I was told because my battery was over 300 cycle count it was a "consumable product" by Apple & my only course of action is to purchase a new one. The product specialist also told me that the update to 1.3 works fine. Yeah works fine at getting me to fork over another $130. What a joke!
Chock another up on the list of random shut downs.
Once my battery gets down to about 60-65% life, it shuts down. My battery information: 97% health, 41 cycles. Sad part is my warranty just expired about a month or so ago.
I contacted on of my 'local' Apple dealers and spoke to a tech. I was then very frusterated when I recieved such comments as "News to me, I don't follow Macbooks and Macbook Pros" and "Go online and do some research" (even though I did when I called). That being said, it looks like Apple has yet to recognize this as a problem. Hopefully we will either:
A) get a fix via software (I hope...)
or B) a fix via replacement batteries
I always like to read other people gripes about what happened to them, so I will post mine too: I was working on one of my school projects, worth 20% percent of my mark, when 'whammy' my Macbook was now off. Thankfully my lost work was only a few lines (I was editing some code I had written earlier). Ugg. I was going on a trip this weekend too, psp to the rescue I guess.
Anyways I will be calling Apple tomorrow morning, hoping to get some good news. Lets all hope they resolve this issue soon!
EDIT - Just a side note. None of the fixes listed here worked for me (resetting NVRAM and PRAM),but who knows they may work for others.
I am having the same problem. My MacBook Pro is shutting off without any warning at around 40% power. And it's shutting all the way off, not just going to sleep. It's highly annoying.
I am having the same problem. My MacBook keeps shutting down when my battery still has around 50% charge. The one difference is I have not installed the 1.3 Battery Update. What else could be causing it to randomly shut down? I just noticed it about one week ago and I had not updated anything. The last update I downloaded was the firmware update a couple of weeks ago.
I just called Apple, waited fifty minutes, spoke to a technician for as long as I could before he basically said "Give me 59.99 or get off the phone". Apparently they won't even comment on if I could qualify for the 1.2 replacement program (since my MBP was bought over a year ago, and could possibly end up wienering my way to a free battery) without you having a warranty.
Unfortunately, I wanted a quick fix and I can't face losing my mac for a week or two because my "local" store takes a half decade to service it.
It has nearly been a month and Apple hasn't even recognized this as a problem? And even once they do I will lose my computer for at the least a couple weeks?
Looks like I won't be running off of my battery until at least Christmas, when I can afford to be mac-less for a bit.
I apologize for the rant, I was just completely put over the edge today.
OK will count me in as another who's having this issue. Mine ran so well for so long. Then wham it keeps shutting down without notice arrrrr. I never owned a laptop that did that, even with a short battery life PC, I'd rather it tell me to shutdown now or go to standby than to be suddenly looking at a blank dead screen. Defeats the purpose of having a laptop if you need to be jacked into the wall all the time. I looked a the batter its less than 1 year old with 65 cycles, its used but under the 300 cycle duty. Even so my old pismos with dying batteries told me its got be plugged in or shutdown.
Well I called Apple Customer Service. There was a menu choice for battery (I didn't hear it exactly, I think it had to do with the earlier recall, but I pressed it anyway). They told me I would be on hold for 15 minutes, but I got an answer in less than five. I explained the problem to the rep - told him that "he had probably heard this before" and that the problem started after the 1.3 update. He said they would replace my battery for free, but due to a backorder, it would be 7-10 days. No problem I said. The new battery came the next day! So if you don't get any results, hang up and call back later.
This update was released on Oct 3, 2007, and I downloaded it sometime in early Oct. I don't use my machine on Battery very often, but when I do, I want it to work. I experienced the same problems as everyone else, and yesterday decided it was a real issue.
Yesterday, I tried the PRAM and SMC reset. Initially, it looked like it may have cleared the problem. Battery back to 5500mAh capacity, from 2200mAh after the update. Then, I tested it - 30 minutes and poof! When I plugged in the AC and rebooted, battery capacity was back down to 1900mAh. I ONLY had 66 cycles on my battery.
Apple is shipping me a replacement - free of charge.
I had exactly the same problem but with battery update 1.2. The battery became mad after the update. Fortunately they replaced my battery. Since then I recommend you to run the update only if you have a problem, otherwise the update will turn in the problem.
Another one reporting in! It's been a few weeks since the 1.3 update, and I finally needed to run off battery. Like clockwork, it shuts off without warning around 71-76%. Happened when I really needed it yesterday, too. 😟
MacBook Pro 15" 2GHz, purchased June 2006
Latest battery stats, on the charger now:
Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5474
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 4499
Amperage (mA): 1552
Voltage (mV): 12499
Cycle Count: 60
Looks like I'll be calling Apple tomorrow. Never had a problem with this battery before...ack.
I experienced the same problem after the Battery Update 1.3. At first I didn't give it much thought but it didn't take too long for this to become annoying enough for me to start checking the online forums for some info. Since I am not the only one facing this problem it seems that the update has surfaced the defective batteries en-masse.
To their credit, folks at Apple were kind enough to REPLACE the battery for FREE after doing some diagnostics over the phone, even though I am past my one year warranty period. Three cheers to Apple Customer Care.
Bottom line: if you have this problem call Apple Support ASAP and they should take care of you (even if your warranty has expired)
