*.

sdsviet · Apr 26, 2008

@ OP, i had the exact same problem u did. original battery on my first gen mbp was replaced because of the recall. the replacement after a year turned south as i was only getting 50% health with only 65 cycles. i decided to bring in the apple store and talked to the genius about it. i told him my situation and he tested the battery and said yea its a bad battery. he then type in my mbp serial and said im out of warranty. he then said i'll get u a new battery, no charge because it would be shady of him to make me pay for a new battery since the replacement was also a crappy battery. so bring it in and see if u get a nice genius like i did. he didnt have to do it but he did it anyways. im very happy with the apple store in my area. they also replace my magsafe that had the connector problem where the wire came loose and frayed. they knew it was a common problem so they didnt even ask me any info and just gave me a new one.

jram · Apr 26, 2008

Every time I'm about to get a new MBP, I see things like this to make stay with my 5 year old PB. I have over 950 cycle count, still holds a 2 hour batter charge and charges up to 100%. I realize the battery thing isn't no big deal but time after time coming here stops me from buying a new MBP. I don't see these problems in other Mac forums, what is it with you people?

mshale · Apr 26, 2008

Just to add fuel to the fire, I have a brand new pro that I bought a week ago, it's at 6 cycles and is now at 98%. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it is when compared to the Blackbook that I gave to my girlfriend (it has 154 cycles and is still at 100%). I'm slightly disapointed. I did the whole calibration thing, and I actually lost total charge capacity. To be specific, it went from 5600 mAh to 5500 mAh, according to CoconutBattery. I don't really know what is going on. Should I do anything?

tyson0016 · Apr 27, 2008

Well now I've discovered a new detail with mine...

I left it unplugged and in sleep mode for several hours this afternoon and when I plugged it back in the battery was at 93% but dropped to 72% in a matter of about 5 minutes and then the unit instantly died (that's what it always does and hence my reason for suspecting the battery), BUT this time it was very quiet in the room and I noticed a very faint "ticking" sound coming from the laptop. I almost had to hold my breath to even hear it, but the ticking occurs at the same rate that the magsafe light flickers (about 4 ticks/flickers per second). The sound is most certainly something on the motherboard and seems to be located right near the center, about where the spacebar is. It continued clicking for a few minutes and then everything went back to normal.

I doubt this tells anyone much of anything, but to me it's starting to enforce my fears that something is wrong with my motherboard.

mshale · Apr 27, 2008

tyson0016 said:
Well now I've discovered a new detail with mine...

I left it unplugged and in sleep mode for several hours this afternoon and when I plugged it back in the battery was at 93% but dropped to 72% in a matter of about 5 minutes and then the unit instantly died (that's what it always does and hence my reason for suspecting the battery), BUT this time it was very quiet in the room and I noticed a very faint "ticking" sound coming from the laptop. I almost had to hold my breath to even hear it, but the ticking occurs at the same rate that the magsafe light flickers (about 4 ticks/flickers per second). The sound is most certainly something on the motherboard and seems to be located right near the center, about where the spacebar is. It continued clicking for a few minutes and then everything went back to normal.

I doubt this tells anyone much of anything, but to me it's starting to enforce my fears that something is wrong with my motherboard.

Notice that the battery is positioned close to the spacebar, right underneath it. I don't know if you know much about electrical relays, but the the "ticking" that you hear may be the sound of a relay switching back and forth trying to find a route to flow in. Relays make sounds when the switch and the battery may have one that "decides" to let current in (charge), or let current our (use your battery). I would not put too much worry into the motherboard cause

Then again, this is only an assumption, and I could be totally incorrect.

tyson0016 · Apr 27, 2008

True, however the ticking continues even when I remove the battery. With the battery removed, you can see a small circuit with about 3 ribbon cables running into it on the inside of the battery compartment. The ticking isn't necessarily coming from that particular circuit, but it comes from somewhere right within that area.

MPR · Apr 28, 2008

Now I'm at 1372 max capacity with 77 load cycles. Do I need to start thinking about a new battery or is there something else I can do? The Macbook Pro is about 16 m/o using 10.4.11

tyson0016 · Apr 28, 2008

Goodness, mine has just gotten worse over the weekend. Battery was charged to 100% so I unplugged it for about 5 minutes. Within that time it dropped to about 90% and then died. This is getting pretty frustrating because it's now officially to the point that I cannot trust the battery at all and yet I still don't know if the battery is actually even to blame. I'm tempted to just buy a new battery and hope for the best, but then I'd be really ticked if that wasn't the problem....

mshale · Apr 28, 2008

You could definitely set up an appointment with a Mac Genius and see if they can diagnose the problem. That way, you wouldn't be simply throwing money at your laptop.