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

Johnny, unlike many others you have indeed presented some "facts" in one of your earlier posts, and I applaud your for it , but the facts make it very clear that your own problem is simply bad batteries. When lithium ion batteries go bad in this way, shutting down erratically and unpredictably is simply what they do.

They did it under Panther, they did it with Tiger, they do it under leopard, they do it under snow leopard, they do it on Macs, PC's, mp3 players. They do it when, despite a seemingly acceptable base voltage they are no longer able to meet transient demands. "Hibernate" functions can't operate normally in such situations because the response of the battery ceases to be predictable. "Hibernation" itself requires power to operate both the processor and the HD. It depends on a battery having a predictable discharge curve that allows the computer to know when power has dropped to a sufficient level to require it, but still possesses sufficient power to undertake the necessary writing to disk etc. Once the batteries discharge curve ceases to be predictable then hibernation ceases to be a realistic strategy.

The only answer to your own particular issue is to get a new battery.

Cheers

Rod

Rod Hagen wrote:
The only answer to your own particular issue is to get a new battery.

Thank you for the well thought out response, however, I won't be wasting my money on a new battery anytime soon. If anything the conversations in this discussion have only bolstered my resolve that this is indeed a software related issue.

Unless you're willing to admit that you work for Apple and the official Apple response is to buy a new battery, I won't be doing anything except waiting and I suggest others do the same. That said, I appreciate your input, but please respect my position and let this be the last "Buy a new battery" "solution".

Johnny as I said earlier have Apple test if not replace your SMC

Johnny, I don't work for Apple, have absolutely no financial connection with them (apart from buying their products on occasion) , and don't know of any Apple "policy" about such matters.

I do know the symptoms of a bad battery when I see one , though.

Cheers

Rod

Rod, great post. I do not think they have been around long enough especially on the technical side to see the issues 10.x has had with batteries, but wait that was pre Intel. I still noted I had a bttery issue with 10.4 on Intel and they had nothing to say about that one. By the way that battery was 1 years old. I have noted this OS thing numerous times and they over look it. As a matter of fact maybe they can answer why my ipod video used to get 2 hours and now gets 15 min if that. Is the iPod OS bad? Maybe I should wait for an update? Ehh nope its the battery as there are several threads discussing battery issues in that forum as well.

My Lithium Ion equipped PB12 867 did exactly the same thing when the battery got old , Roger. Unpredictable shut downs etc. at erratic intervals with no warning. No "hibernate" back then, of course, but the principle is just the same. Can't remember whether it was running Panther, or even Jaguar, at the time. All simply fixed with a new battery.

Cheers

Rod

Taken under advisement, thank you.

Fair enough. I'll still wait.

I'm in my 5th laptop in over 10 years. In the past I've had multiple bad batteries, in the past I've purchased multiple replacements. But I've never had a battery behave the way this one does.

I have the luxuary of not needing a stable battery at the moment so I can and will wait.

Cheers.

It turns out there's an earlier thread on this issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2215607&tstart=1

The 3rd post has a response from Apple indicating this is a software issue and the user should downgrade back to 10.5.

If you peruse further you'll notice that Rod "buy a new battery" Hagen is fully aware of this thread. Makes you wonder about his real agenda...

You are imagining things lapwolf.

There are no posted responses from Apple in the thread you mention at all, let alone posts from them suggesting downgrading.

There are simply a further series of rather questionable posts making a variety of unsupported claims (as there are from some posters in this thread). That is why I said much the same things there as I have here.

Cheers

Rod

Just by the way, those who believe that this is a "Snow Leopard" issue would do well to look at the thread at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2214738&tstart=0 where people using various versions of Leopard and Tiger report essentially identical problems.

It is simply a fact of life, I'm afraid. Batteries all eventually go "bad" and some unfortunately go "bad" even when they are quite new. When they do, they behave erratically.

The huge number of MBPs sold in recent years (millions) means that inevitably literally thousands will be "failing" in one way or another each day. Sometimes this is because they were defective in manufacture. Sometimes it means that they have got too hot, been exposed to a very heavy workload, or simply got too old.

Anyone who believes this is simply an "Apple OS" issue might cast a glance at:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/14/lenovo-issues-battery-recall-for-six-thinkpad -models/
http://consumerist.com/2007/02/dell-dead-battery-suffers-from-temporary-battery- failure.html
http://www.west-wind.com/Weblog/posts/365.aspx
http://thedatafarm.com/blog/tablet/lenovo-x60-thinkpad-battery-problems-will-the re-be-a-new-battery-recall/
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=47006&highlight=battery
http://reviews.dell.com/2341/312-0386/reviews.htm
etc etc etc

All of these threads deal in one way or another with "sudden" shutdowns, rapid decreases in battery capacity, erratic performance of battery meters, "new" batteries dying and the like - the things people are complaining of here. They are simply a tiny sample of the many, many millions of reports of problems with Lithium Ion batteries regardless of brand of computer or OS, on the web.

Batteries, like optical drives, are one of the "weak spots" of current mobile computing. No doubt they'll get better as the science and technology improves. If you have a "bad" battery (and have done the basics like calibrating and resetting the SMC) , the only real answer is to get a new one. Waiting for some sort of mythical fix in a future OS version simply won't get you anywhere. It is not the software causing the problem. It is the still developing state of battery technology, and the all too high battery failure rate that is associated with it.

Cheers

Rod

ajophoto wrote:

Battery Information:

Charge remaining (mAh): 1732
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 1806
Health Information:
Cycle count: 45
Condition: Check Battery

Keep posting people. 54 pages of complaints if clearly not enough!

Your battery ajophoto, is obviously simply dying, regardless of how old it is. A full charge capacity of 1806 is a clear sign of its failure.

46 cycles in over a year suggests that you have probably been using it primarily as a "desktop replacement" machine, and this probably helps to explain its early demise, though I agree that with such usage patterns it should last a little longer, and you should approach Apple to see if they will replace it.

When you get a new battery, either through purchase or warranty, try to run it from the battery a little more often if possible. The Apple KB item at http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html provides useful advice, as does NeuroAnatomist's FAQ at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1764220


Cheers

Rod

The new battery that Apple supplied to me in November has resolved all my symptoms, which, despite my being on Leopard, were identical with those being complained of here. I have also learned a lot from these discussions about how to look after batteries better.
Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: Sony-ASMB012-3904-8aba
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): 4452
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5354
Health Information:
Cycle count: 33
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 1755
Voltage (mV): 12466

On a personal level, I have been quite happy with how Apple has dealt with me - perhaps there is a difference between the UK and the US.

Cheers,
Stephen

Shigglyboo wrote:
Now can those of you who don't have anything constructive to offer other than suggesting out batteries and internal components are to blame please stop filling this thread with your nonsense? I don't understand your motivation.

The "motivation" is simple, Shigglyboo.

It simply isn't going to help people overcome their problems if they believe fantasies that their battery issues can all be fixed by some sort of future magical OS update, and it isn't going to do them any good to believe that the problem here is down to their installation of Snow Leopard. People with dying batteries need new batteries. The more time they waste believing in fairytales the longer they are going to be unhappy and the longer they are going to find their computer use inhibited by the problem.

Me, I'd be more than happy if Apple still maintained the old "extended repair program" for failing batteries. Lots of batteries die before they should in Macs, just as they do in other computers, and proper coverage should be provided for such things regardless of the manufacturer (though I'm sure Sony would be especially nervous about the implication of such things given their dominance in the battery-making marketplace).

But lets not waste peoples time hoping for magic OS fixes and the like. A dead or dying battery is a dead or dying battery, no matter what sort of computer or OS you are using.

Cheers

Rod