2010 MacBook Pro Upgrades & Battery Problem

[Nanco]

Hi there,

I’ve decided to rejuvenate my 15 inch mid-2010 MacBook Pro with some new parts but need a bit of help with this. With the exception of showing signs of wear and tear (slow loading at times etc), the laptop is still functional and I would like to extend its life a bit longer before having to invest in a brand new laptop.

1) Firstly, can anyone suggest a good replacement SSD for the stock Seagate 500GB HDD that came with the machine? I’d be interested in upgrading the capacity to 1TB if possible.

2) I’m also looking to upgrade the 4GB ram to 8GB. Can anyone advise on the ram I will need (and if it can still be purchased considering the age of the laptop)?

3) The last thing I’m looking to replace is the battery. I have already purchased one, however need a bit of help identifying a problem that I am having with it.

The original battery has in excess of 1500 load cycles and the “Service Battery” status displays when clicking on the battery indicator. I would probably struggle to get 2hrs of general use from 100% fully charged to 0% empty.

The replacement battery holds a charge to 100% however it fails to reach 0% and usually turns off when reaching between 6-10%. I also don’t get the regular “battery low” indication, which I assume is because the battery % reading is not low enough.

I have tried to calibrate the battery 3 times so far by fully charging and leaving plugged in for a few hours, then letting it discharge and leaving it unplugged for a few hours each time. I have also tried resetting SMC and PRAM which hasn’t helped.

Am I doing something wrong or does this sound like a defective battery?


Kind regards,
Matt

 

[MacInWin]

1. Just about any size drive from either Crucial or OWC should work well.

2. Ditto.

3. I'm assuming the battery is not a true OEM battery, but some third-party version. Calibrating the battery actually just calibrates the circuitry in the MBP to know what is full and empty so that the monitoring will be more accurate for you. It does nothing to or for the battery itself. It's not surprising it fails to reach 0% as that is very, very bad for the battery. Lithium batteries like to stay in the 60-100% charged range and will last a good long time if you do that. Discharging to 0% is very hard on the battery. The better question about the battery is not the point at which it is empty, it's how long does the charge last in normal use? If it is lasting better than the previous battery, it's a plus. If it's almost back to the original, that's a plus. Just learn to watch the battery and know that it may shut down at 10%.

EDIT: You can try an SMC reset to see if that will recalibrate the battery circuit. I don't know if it does.

 

[usagora]

SSD:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro/2010

Battery:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/BAP15MBU78N/

I was going to post some more links, but macsales.com (OWC) literally just went down for maintenance (at least some parts of the site).

Here's a link for your mid-2010 MBP from Cruicial for memory and SSD:
https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Apple/macbook-pro-(15-inch,-mid-2010)

 

[Slydude]

I'm not sure I understand your question, Can you clarify things a bit. Also, what specific Mac are you updting?

 

[MacInWin]

Sly, that post is full of URL links to things that have nothing to do with the subject or even the text of the post. Just hover over each word and you'll see what I mean. I've reported the post.

 

[chscag]

Jake is right. I didn't realize the OP was hiding URLs in certain words. He is now gone.

 

[Slydude]

Sly, that post is full of URL links to things that have nothing to do with the subject or even the text of the post. Just hover over each word and you'll see what I mean. I've reported the post.

Thanks for the heads up Jake. I saw your post not long after you reported it. I didn't see anything odd at the time. I should have known you were one step ahead of me. I never thought to hover over some of the words.

 

[MacInWin]

I only hovered because the post made no sense at all as it read. So I figured there must be something else going on. I'm a suspicious character sometimes.

 

[chscag]

@Jake:

Good catch. I never noticed he was hiding URLs until you mentioned it. We used to get a lot of that back in the old days of iNET but haven't seen that lately. Guess it's back.