Q: MacBook Pro Battery 'Service Battery' after Snow Upgrade

Battery dropping from 70% to less that 40% in about 1/2 hour now...worrying signs...batt is 2 weeks old.

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0200
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 2215
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5481
Health Information:
Cycle count: 8
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 2564
Voltage (mV): 11767

Is this rocky road again? Hope not.

Anyone got best advice for ensuring maximum life span?

Whenever you purchase new batteries, calibrate them. - Calibrating a portable computer battery



Apple Portables: Tips for maximizing your battery charge

Message was edited by: CMCSK

Hi I also have this problem now.
My MacBook Pro brought on Nov 2007.
I don't know what to do now?
It told me: "The battery isn't functioning normally, and you may or may not notice a change in its behavior or the amount of charge it holds. Have your computer checked by an Apple Authorized service provide."
I read some of the comment, they also have this problem.
Hope to hear from you all.

as mentioned in my previous post, i had "the" battery problem with my MBP 3.1 15", too:
less than 50 cycles, battery used for 14 months, testresult in store: all red!
unfortunately, apple was not willing to give me a new one for free. they merely offered a new battery for a small reduction in price but with only 90 days warranty. i decided to better buy one at full price with one year warranty. its an SMP and after 5 cycles everything looks good, but wait and see.....

i am still convinced that the new power management of SL does some harm to batteries, at least in this type of MBPs (disagreeing with rod hagen)!

Recently I've gone from 'its the Sony batteries that are the problem' to 'it's 10.6 that is the problem'

After problems with the last two batteries I run Coconut Battery on startup and keep a record every day. I've been doing this since I got a new battery in Jan and it's been rock solid at 98%.

Then suddenly 10.6 reports that my battery capacity has fallen from 98% of original capacity the day before to 31%. When running on battery I get about 45 mins run time then the machine shuts down. Recalibrating the battery and resetting the SMC as Apple directs makes no difference, after 45 mins it shuts down.

But if I then boot from an external HD with 10.5.8, leave the battery to charge fully and then perform a DVD rundown test I get 2hrs and 20 mins before the machine shuts down. Initially it estimates 45 mins runtime but at the 10mins left stage it suddenly changes its mind and estimates 1hr 40m. When booted back into 10.6 the battery reports 98% capacity again and will happily run for almost 3 hours before it shuts down. This has happened twice with this battery. The battery is 4 months old with 70 cycles on it, made by SMP and was an Apple Store retail purchase part not a brown box. This is the 3rd battery to experience problems in this machine under 10.6.

I religiously run the machine for about a hour on battery every morning and then on the charger for the rest of the day. Once shutdown for the night I remove it from the charger.

Thought you might as well add me to the list,

Model Information:
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB014
Pack Lot Code: 0001
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0102
Hardware Revision: 0202
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 786
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 2135
Health Information:
Cycle count: 219
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 2173
Voltage (mV): 12142

lasts about 30 mins before it shuts down. Trying a recondition cycle. See what happens

Actually just noticed a discrepancy.

Before my previous post I had let my battery run down and try all the 'solutions' posted. Nothing worked. But I did copy and paste my battery information into a Stickie before I did this and it did say this:

Full charge capacity (mAh): 4019

Now it says 2135

Its just lost half the capacity!!

My MacBook Pro is exhibiting the same problem, but worse. I have 2 year old MacBook Pro which is well taken care. I upgraded to SL couple of months ago, and then suddenly the dreaded check battery message appears on my battery monitor. I ignore this issues for quite a while thinking that it was something to do with SL. I always calibrate my MacBook Pro 1-2 times a month and even I have a notification from my iCal that I need to calibrate it. Initially before I upgraded to SL my battery meter reads that it has 5,200 mAh (3.5 hours to 4 hours of use) remaining on my full charge capacity. After I upgraded to SL, it became very erratic in a way that it does not show consistent charge capacity sometimes it will tell that it has only 3200 mAh, then went down to 2800 mAh then settle down to 4520 mAh, and etc.... normally even in this erratic battery condition I can still get 2 1/2 - 3 hours on a single charge. Then last friday June 4, while on my routine calibrating schedule my laptop suddenly turns off when the battery is at 67 %. So I did what I have to do which is really against my will to call Apple. They tell me that because my machine is out of warranty they can't do anything regarding my problem, I've heard from first person that I've talked with is that they have special exception in replacing the battery when the battery shows problem within the first year or the charge cycle is less than 300. So I talked to the senior tech support agent, telling me that because of the age of my laptop there is nothing I can do but to purchase a new battery. So that's it after most of us spending more than 2K on a laptop, taking care of the laptop well Apple will not even recognize that this problem exists. I have a 4 year old HP laptop which has a much better battery life than my MacBook Pro and that laptop is less than 1K.....

Does anyone upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard, I had non of this in Leopard, I did a clean install 3 months ago and all was allright until the past week which i past the 300 cycles (i have my MB about 1 1/2 years) and suddenly i have this problems, my battery the last week used to last about 4 1/2 hours, now last 1 hour max and shutdowns when the charge is at 30% aprox. I did all kind of things: reset PRAM, SMC, battery recalibration; even tryied to apply the Battery Update 1.4 but it says my battery doesn't needed, i read this update fixes those models that applys.

I was noticing that:
Device name: bq20z951
Pack Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 002a

are having this problems, I don't know what else to do, I've been reading that many people after installing Snow Leopard is having this troubles and reinstaling Leopard back doesn't fix the problem, so maybe Snow Leopar is killing batteries with 300 cycles or more in order to get a new one.

My battery info is:
Model Information:
Serial Number: xxxxxxxxxVK
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z951
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 002a
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1088
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 2515
Health Information:
Cycle count: 309
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 762
Voltage (mV): 12019

Any help would be apreciated by many people.

Thank you.

Snow Leopard certainly finished off my old Sony Battery, but I am pretty happy with performance of the new SMP that I bought a month or so ago. Getting a good couple of hours usage out of the MBP at the moment.

I am certain that the old Sony was not compatible with 64 bit and that was the issue and the reason that SL killed it off. Very annoying and very costly and Apple should not let this kind of thing happen to people who spend ± 1200GBP ($1500US) on a machine.

But at this stage all I can say is that a new battery seems to have done the job for me.

I was previously following this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9160087#9160087.

I got my MacBook Pro in December of 2007 and 15 months later I had sudden shutdown issues with my battery. (with only 90 cycles) After seeing all of the issues others had, I contacted Apple support by phone to no avail. I then went to an Apple store and quickly had my battery replaced for free. I was very happy at the time considering I was out of warranty (and not within the battery replacement program). My new battery seemed great for a long while just as my original battery had, but sure enough, a year later, I began having battery problems again. Now my problems are erratic battery statistics, shortened life, and the service/check battery warning that comes and goes. I have had problems with 2 batteries on OS X (10.5 and 10.6). I'm not buying a new battery just to watch it die...

I don't know what causes these problems but I do know one thing. Apple isn't going to fix these battery issues. It's cheaper to replace batteries for the mean time then to develop a fix for problems with obsolete hardware. Replacing our batteries just buys them time until the issue fades into the past...

It's sad how familiar that process was to the genius at the Apple store.

Me- "My battery is messed up and my computer shuts down."
Genius- "Ok", *plugs in iPod*, "Your battery is bad", *gives me new battery*

Snow Leopard has pretty much killed my Sony battery. It was replaced at the Apple store about 12 months ago. Now holds little to no charge.

Didn't buy a new battery but checked my battery info again last night, not done anything to my MBP (bar the fact I've since always run it off the mains):

Figures on 29th April:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 186
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 186
Health Information:
Cycle count: 95
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 119
Voltage (mV): 12612

Figures on 14th June:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4827
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4947
Health Information:
Cycle count: 95
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12457

I got this warning a few days ago, but some months after upgrading to Snow. Usual resets provided no joy. Sadly I did not save off what System Profiler reported, but I think it said mA was 0 and the condition was needing a service. My Macbook Pro about a year and half old so wasn't expecting battery death just yet.

Was reading the forums when I got the Software Update prompt to upgrade to 10.6.4. Looked through the changes and could find nothing about batteries. But thought I would upgrade before trying anything more drastic. **Post update no problems at all!!!**

A week later still no problems so from my experience it seems to have been a software problem, not a hardware problem. I would have been royally peed off if I had just gone out and brought a new battery! Hope you are as lucky.

Here is my battery info now:

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4422
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4835
Health Information:
Cycle count: 242
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1142
Voltage (mV): 11943

guys i need help its been a year since i bought my macbook pro early 2009 17inch. all i want to know is my cycle count is too high at 601..is it normal or should i change my battery ? but considering tht its been only a year

Model Information:

Manufacturer: DP
Device name: bq20z951
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0042
Hardware Revision: 0001
Cell Revision: 0119
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3174
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 6161
Health Information:
Cycle count: 601
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 3886
Voltage (mV): 8110

Message was edited by: vickysud