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

Stephen:

You're very welcome. I appreciate the feedback. Working from home, I can be a bit more methodical with testing in various scenarios as I go about my daily work.

Thanks very much for posting the battery information as well. I've compared the stats to mine, and I would appear to have a battery that was produced "earlier" in the food chain by comparison.

Having Applecare most certainly added an advantage to you in getting a replacement without much hassle--mixed results on getting batteries replaced depending on where people are located.

I'm in California and will see if I can get my battery replaced. I too have had at least 1 replacement under the Exchange Program, and along with everyone else, had strange results after SL.

What is even more interesting in your case is that you're still on "Leopard" without ever having SL installed. Unless the batteries are all uniting to *strike back* it would be a very odd coincidence.

Please let us know how the new battery works out. Perhaps there is just a plain old incompatibility that has been created as a result of a change made somewhere by Apple.

Time will tell.

Good luck, and thanks again Stephen.

-Erv

BTW, symptoms are:
Erratic reporting of battery charge level - time to fully charged
Swift jump (within 5 minutes) from 2h 20 minutes to charge, to 'fully charged'
Erratic reporting of time remaining to battery empty
Close down without warning or hibernating when meter shows plenty of time remaining, leading to loss of unsaved data.

None of these happened prior to the failure, which coincided with the last Software Update but might just be a coincidental battery failure.

Hi, unfortunately my first post is for this problem. Macbook pro 15", with newest battery bought in apple store in December, 5th 2008. Till 40min ago, the health was 93%, 105 cycles, and 2:40-3hr of autonomy. Suddenly, the mbp went in stop, but restarted without using the power cord. Unfortunately the indication "battery service" appeared. Coconut battery gave pretty awful results:418mah as maximum charge capacity and a health of 7%. In a while i was googling, I had my power cord in and 5min ago coconut battery told me the battery was ok (though the mag safe led is still orange..). Anyhow, I have just unplugged and re-plugged in the power cord and magically now the health came back to 93% and this is what battery information says:

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): 5098
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5098
Health Information:
Cycle count: 105
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 395
Voltage (mV): 12609

So: bug or not bug? I go to have the battery checked or not? downgrade to leopard now that the battery is back or no?
thanks

Just to update profiler info from today:

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): 781
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3208
Health Information:
Cycle count: 76
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1512
Voltage (mV): 10994

It is simply irritating that the max capacity appears to change on a daily basis. Has anyone that has replaced their battery had ongoing problems?

jeez, now also the old battery shows the battery service message, even if in the bar the autonomy is 2:13

here the profiler for my oldest battery:

Model Information:
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0001
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0102
Hardware Revision: 0300
Cell Revision: 0200
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4039
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4163
Health Information:
Cycle count: 172
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1768
Voltage (mV): 12073

The fact that the warning does not appear on the menu bar, probably make me discover late the issue with my newest battery. what a mess

Hi, a few weeks ago I was having the same problem of not being able to completely discharge the battery of my MacBook (mid 2007) in order to recalibrate it or resetting its control system.
Then I booted in Bootcamp using Windows XP and then the battery started to behave a little bit more correctly: sudden shut down didn't occur any more at 80% of charge, like in SL, but only at 35%; then, recharge after recharge, I managed to go down to 20%, 10% and near 0.
After this therapy, the battery was reborn.
It's worth trying.

This is getting more and more interesting. My battery is "bad" again, after being good for about 2 weeks. It was bad for a few weeks before that. Last night I boot my computer which had about 1hr. charge left when I shut it down. It wakes up to say "service battery" and says it has 0:00 minutes left. Health was down to 50% so sayeth Coconut.
I reboot, and bam, it's back to over 80% health with 1hr. charge left. So today it wakes up again with 0:00 left, in fact, my laptop shouldn't even be on right now... unless a certain OS is WRONG about my remaining charge. Cocunut says my health is at 65%. So how does a batteries health change every time you boot? How does my computer run just fine with 0% remaining charge?

What gives Apple, fix this nonsense.

same issue here

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro2,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP22.00A5.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.12f5
Serial Number (system):
Hardware UUID:
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): 1708
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 1993
Health Information:
Cycle count: 213
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1943
Voltage (mV): 11814

Message was edited by: yoda09

This battery life is the worst thing I ve ever had ....
SNOW LEOPARD 10.6.1.

Model Information:
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: ASMB016
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0102

"What gives Apple, fix this nonsense."

My sentiments exactly.

I too, can run my my computer from my battery which is showing 0% charge. I have managed to run the system for 40 minutes in this 'No Charge' state. When I plug the charger in, it takes 20 minutes or so before it registers 1% charge. It is obvious that the software isn't in sync with the hardware, and even an SMC reset fails to rectify the issue.

Am I right in thinking that a battery with 300 charge cycles should still hold 80% of its original capacity? My Macbook Pro is 38 months old, and I have gone through 224 charge cycles and my capacity ranges from 24% to 42% and a full charge only allows for an hour or less of use. I am only browsing in Safari...

I am having the same issues and will try some of the fixes contained here; I still have AppleCare coverage so I'll see about getting a replacement. My health is 65% according to iStat.

My question is this, however:
Unfortunately, my MBP 17" is the only Mac I have, and I frequently have to remotely connect to it when it's home (not to mention streaming some music to Simplify Media on the iPhone), so it needs to stay plugged in all the time.

I don't take it out of my home office much, but like the fact that it's portable.

If I get a new battery, will it help my cause to take the battery out and run the MBP strictly off of AC power? Then, right before I need to take it somewhere, put the battery in and disconnect? Since I don't do this often, this wouldn't be a pain to me.

I'm just wondering if this will save my battery from constantly having AC power connected to it. (I'm assuming it will)

I can't afford my MacPro...yet.

Thanks in advance,
Marc

If your laptop is usually / almost always plugged into AC power, it would be wise to remove the battery, and put it back in when you need to use it mobile. However, I would not it allow it to be dormant for very long. The battery should be used and re-calibrated periodically to maintain it's performance.

Message was edited by: madrich

If you mostly use the laptop plugin I don't think you really need to remove the battery, it may sound stupid, but I have seen a few laptops (PC, not Mac) breaking the lid cos as the owners did remove the battery, the laptop had not weight enough, and therefore when trying to open the laptop with only one hand, it would lift, it may sound weird but it happens! try it your self! you need the two hands, one to hold the base, another to open the lid. If you only use one hand, with time, you will probably will end damaging the lid.

I don't think there is a problem having the laptop plugged with the battery inside all the time cos the battery won't start charging/discharging immediately, if you just keep an eye, you will see when plugged the battery keeps going down in charge, but you will still see the "Battery is charged" message, so it's not really recharging.
As it is normal on batteries, they will discharge with time even if not connected to anything, so just keep an eye to battery message, and as soon as you see the computer is trying to charge the battery again (I think it happens at some point between 90% and 95% not sure) then unplug and carry on working until totally discharged.

To be honest it would be a cool update from Apple to alert users when the computer is trying to charge the battery when from 100% plugged, so that way we are kind of forced to take care of the battery!

Hi Diego

I posted some time ago just to register that I am having the same service battery and sudden shutdowns with my 2007 2.2Ghz MBP that many others are experiencing. I have less than 40 cycles on it and it shuts down when I get to just less than 80% charge. I haven't done anything about it since I use the computer mainly on A/C either in the office or at home, but I have been reading ErvDoggie's posts with interest, thinking that I would try his advice. It looked like a long, time consuming process, so I thought I would try your quick fix first. First problem though, is that the MBP won't power up with just the A/C connected and the battery removed. I thought that I had read somewhere that the battery needs to be installed in order for the computer to start up, but I can't find that advice anywhere for confirmation. Anyway, the only way that I can do the first part of your process is to remove the battery whilst the computer is running and connected to the A/C. That works. I'm now going to try the rest of your suggestion, and I might throw in an SMC reset for good measure.

Roger

I too started having sudden shut downs with my 15" MBP, worst part is that this is my second battery. This whole thing is sudden not sure if its related to any of the recent Snow Leopard updates, the computer used to at least give a warning before it shut down, now it just turns off with 60% remaining.

Annoying

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): 1719
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 2221
Health Information:
Cycle count: 76
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 1165
Voltage (mV): 12498