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

David Hinz wrote:
I didn't notice this problem immediately after I upgraded, but I rarely click on the battery menu item where the "Service Battery" message is displayed. I usually just look at the display percentage in the menu bar. Maybe the problem started with 10.6.1, I don't know. But it is still a problem with Snow Leopard (period).

Hmmm, there is still an exclamation mark or a warning symbol within the battery icon on the menu bar that I noticed straight away. I clicked on that because I'd never seen it before and then saw the Service Battery icon.

Your battery could have gone bad within a month definitely, they tend to fail very quickly when they start. So it may not be necessarily a problem with Snow Leopard and as you put it, (period).

Mine began to fail, from what I now recall, straight away and shutting down randomly. Unfortunately I couldn't wait for the issue to be acknowledged by Apple so I had to buy a new battery, which thankfully for me has resolved the immediate problem. I've kept my old battery though just in case.

I notice that you haven't posted any battery stats, which may help those who are trying to analyse the information on here a bit better.

Good luck with it.

OK. Here is an interesting follow-up to the problem. Late yesterday the "Service Battery" indicator went away. So now is it Snow Leopard or battery? If it was the battery then the last few days was the first time that I had ever seen the "Service Battery" indicator. If it was Snow Leopard then it might be an intermittent problem. Yesterday since the battery was 100% charged I just used the battery until it was down to about 75% then plugged it in. Normally I plug in the laptop immediately when I use it at home.

I'll post the battery stats the next time I use the laptop.

I reset SMC, I calibrated battery, I reinstalled OS twice. My MBP is only 8 months old which has the non-modular battery.

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: 9G90700ZH4M0A
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): 9839
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 10499
Health Information:
Cycle count: 59
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -4725
Voltage (mV): 8016

Well after way too many weeks of waiting on Apple to resolve this I made a 'Genius' appointment and went today. My battery had deteriorated to below 11% health and was basically worthless.

The genius checked my battery with his iPod utility and determined that the battery was faulty. I told him that prior to installing SL my battery health was around 75% and I was getting almost 2 hours of use on a single charge (with about 212 charge cycles). After the SL install I would get no better than 20 minutes of use with random restarts. He said that this was just coincidence. I said I didn't think so and referenced this thread on the apple support site. I requested he document this instance in case they do pull metrics on Genius appointments (I am almost sure they do) so that a trend can be identified if more people are coming in for this issue.

Long story short I got a new battery for free. I don't have apple care and my laptop is almost three years old. I am pretty happy with the outcome.

With 10.6.2 looming it may be worthwhile to see if this issue is resolved in that release. If you can't wait I suggest making an appointment and going in to see what they will do.

Cheers.

Hello there,

I'm using my MBP since August 2008. I have now 118 cycles of recharge and the health of my battery dropped from 100% a week ago to 69% yesterday. In the morning it was 63%, now I have 66%. I only get about 1 hour and 20 minutes of usage. This is why I am now hating the new OS. It was really great on the first run but now it only makes me going crazy. I have no AppleCare and I don't want to pay 135 EUR for a new battery because it worked fine before the f**** update!

I hope the issue get fixed by an update. Because if not, I want Apple to change my battery for free. I think, if it keeps going on, I will only have less than 5% within 2-3 weeks.

Hi,
I've been experiencing the same kind of battery troubles described in this thread with my MacBook (mid 2007) since I've upgraded to SL (sudden shut down with battery nearly fully charged, battery charge dropping to zero in a few moments, etc).

During the weekend I've managed to recalibrate the battery in bootcamp: with Windows, the discharge was less dramatic and drove to a stand-by state instead of a full stop. I've discharged and recharged a couple of times, then I left the MB fully charged all night and all today long, turned off and without charger (to give him a rest?).

This evening, all seems to work normally again and with SL! My MB has been on for nearly four hours (with very little activity), battery state is always normal, like in good old Leopard times...

Are then maybe the crazy behaviours just temporary and reversible?
Wait and see...

My MacBook Pro is showing the same "Service Battery" message after Snow upgrade. I took it to the Genius bar at the local Apple store, and they said I should replace the battery. I have a MacBook Pro at work as well. So, I brought that battery home and tried it. Same "Service Battery" message. Sure looks like a software issue to me, too.

Same issue as everyone else here. Started happening soon after installing snow leopard.

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): 307
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 307
Health Information:
Cycle count: 77
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 147
Voltage (mV): 12611

I too thought this was a SL issue however, I went back to the Genius bar today and it was a failing battery. The Genius replaced the battery while I waited and I am now charging it for the first time. I plan to leave it off and allow it to fill overnight.

The Genius plugged in his iPod Diagnostic drive, we booted from the iPod and the battery test "FAILED" without regret. I am glad I took it in considering I just got it in March.

If you doubt, go to the bar.

Just to add my story: Using a several-year-old MacBook Pro (Intel Core Duo 2.16 GHz) that can only run Snow Leopard in 32-bit mode.

Prior to upgrading to Snow Leopard, my battery had no complaints, and was regularly giving me 2-3 hours of use.

After upgrading to Snow Leopard, my MacBook shuts down *without warning* after about 1 hour, when I got to around 25% of battery, losing data if my documents weren't already saved. And the Service Battery warning was on.

I called Apple yesterday, and the senior tech I was escalated to said that Snow Leopard was reporting a bad battery, so I'd have to replace it. I told him my story, referred to this thread, and he said "I have never had a battery call about Snow Leopard, so this can't be too widespread."

Nonetheless, we talked about it for a while, I kept indicating that Apple's own discussion boards had many affected users, and he eventually decided to replace the battery for me "since your AppleCare just expired anyway." He also promised to report it up to Engineering, for whatever that's worth.

So my recommendation is for everyone to report this to Apple (doesn't the Snow Leopard purchase include 90 days of phone support, so we're all covered?) so they know the magnitude of the problem.

Good luck people.

My battery indeed has the service battery warning now under snow leopard, but the only reason i noticed was that after installing SL, my battery went flat within about 40 mins, whereas normally id get around 2 hours+

So its not just because people are seeing the warning...there is a genuine fault here...if you are not getting the fault, thats awesome and I wish you all the luck, but please dont make a difficult situation harder for the rest of us by telling us its in our head...now come on Apple, own up!!!

Well, I calibrated the battery yesterday. Now my battery health is 49%.
I hate it.

I had the same problem after upgrading to SL. I tried everything to restore previous capacity but all in vain. So I purchased a new battery and the issue was gone. After that I called a local apple store and scheduled an appointment to test my old battery. I told apple genius this should be a software problem and pointed to this discussion. The test showed "Bad battery" (47 cycles, 1 year old) and I also got one of those random shut downs right after the test

So I got a new battery for free without apple care or any other warranty. Now I have two brand new batteries, both are working fine (anyway I was going to buy the second battery for long flights).

My advise is to go Apple and try to replace the battery. If it fails again in some time you'll have a record about recent battery replacement. So it can be another proof that this is a software issue.

Message was edited by: ptushkin

For the sake of the discussion, throw me in the software / calibration camp. My ~8 month old Macbook Unibody started giving me the "service battery" message after top-up charges when I upgraded to Snow Leopard on release day. This was at about 65 cycles and I'm up to 86 now, several of them due to me trying to let it calibrate. I can reproduce the issue almost on demand by draining the battery as little as 15%, charging the machine for any length of time, and then using it on battery again. This takes me from Coconut Battery displaying 97 or 98% or original capacity to anywhere from 30-60%. Of course my usable time drops accordingly. On a couple of occasions, plugging it in with a near-full charge and then unplugging it within several seconds (think snagging the cord as you turn away) has resulted in hard shutdowns. Doing a deep discharge and then a full multi-hour charge gets rid of the message and returns it to a normal life, at least until the next top-off attempt. It's nice to have 5+ hour battery life, but not so nice to have to use all five hours contiguously before charging.

Hallo everybody,
Now I think it's time to add another case. I installed SL the same day it became available in Germany. Some days later I noticed the "Check battery" sign. Since that time my battery allows as much as 20 minutes of operation without recharging. It has to be the software update, since I'm definitely sure my battery (2 years old) worked with OS 10.5. About two weeks before I updated to SL I had a keynote presentation and forgot the charging device at home. The talk lasted about 90 minutes and my battery still was not quite empty. Now it's 20 minutes. It has to be Snow Leopard. Nothing else changed. I follow this thread since its beginning and tried everything (calibration, booting in OS 10.5 from an externat drive etc.). Nothing helped, the battery is near dead and there are no geniuses in Europe, which I could beg for a new battery. I still hope for an update, which could bring my battery back to life.