MacBook Pro Battery

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bowjest

Registered
How long should the battery in my MacBook Pro last?

I've had the computer about a year and am pretty sure that what was once about 5 hours of lifespan has dropped to about 3.5.

Does that sound right?
 
"about a year" sounds dangerously close to the one-year warranty of batteries. (No 3-year warranty even under AppleCare!) Call AppleCare immediately with details about the battery (charge cycles etc.) that you can find in System Profiler. After a year, the battery should still be good. After two to three years, not so much...
 
Should last at least 300 cycles.
Apple (from upper left corner) > About this Mac > More info >> Hardware > Power. What does it show as cycle for battery?
Batteries are consumables, they don't have a 12 months warranty.
 
Giaguara said:
Batteries are consumables, they don't have a 12 months warranty.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they actually do have a one year warranty under certain circumstances. If you believe the battery may be bad, take your laptop to an authorized Apple shop. They will have access to the battery and AC adapter diagnostic. This diagnostic either shows the battery as good, bad, or consumed. If its determined bad it will be replaced by Apple, otherwise it will not. But to tell the truth what you are saying about your drop in performance doesn't sound too far from ordinary.
 
They do have a year in Switzerland. Didn't know it's less in other countries, sorry.
 
Is not it? Take a look at how long my
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Thanks to everyone for your feedback. Here is what I have:

Battery Information:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 2239
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4499
Health Information:
Cycle count: 90
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1284
Voltage (mV): 11278

At several point since last night it has said I've got 1h 30min of charge, then 2h 10min, then 1h 50min, then 1h 58min (the current reading).

In short: it's all over the place and nothing seems to be reliable or predictable about it.

I'll get in touch with the Apple Store where I bought it and see what they say.

Thanks again.
 
bowjest said:
At several point since last night it has said I've got 1h 30min of charge, then 2h 10min, then 1h 50min, then 1h 58min (the current reading).

In short: it's all over the place and nothing seems to be reliable or predictable about it.
Click to expand...

Giaguara said:
Did you try recalibrating it?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Click to expand...


Seems more like it needs to be calibrated more than anything. If you have never calibrated it which few users actually do, the readings will be all over the place.
 
Giaguara,

I've been recalibrating it, but the steps I found didn't mention anything about letting it rest for 2 hours after being fully charged or for 5 hours after it running the battery down completely.

I'll give the steps you posted a try and see what results I get.

Thanks!
 
Ok, I've gone through those very detailed and elaborate steps to recalibrate my MacBook Pro battery and here is what I have:

I couldn't recharge it in one go without leaving it charging all night (and I didn't want to leave it "over charging"), so I stopped it, went to bed, and let it charge up until the power light went green the next morning.

I've just restarted it/awoken it now, logged in, and it says I have 98% battery capacity and in the last 5-8 minutes it's shown a remaining charge time of between 4:44 and 2:28 minutes.

In short, not encouraging.

I don't know where Apple get this figure of 7 hours of battery life. Mine has never at any point shown anything close to that.

I'm just burning a CD and it's showing a remaining life of 2:48 - this has now just jumped to 3:08. I have the screen brightness down to almost black and no other apps running other than the burner and this web browser.

I have to say I'm disappointed.

The cycle count now says 92 whereas it said 90 when I began the recharge cycle.

Do I need to get in touch with my local Apple Store?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
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Sorry to push, but can someone let me know if the results above sound right? I need to try to arrange to get to an Apple Store if things aren't like they should be.

And can someone advise on where Apple get there figure of a 7 hour charge? My battery has never displayed anything like a 7 hour charge.

Thanks.
 
The 7 hours charge is totally ideal user case: display basically off, wireless and bluetooth off, no reading from optical drives, and only some light applications used without constant read and write. The default screen brightness is full so that already takes it to much less than 7 hours, and most people use wireless etc.

Your results are not too alarming. Once you finish it to get it to empty again try another load. This time it should give a bit more accurate read. (you don't then have to do the calibration weekly or ddaily, monthly is generally good) Here is an example of bad battery.
 
Thanks, Giaguara!

I'll try another charge (it's about empty now) and see if things improve.

If not, I'll call the Apple Store where I bought my MacBook Pro and see what they do for me.
 
So how much does $$$Apple$$$ charge to replace an out of warranty, non_user_removable battery? ::evil::
 
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Giaguara said:
The 7 hours charge is totally ideal user case: display basically off, wireless and bluetooth off, no reading from optical drives, and only some light applications used without constant read and write. The default screen brightness is full so that already takes it to much less than 7 hours, and most people use wireless etc.
Click to expand...

Ha! Ideal Use my a&&!!!!! :)

*That is the kind of thing that really annoys me.I consider it to be dishonest as hell to rate battery life using such unrealistic criteria.
 
g/re/p said:
So how much does $$$Apple$$$ charge to replace an out of warranty, non_user_removable battery? ::evil::
Click to expand...

Maybe your MBP is different from mine, but I just turn mine over, remove the battery cover, and then pop out the battery.

A new battery from the Apple Store is about £100.
 
It's not totally unrealistic. I use my notebooks basically to write stuff in TextEdit. They work fine for the advertised battery-hours and sometimes even more. My white MacBook (1st gen) worked for about 6 hours. My MacBook Air for 5 (sometimes more).
 
I still think my battery life is horked. I'm currently at 97% and it says I have 3:43 left (but was showing about 30 seconds ago 2:23).

It was easily over 4 hours at 97% only a few months ago.

:(
 
Can you tell us for sure if you have a unibody MBP, or an older aluminum model? Aluminum has aluminum-colored keyboard, and a battery that easily pops out with no separate cover for that. The unibody has a black keyboard with black trim around the display, and (of course) the non user-replaceable battery. The two models will have very different expectations for battery life, with the unibody having significantly longer charge time, and longer time to normal replacement.
I don't care for the Time remaining indicator (horribly inaccurate), and always use the Percentage. The instantaneous time can change dramatically depending on how you are using your MBP at that moment. The percentage doesn't have to recompute continually. The only true figure is - how long does that charge last in your normal use?
If you have the older aluminum model, Apple wouldn't consider your battery to be faulty in less than a year, unless your battery life drops below 1 hour from full charge. Your cycle count is a little low for much drop in battery life, so you might have a good point to argue for a replacement.
 
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