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

I hate to be a bummer here but the most likely explanation for most people here (and myself) is this:

You (like me) use your laptop mostly with an AC adaptor plugged in. You rarely if ever calibrate your battery, even though it should be done monthly. Due to this neglect your battery ended up dying at a time near when SL was released but you didn't realize it because you were plugged in most of the time.

After installing SL you discover the new feature which shows you the battery health and it's saying your battery needs servicing. Now you realize that it's operating erratically and correlate bad battery with SL install when in fact the battery just died (which can happen quite quickly).

Most of our problems are just coincidence and if you're outside of the warranty period like I am, apple doesn't owe you anything. If you've got applecare, get your butt over to the genius bar and get them to replace your battery for free. I replaced mine (for $129) and it's working just fine in SL. My previous battery only had 87 cycles on it.

I think it's total crap that a modern battery would be dead after only 87 cycles and a year of use and I hope apple addresses this issue but the fact of the matter is that it lasted 1 year and that's apple's warranty period.

Now, if I end up having trouble with my new battery then there is something more going on but so far that is not the case. I suggest you all go out and get a new battery, it comes with a *1 year warranty*.

FWIW, I contacted TUAW about this issue and they had me look into it more thoroughly before they would post about it. They don't believe there's a real issue and at this point I tend to agree with them.

I'd like to agree with you, but my MacBook which is older than my MacBook Pro by 6 months and has been treated in exactly the same way, does not show any battery issues under Snow Leopard at all.

I would have expected the same problem to be evident if it was down to poor (or otherwise) battery maintenance.

I have to disagree as well. My Early 2008 MacBook Pro with 80 cycles has been calibrated regularly and is showing these symptoms. I calibrated it a week ago 4 days ago the message went away. It came back again 2 days ago. Using the logic that its a badly managed battery doesn't really make sense. Low cycle count with regularly scheduled calibrations should have never shown the error. Now it has shown, gone away and come back within the course of a week.

I am having the same issue with an older white MacBook (also calibrated regularly) experiencing the same issues at the same time. The MacBook has more cycles (172) but has not experienced an issue until the release of Snow Leopard.

Since both of these laptops were calibrated days before installation and had their battery last at full potential and now weeks after the update are getting half of the battery power, there is very definitely an issue with Snow Leopard.

Calibrating the battery helped. Battery health went from 42% to 71% and battery life went from 20 minutes to about an hour. But now I am back at 41% health. Service battery warning never went away. This should not be the case with just 128 cycles in about a year.

Apple is being very silent about this.

Recalibrating my battery seemed to help, but it needs recalibrating every time I put my Macbook Pro to sleep. The service battery had disappeared, was getting estimated run time of 3hours (about right for 200 charge cycles) but as soon as I closed the lid and then tried to open it again - BANG!! 0% power and service battery back!

Apple need to do something about this quick. This is definitely a software issue.

Just adding to my MacBook battery comment... My MacBook battery has been cycled nearly 500 times and I'm still getting around 2 1/2 hours of use from it away from the power.

Completely different manufacturer, same OS and same usage patterns prior to Snow Leopard.

splatnikG - your statements are refuted by several users

earlier in this thread, we have several other users who have re-booted under 10.5x and their battery "recovered" back to pre snow leopard and normal performance.

Apple, Please fix this problem

Thanks

pS-
after another calibration my battery again says "service battery" and reports thusly:

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0003
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0400
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3235
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3360
Health Information:
Cycle count: 77
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -2012
Voltage (mV): 11808

So go get your batteries checked and see if it's a battery problem or a software problem. Contact The Unofficial Apple Weblog and get them to look into the issue. Contact other bloggers.

Have any of you tried a NEW BATTERY? I have and it works for me. Maybe I'm the exception, not the rule but I've had all the same symptoms with a low cycle battery on a year old macbook pro. I'm hoping its a problem that apple can fix but I'm not holding my breath. It's likely a defective battery, maybe we all got a batch of defective batteries with that model of macbook pro.

My battery is almost new, and still acting weird.. My macbook pro is the santa rosa model, a different one than yours. This is definitely a software issue.. When I boot Leopard i get approx. 4 hours, now im down to just under 2 under SL... Can't be right.. you see?

I have a basically brand new (only a few weeks old) MacbookPro 17" (The new Gen, 5,2)
Having same issues. I don't know what's going on with it, I'm taking it to the service centre tomorrow, hopefully they will be able to get the problem sorted, however, I do believe it sounds like a software problem as opposed to a hardware issue.

I Posted before in this thread my battery stats.

Im still having the same issues. I have a Dec 2007 Model MBP 15" I can temporally fix the Service battery issue by TOTALLY draining the Battery. What I do is use it till it goes to sleep. and as it goes to sleep press the spacebar and it interrupts the sleep cycle. it powers back up i put my password back in and Boop! Power off tottaly (yes I know probably not a very good idea) Plug the power in wait about 30 seconds and power the MBP back on. and Walla. Service battery is gone. I Leave the system on for about 5 hours or more. Use battery and takes about 20 mins and service battery comes back.

During that time, the time left jump around very erratically. And acts very unstable.

So To PROVE it was Snow Leopard causing the issue, I still have Leopard installed on an external drive. So I booted from it. And used my Mac just as I would Normally on Battery. and the battery lasted me 2:47 mins which about right for as old as my battery is and it has about 90 cycles on it. If id turn the brightness down and various other things Im sure id last alot longer. I did this for a couple of days using leopard. and then went back to SL and im back to the same results of having Erratic battery usage time left, I Barely get 1:20 mins out of a full charge. and the service battery comes back on.

This is Very CLEARLY a Snow Leopard issue. Apple Support told me to buy a new battery. When I asked why Leopard runs fine, I was told that Leopard uses a different Battery Firmware and isnt as smart as Snow Leopard.. Sounds like Blowing smoke up my .... but anyways. I know its SL So maybe if more people would call in and complain someone at Apple will Listen.

Same problem here. I replace the old battery two months ago and with snow leopard I got the "service battery" message. The battery has only 22 cycle. I agree with the SO problem. Sure it's not hardware problem. Apple c'mon, help us

Wouldn't that be easy.
Battery health has always been readable with iStat widget and other tools. First of all the healthy reading is now jumping all over the place.
Second, I can tell you for sure that my battery lasted at least 3 hours (even closer to 4 hours) before SL update. I know this because I actually used it for those long periods of time in the week before I upgraded.

I made a similar experience and I had similar results!!! With Leopard 10.5 this does not occur!
Is definitely a Snow Leopard problem!!!!