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

As an experiment I downgraded, the batter warning went away, and the battery status changed. But my time machine back up wasn't compatible so I did a clean install of snow leopard. I forgot to test battery life.

As an experiment, I installed Leopard on an 8Gb USB Memory Stick:

http://www.maciverse.com/install-boot-os-x-leopard-from-a-usb-flash-drive.html

When I boot from the USB stick, my battery life is approximately double that of Snow Leopard. It also doesn't take long for battery health to go from 29% to 74%, as reported by iStat Pro.

The downside is I was only able to fit 10.5.6 on the USB stick.

Unfortunately I didn't do a full backup before I upgraded, so downgrading back to Leopard (10.5.8) would mean a reinstall of all applications, which I'm not ready to take on, yet.

If anyone has a procedure to do an in-place downgrade, please post it.

I'm almost always on AC. I carry (1) an extra battery, (2) an extra AC adapter, since already have one at home and one at work, and (3) a car/airplane adapter. If I ever have to use battery, I get 20-30 minutes on each one. I let the computer go into deep-sleep (happens automatically once battery level reaches 10%), then I swap the battery and I'm good for another 20-30 minutes. Then I'm screwed if I'm not near an AC outlet.

I'm not happy that I've spent $300 for two new batteries. I'm not happy that my original battery worked fine before Snow Leopard, but stopped holding a charge after the upgrade (threw it out).

I'm confident Apple is wrestling with this issue as we type.

Don

lapwolf wrote:
If anyone has a procedure to do an in-place downgrade, please post it.

We always image our computer so we can revert if upgrade fails. Do you have a full backup?

Don

+Don wrote:+
+We always image our computer so we can revert if upgrade fails. Do you have a full backup?+

Unfortunately, I do not...

lapwolf wrote:
Unfortunately I didn't do a full backup before I upgraded, so downgrading back to Leopard (10.5.8) would mean a reinstall of all applications, which I'm not ready to take on, yet.

If anyone has a procedure to do an in-place downgrade, please post it.

So would you lose all your applications or only apps you've downloaded since installing snow leopard? Plus, would you lose your files too? All files or only ones downloaded since snow leopard?

I got 2.5 hours before snow leopard. After snow leopard, i got 1.5 hours, then 45 minutes, and now only 10 minutes. I would rather revert back to leopard than spend $129 on a battery that may or may not last.

Same problems as stated. Here is my profile:

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): 1749
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 1816
Health Information:
Cycle count: 61
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 273
Voltage (mV): 12634

The only way I know of to downgrade to Leopard would be to do a clean install, which would reformat the disc, wiping out all applications and data, regardless of installation date.

If I could successfully just re-install Leopard over Snow Leopard, I would do it in a heartbeat...

Same issue here...

I find it completely amazing that this problem it's been going on for months and they do not provide us with a feasible solution but expects us to keep buying overpriced low quality batteries.

My first battery lasted 15 months (150 cycles and kapput less 30 minutes battery life) and of course they wouldn't replace it. My magsafe adapter went the same way, it was supposed to be charging but no one knows for sure; no light on the magsafe and it looked really scary with tiny wire cables sprouting out of the connector.

When I learnt buying both new would put me close to the 300€ mark I decided to buy non original replacements on eBay. Working fine until now. Of course if I dare to ask Apple why my battery lasts 40% less after SL upgrade they would blame it on the low quality of non original components (like if what they build was high quality...).

HELLO APPLE? Anybody listening to hundreds of abandoned users? This is a great policy, I just can't wait to buy one of the new MacBook Pros and happily expect to spend hundreds of euros on a official battery replacement (besides leaving the computer a couple of days with the technician) when the battery dies in less than 2 years.

ok i got mine fixed now.. have the same issue.. i followed the kb fix, sleep the mbp, wake it up, restart and shutdown.. after that i physically remove my battery for like 2-3 minutes and attached it again.. and the message 'service battery is gone' it shows the time length now.. i dont know if its gonna work with some of you guys, but give it a try..

Can you please post a link to the kb fix (and the step-by-step directions you followed), since there are so many referenced here.

Thanks for trying the fix! I will follow the flow you did and see what happens!

C

just wanted to share my experience with this thread. as almost everyone experienced, my MacBook Pro battery died shortly after upgrading to Snow Leopard. tried resetting the SMC, different MagSafe Adapters, borrowed friends batteries.

i've been reading this thread for possible solutions for a few weeks now, so i assumed the problem was the Sony manufactured battery that comes with or are replacements for our MacBook Pro. so since my battery was practically dead, i decided to try a *Fastmac Truepower* battery since I had good experience with them in my PowerBook. i am not sure who makes the Fastmac batteries, but in my system profiler, the manufacturer is listed as "True Power."

once installed, it ran snow leopard fine for 4.5 hours, with light web browsing, without being plugged in. then i charged it from 20% to 100%. i checked coconutBattery and it killed off 30 mAh from the original battery capacity. i thought it was a fluke, so i left it plugged in for about 2 hours. after firing up coconutBattery again, it killed off 300 mAh from the original battery capacity without being unplugged!

so my brand new battery that isn't Sony Manufactured drained 5% of it's maximum capacity in just one charge-cycle.

i quickly removed the battery and tried to think of what to do next. i downgraded to 10.5.8 Leopard and since then, have had 3 charge-cycles without any dramatic changes to Battery Capacity. i don't know if this helps anyone, but the signs point to Snow Leopard as the source of the problem.

i took screenshots of coconutBattery to document the test. i know it's really difficult for us to downgrade to 10.5 but i look at it as a new start to the new year. hopefully this gets addressed soon with an update. Snow Leopard has been nothing but a great experience, just not for my battery.

Hi See Jay,

When i open my mac this morning the problem came back again 'service battery' is again showed up.. it was fixed yesterday when ive tried to do the KB fix which i found in page 2 of this thread..

Apple we need a fix.. SL is causing the problem based on these looonnggg thread.

I'm with the same issue on my Macbook pro 15" late 2007...

Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.16f11

Model Information:
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0001
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Cycle count: 64

I installed Tiger on an USB key to install Battery Update 1.3 (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL202) but it didn t made much... well... here is the thing: my battery capacity was 270mAh know it's 515mAh!!!!
*Please don't laught* each time I let my battery charging until full (100%) and wait some minutes, When I unplug the power, I earn 3 mAh!!! Whooo!
I'll let you know when I reach 5500mAh lol

I also tried to install new EFI, SMC 1.2 1.3... http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macbookpro
But my "computer don't need theses updates"


APPLE WE WANT A FIX FOR THIS

In fact in battery capacity is still going down under SL, it only goes slowly better under Tiger/Leopard...