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

maybe it's just the heat on the CPU that triggers this 'Service Battery' warning.
try leaving your laptop in the aircon and keep it cold for a few hours before turning this on..
does your battery still have the same problem?
mine didnt..
but if the CPU heats up to 60 deg celcius, it goes back to the warning again.

This is not cool. I tried to contact apple, it let me enter my serial and go through a few pages before telling me I have to PAY to get an answer. I've got a $2,000 machine and the company won't give me tech support. SHAME ON YOU APPLE, I've got cheap gear from small companies and they have no problem answering their phone or replying to an email. Apple won't give me the time of day unless I pay for it? I thought I already paid for it...

Anyway, update on the battery issue. I've seen the stupid 'service battery' warning come and go. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. But my battery life under Snow Leopard is 1/2 what it is when I'm running regular Leopard. I keep checking for software updates in hopes of a fix but nothing. It's pretty alarming to me that they would release a new OS that compromises battery life and prompts users to BUY NEW BATTERIES and not fix it. I'm completely shocked that one cannot send a simple email to tech support and get an answer. The guys at Ableton reply quick and offer ongoing support. Their software is only $500. Same with Universal Audio, you can buy their DSP accelerator for $500. $500 and you get tech support for life, including phone & email. I like my computer but not so much the company right now. They won't talk to me and they won't mix a major problem...

-Wesley D.

So if you dont have a warranty is the only thing to do is go and buy a new battery.

Do you know if I buy a new battery, the problem no will come back???

Because this is a rare problem, it´s possible that the batteries has been running with problems, NO DETECTABLE PROBLEMS.

And them Apple lunch the Snow Leopard.......(he visto un lindo gatito) and a lot of users begins to take problems with the bateries.

Apple, do you want more customers?????? A happy customer is better publicity.
Best regards for alls.

I hope with 54,541 views and 363 replies, Apple is not going to pretend this battery issue never happens. 14 months MBP with dead pixels, white spots, a dead hard drive, and now a piece of useless battery (after upgrading to SL). Been supporting Apple for the last 19 years, nothing is as disappointing as now. Guess I really gonna +think different+ for now..

Not sure if my last message went through or not, it looks like Apple is actively suppressing this. I have filed a BBB complaint about the issue. It should not cost money to contact the company about a bug. Does anyone know if this will damage our computers?

Add me to the list. I have the "Service Battery" status and the MBP shuts down without warning if I run it on the battery. I have been very careful to treat it as Apple suggests and only have about 35 cycles. I don't need to use the MBP on battery power all that often so it is not too inconvenient, and I shan't be buying a new battery until its clear whether this is hardware or software related. Stats as follows:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.16f11
Serial Number (system): 3M7392BCXAH
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001B639FFC7F
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0001
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1512
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 1512
Health Information:
Cycle count: 35
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 147
Voltage (mV): 12628

Roger

My battery is now completely dead, it worked two days ago fine, but now there is no charge in it. I cant even turn it on without plugging it in. I dont think that it is the battery because it could hold three hours of charge one day and less then 4 seconds the next. The 'service battery' came up after I upgraded to SL and was on and off a week before.

same here, after a while of "decent" performance, but always worse than before upgrading to SL, my battery is doing much worse, "check battery" showed up a week ago and since then, battery capacity dropped to 45%, less than 2 hrs of autonomy, and going in sleep mode without alerting sometimes too.
before upgrading it was working just fine, almost 4hrs, 85%

mah...no warranty here...

I'm having the same battery issue. I noticed a few days ago that when I'm running on battery, the charge rapidly drops from 100% down to about 15% within an hour. I now get the service battery warning. I never had an issue prior to SL. And too, my computer seems to be running hotter lately. Before SL, the fan rarely ever came on, now with just the slightest increase in activity, it comes on.

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0003
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3279
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3341
Health Information:
Cycle count: 55
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12454

To people coming on here and complaining its the OS thats not really going to cut it and neither is a complaint to the BBB. You have a contract which is 1 yr and 90 days phone support with out apple care. With apple care its 3 years. If you are out of that spectrum sorry, if you think Apple is bad try Microsoft. Anyways, the more people post battery specs the better. I think its more of a coincidence when reading this thread as it lacks data. I can tell you that if your under 300 cycles and the batter reads:
Condition: Check Battery
Thats an issue that lies with in the battery. Go to apple and see if they will replace it. I can not make that call but in the amount of batteries I personally have gone through 300 seems to be the limit where the battery seems to die off. Granted I do NOT follow Apple's battery procedure to the tee. For those that have over that, well time to get an new one. An OS will not say a battery is dead, if anything it will report it better. I suggest you download coconut battery and see what that says. Otherwise keep factual data coming in because yelling on a forum and saying your filing a complaint will do NOTHING.

I've been following this thread for awhile, because when I upgraded to Snow Leopard I began receiving the same problems that are being stated on this thread, random shutdowns, battery losing capacity and acting very erratic, as well as getting the "service battery" notice under my battery information. The computer I have is a Macbook 2.16 Ghz, its listed as the 2,1 model under the system profiler. I searched all over the net trying to find a solution to the issue because I'm a student and use my laptop all day long while at school and rely on my battery lasting for 4+ hrs without requiring a charge. I DID manage to get my battery back to normal but it really seemed somewhat random and took awhile, but I figured my post may help some of you having similar issues.

now when I first started getting battery problems under snow leopard it started as a reduced capacity, and when I took it to my nearest apple store I was diagnosed as having a bad battery and since I was out of warranty I was going to have to pay out of pocket, which was absurd because a battery's charge doesn't just drop off over the course of 2 weeks. It just doesn't happen that fast. So when this first started happening I was getting the following battery specs:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: ASMB016
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0102
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3060
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3150
Health Information:
Cycle count: 278
Condition: Service Battery

And I knew this wasn't accurate because I'd seen my battery prior to this have over 4500+ mAh and have in the 90% range for battery health, even in the upper 200's of charge cycles. So I tried everything that was written in the thread, reset PRAM, SMC, calibrate the battery, try running Snow leopard in 64 bit. and nothing was working. I had seen a few people having success going back to Leopard and so I did that, and wasn't having any luck still. I figured Snow Leopard had to have messed up information stored on the battery itself and so it was falsely reporting its capacity and whatnot. And then during my calibrations I unplugged the battery when it was "full" and it somehow decided that it was always 100% charged and the current charge never dropped at all, even when the computer would turn off from lack of battery charge. the battery information looked like this:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: ASMB016
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0102
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 65482
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 65482
Health Information:
Cycle count: 281
Condition: Good

Now I KNOW that macbook batteries can't hold that much charge so it must be another glitch. Went back to the apple store, got the same lecture, was advised to buy a new battery. Once again didn't listen to them, and kept trying to re-calibrate.

I did FINALLY have some success when while calibrating, I let the computer completely die, and then let it partially re-charge, then proceeded to unplug/replug the charger from the computer with about 5 seconds between unplugging and replugging. and got the battery to actually display the 1st above stats again. and then with successive discharging/recharging (around 2-3 more re-calibrations), my battery life finally jumped back and now have the following battery stats:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: ASMB016
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0102
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3781
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4928
Health Information:
Cycle count: 294
Condition: Good

And I've waited a little while to make sure the issue didn't come back, but it hasn't yet and it's been about 3 weeks. I guarantee that the battery issue is because of snow leopard and until they come up with a fix for this problem, I suggest downgrading to leopard and recalibrate until you can get your old capacity back. The only success I've seen online with the battery problems is to downgrade and it's been working for me so far, coconutBattery shows that I have 94% battery health and I'm back to my 4-5 hrs battery life that I'd seen prior to upgrading.

+1

I know I have a lot of cycles on my battery, but my battery worked fine as of yesterday (over 4 hours of life) and today after installing SL, I get about 2 hours... I just put in a new hard drive and more RAM recently too... this computer is getting pricey. AppleCare has expired as well.

Model Information:
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0102
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0200
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3975
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4012
Health Information:
Cycle count: 280
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1047
Voltage (mV): 12308

You guy should read up on Li-ion batteries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ionbattery#Shelflife

Problem is these batteries are great for the power needed but as I stated before around the 300 range you will see your battery die off. Its part of the battery itself. It is not the old battery your used to in PowerBooks and iBooks. Way different technology.

Also when you recalibrate the battery its the battery not an OS level issue. The battery hardware reports its findings, so to speak, to the OS.

rkovelman, I assume you haven't read the nearly 370 post here (and just only on this thread), so I am going ok update you, so your posts can be more helpful:

1. first clarify the main issue is the quickly drop of performance on batteries right after upgrading to SL and the random shutdowns with no warning at all even when battery is more that half charged. All this happens right after an upgrade to SL, so we doubt it very much is just a coincidence.

2. the number of cycles seems to be indifferent, we have even people with less than 100 cycles, like myself.

3. laptops get more hot since SL upgrade.



All those issues are very well documented here with details, so I don't expect you to read the whole lot, but do not assume we haven't done our homework.

Thanks.