Hi all,

I'd like to ask for your collective help on diagnosing my MBP's battery: Based on some forum threads, I made an appointment with a genius at the Chatswood Mac Store. More on this later. First, I'll provide some specs:



Now, I have had this MBP for a while now, and the life of the battery had always been concerning for me but I didn't think to properly research "normal" battery life online. I normally use it with the AC plugged in, but when it's on the road, I always try and use the lowest contrast setting to maximise battery life. Even then, I top out at around 90 mins before I need to recharge again. During this time, I am just browsing with no music and barely any apps open (usually just Firefox & Adium).

One day (not that long ago!) I decided that I should have a proper look at battery life and I seemed to recall a Mac app with a funny name. So I eventually found Coconutbattery and installed it to shed some light on the issue. The result? 47% health. I was floored and checked more forums and came across Apple's instructions for battery recalibration process. Having followed it step-by-step, I fired up CB and to my shock horror, the battery capacity went DOWN! I ran it again the following night (silly, I know, since Apple advise to run it once every 3 months). Again, the results were not good, it went down again. It's currently at 50% as the attached screenshot showed, which I felt was good grounds to take it in to Apple.

So, my laptop was booked in and looked over by a genius at the Chatswood who acknowledged that my battery had low capacity. They were initially happy to swap it for a free one but then they looked to be going through the process on their systems until they started hitting some roadblocks. I was now being assured that my battery life was "normal" for a 2 year old battery by another genius nearby. They did a serial number check (for the recalled batteries, which mine is NOT) and a warranty check (which had expired a year ago, with no AppleCare), both of which now showed no signs of a swap. I tried to argue that PB owners as well as my girlfriend's MB were pretty much embarassing my laptop's battery life, but they countered by mentioning changing emissions/energy regulations that might affect battery performance as well as saying something about the battery manufacturers only supporting/guaranteeing/advertising that these batteries had a certain life expectancy of 1 year (iirc). Last but not least, they said that Apple considered batteries to be a consumable.

So, the resolution? They offered me what was effectively a sans-fancy-packaging battery for $160 as opposed to the new-shiny-Apple-retail-box version for $200. Admittedly, I felt that I had a strong case for a free replacement battery, but maybe I was being unrealistic or foolish. Yet it seems that some of you guys have had batteries replaced free of charge even though your machines were out of warranty. One thing I completely forgot about was this link, especially in regard to the charge/cycle count.

What are your thoughts on my situation? Many thanks in advance for your replies.

Danny

Unfortunately, as you are outside your warranty period, there's not a lot you can do to get a free battery replacement. The things you're experiencing with the battery are normal for batteries. Batteries are a poor technology considering the advancements elsewhere in laptops. 2 years is pretty good for a battery to be honest - consider yourself lucky it hasn't exploded

Interesting that the battery manufacturer is called by name now (Sony). In my wife's MBP they still call it "SMP"

Cheers
Steffen.

At least it didn't burst into flames.In hindsight you should've acted sooner rather than later.

The issue will be related to leaving your MBP plugged in 'all' the time. That sort of living will shorten the life span of the battery. There are lots of threads on getting the best life out of a battery, but they all require you to start with a heaalthy battery and follow the rules. As has been pointed out, all batteries suck really. The needs of a modern laptop are huge but batteries are only just keeping up. That's not an apple only issue - wintel laptops often have worse specs.

The moral of the story is do the right thing by your battery and make sure it's up to spec before it goes out of warranty 'cos anything after that is a goodwill gesture from apple, not something you should expect.

Bugger. Definitely not the responses I wanted to hear, but instead the replies that I needed to hear. Thank you all for taking the time to read my long post and respond, good to know my battery's doing okay. I guess I'm also a little flummoxed about that Apple link regarding cycle count vs. battery life. Nonetheless, cheers!

Danny

My condolences, dsiew. It's pretty messed up that even if you had AppleCare, the battery wouldn't be covered past the first year.
I'm guessing the cost of covering batteries for 3 years would be pretty hefty.
Even so, MacBook Pro AppleCare sets you back $529 (Or something like that. Store is down.). That's 2 & 1/2 batteries right there.

As far as I know, the current generation of batteries are designed to kick arse for a short period before dying completely. As opposed to Lithium Ion fellas who slowly disappear into the night. (My Lombard is still good for 30-45 mins)
Should make things interesting for the second hand market in a few years. Be sure to keep your charger in good condition folks.