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

Just to add to my earlier comments, FtF, I've had a look at your earlier post and posted a reply to it. I don't think you actually had a real problem at all, though I can see why you thought you did, and over-reacted to the almost universal behaviour of new Lithium Polymer batteries, regardless of what they happen to be used in.

It seems to me that you were simply experiencing the typical variability that one sees in ANY new Lithium Ion battery during initial usage. Variability of the kind you mention over the first few cycles is pretty much universal in brand new Lithium Ion batteries, regardless of what sort of device they are attached to, or, if they are being used in computers, regardless of what OS is involved.

I reckon you should try re-installing Snow Leopard. Seems a real pity to be missing out on its advantages just because your new battery did what Lithium Polymer batteries always do and behaved a little erratically during its first few charge cycles!

Cheers

Rod

rod, thanks a lot for your input. it helps to hear a similar perspective.

i'll take your advice and let my battery "settle" at it's level for a few weeks before upgrading to Snow Leopard. i'll report what i find after the upgrade, but will keep an eye on this thread in case anyone else notices a different factor to this problem.

Rod,

Thank you for that, and thank you for helping to support my theory. Based on what you wrote, based on my experience, it leads me to believe that this is indeed a software glitch. I don't believe that Snow Leopard is killing the battery, but instead Snow Leopard is extremely sensitive to flaws and fluctuations in the battery. That when the battery's voltage level consistences decline Snow Leopard is triggering a shut down instead of either Hibernating, or adjusting to handle the fluctuation.

So my take away from this is:

1. Sony Batteries are crap.
2. Apple should have replaced my defective battery, but they didn't.
3. Purchasing a new battery only temporarily bandaids the problem but doesn't fix it.

So basically buying a new battery at this point is a waste of money, and that Apple's attitude towards a defective product is less than consumer friendly.

Hopefully Apple will fix the Snow Leopard sensitivity issue in 10.6.3. Even better, hopefully Apple will officially acknowledge the issue and all our speculation can end.

Please disregard my original post. I woke up this morning and the "replace soon" message was back again.

I booted up this morning and my battery says it has over 2 hours, not as good as my 3.5 hours before installing Snow Leopard, but the service battery notification is gone and my battery life is magically up again.

I'm sure it will go away again soon.

There is simply no way this is a battery issue, maybe for some, not for me. It's insulting to have to keep reading posts from those of you who just won't stop saying it's all in our heads.

My battery lasted for 3.5+ hours before installing Snow Leopard. Under 60 Cycles. I install the OS update, bam, within the first 2 weeks my battery life is cut in half. Based on all the other posts there's no way it's coincidence.

You guys are maintaining that I chose to upgrade my OS at the exact time my battery decided to start fluctuating health and giving me less than 1/2 my original charge... Awfully convenient...

I'd like to avoid wasting an entire day making a pilgrimage to the Apple store... they need to release a fix or recall these batteries.

Rod Hagen wrote:
If you have actually bought replacement batteries and they have failed in the manner you say , simply take them back and get them replaced, Don. A new battery purchased from Apple is covered by a 12 month warranty. The same principles apply to it as to batteries purchased in computers. If , as you say, you have bought new batteries which have dwindled to 20 minutes run time a few weeks , with 50 cycles on the clock, they are covered by the warranty, which is based on the same 80%/300 cycle formula within the 12 month warranty period.

I have, and both were replaced. After they were replaced, after a week or two, they both went bad. In the words of Yogi Berra, "this is like deja vu all over again."

Talk about buying battery after battery because they fail within a few weeks of purchase with 50 cycles on the clock is simply silly.

Rod

I bought the batteries during a road trip, when I had no choice. I don't have the time or desire to run back and forth to the Applestore because of this. I'll wait for Apple to resolve it whichever way they see fit. If I have another road trip in the near future, I'll grab one of our new Unibody MacBook Pro laptops that isn't having this problem.

PS, Rod, making blind assumptions is silly.

Don

I'm still irritated by my recent phone conversation with Apple support and Customer Relations. I still cannot believe they told me that there's nothing they can do for me since my laptop is out of warranty, even though the original battery became defective and then the replacement battery they sent me also became defective at 125 cycles. Total crap service on their behalf, and I'm really losing faith in Apple. If I don't see a resolution by them or at the very least an explanation about this issue, then I have no other choice then to start shopping for another non-Apple laptop.

Depressing.

Shigglyboo wrote:
I booted up this morning and my battery says it has over 2 hours, not as good as my 3.5 hours before installing Snow Leopard, but the service battery notification is gone and my battery life is magically up again.

I'm sure it will go away again soon.

There is simply no way this is a battery issue, maybe for some, not for me. It's insulting to have to keep reading posts from those of you who just won't stop saying it's all in our heads.

My battery lasted for 3.5+ hours before installing Snow Leopard. Under 60 Cycles. I install the OS update, bam, within the first 2 weeks my battery life is cut in half. Based on all the other posts there's no way it's coincidence.

You guys are maintaining that I chose to upgrade my OS at the exact time my battery decided to start fluctuating health and giving me less than 1/2 my original charge... Awfully convenient...

I'd like to avoid wasting an entire day making a pilgrimage to the Apple store... they need to release a fix or recall these batteries.

Shigglyboo,

I'm in the same boat as you. I've done enough testing to nail the issue to the Snow Leopard upgrade. The issue will get ironed out. Luckily I work at my desk most of the time so even though my batteries are having this issue (despite religiously cycling them as per Apple KB article.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

Ignore some of the fan boy posts dismissing this being a Snow Leopard upgrade issue. Once the dust settles, you'll see what I mean.

Don

Riding it out is my plan too. Hopefully the upcoming rumored 10.6.3 will handle the problem.

Not with a battery that's already affected, but perhaps it can prevent a good battery going bad?

Message was edited by: TimMyers

let's wait for 10.6.3
maybe everything will be alright)))))

Want to share my experience.
Hope it helps someone.

I can confirm that is probably ONLY a software issue and particulary an issue related to 10.6.1 or 10.6.2 update.

This is my story:

i was running 10.6.2 from 2 o 3 days when i ran into the "service battery" issue. So i began to follow this post and i've tried almost every solution advides by users. Nothing helps.

But....

feeling desperate i decided to perform a clean installation booting directly from SL DVD. i've completely cleaned partitions and recreated new one.
when installation finished i 've rebooted my mac and......

...."service battery" message was still there !!!

so i decided to call Apple call center and a really polite technician (italian) ask me the battery data (cycles, amperage, voltage, etc...) and he said that in my case (99 charge cycles) apple replaces battery with new one without any problem. WOW i was really happy !!

so...

from my reinstallation and my phone call passed no more than 30 minutes.

i watch at my battery indicator and VOILA !!! the service battery message was gone !!

10 days has passed from this day and the message never came back.

with coconutbattery before reinstallation my battery health was at 59%

now is 93%

IMPORTANT !!! i decided not to update to 10.6.2 because i'm trying to understand if the problem is related to this update. until now no more "service battery"

Hope this helps soemone !!

bye

Francesco

Francesco131177 wrote:
i decided not to update to 10.6.2 because i'm trying to understand if the problem is related to this update. until now no more "service battery"

Francesco

So are you currently running 10.6.1 and if not what version are you running? Thanks!

Don,

Since we narrowed it down to Intel CD MBP's its safe to assume that the processor has a difficult time handling a 64bit process making the battery strain that much more. Again I am ASSUMING this. I am not sure at the programing level what can be done for the processor to be able to handle the mathematics so battery strain is not so bad.

Any one else's thoughts on that?

That does not take the battery equation out as Rod(?) mentioned with battery levels being bad anyways. A depleted battery no matter what is bad.

+1 for this battery garbage.

Model Information:
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4283
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4392
Health Information:
Cycle count: 64
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1067
Voltage (mV): 12230


This battery has been replaced before, for free, through Applecare. I doubt I can still get a free replacement this far out. 23 Months.

It appears most, but not all of the time. Hopefully we will see some improvement soon?