Please Help My Parents! MacBook Battery Update ... Shuts Down Automatically???

Amie

Amie

Mac Convert for Life
Hey, geeks! (and I mean that in a good way) :D

My parents are stumped, and I'm not really sure either, since I'm not entirely familiar with their particular model of computer and/or OS, so I said to them, "I know the perfect place to ask!" :)

Here's the deal: They installed the recent battery update that showed up in Software Update (about four weeks ago), and ever since then when they try to calibrate their battery by using all the juice and letting it go to sleep before plugging it in and charging it fully, it now SHUTS DOWN automatically instead of going to sleep! Completely shuts itself off! Is this something new and normal that Apple did with the battery update, or is their laptop in need of a serious repair???

BTW, they have a MacBook running Tiger.

Thanks for your help! :)
 
The easiest way to diagnose this would probably be to call AppleCare. Apple's tech support can help determine if it's a hardware problem.

Good luck.
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Yeah, I told them to give the Apple store (that's where they bought it from) a quick call. But I figured I'd check here first. See what that says about my faith in this site?! :D
 
They could try to reset PRAM and PMU/SMC still before taking it to the store. It may help .. if not, then it's the battery.
But at least they live close enough to a store. :)
 
Well, I told them not to do anything just yet. Because ... I suspect it's perfectly normal and that Apple did something in their battery update to make the computers shut down (instead of just sleep) after draining all the battery juice. They don't even need to take it into the Apple store. Just a quick phone call will answer the question. If it's NOT normal ... then we'll work on troubleshooting.
But, like I said, I suspect that that's what it's supposed to do, because everything else is working fine. We'll see...........

Besides, why would they want to reset PRAM? Look what's stored in PRAM. Everything this article mentions is working fine on their computer:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86194
 
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