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

I'm from Italy, i bought it on ebay, a UK seller, UKNEXTGEN.
i paid it 40€ shipping included, with wifi an bt turned off, monitor brightness around 40% it gives me more than 5 hours of autonomy.
I'm still doing the first calibrations, and compared to yesterday, first load cycle, i got one more hour of autonomy.

So far it works fine..and 40€ was an affordable amount of money to test if this was going to solve the problem. Even if it will last just for one year...or 6 months...it's always better than nothing lol.

I don't like the newer MacBook Pros, so i'm doing just fine with my early 2008 MBP.
( i used to change computers (macs) more often before getting this one, that really suits to my needs).

So . . . Upgraded to Snow Leopard on my 15 inch Macbook Pro (purchased 12/07). Immediately started displaying "Service Battery." Tried all the recalibration/resetting tips in this thread with no luck. Downloaded coconutBattery and discovered 237 cycles/31% original capacity.

Contacted AppleCare and was told for my Macbook Pro model average battery life is 1.5 - 2 years. Was told my battery was probably about to die and should order a new one, which I did with apprehension. Was told battery issue not related to Snow Leopard.

Got my battery in the mail today only to find that my old battery is now only holding 17% charge.

Now . . . how do you guys/girls recommend getting the most life out of this new battery? I've been keeping it plugged in most of the time, once or twice a week allowing battery to drain to about 25% then charging up again. I asked AppleCare their recommendation and dude told me to keep plugged in as much as possible, but I've read opposite instructions online.

Thoughts?

Hi alfrey25,

see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1764220 and http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html for good instructions and advice about maximising battery life.

"Moderation in all things" probably summarises things best. Try to use it on the battery a bit each day, but avoid running it right down to flat too often, too.

Cheers

Rod

afrey25 wrote:
Now . . . how do you guys/girls recommend getting the most life out of this new battery?

Downgrade back to Leopard...

Just came to check if the white cat is still damaging brand new batteries, so "good" to see things are just the same and Apple is not providing a fix. But I think that arguing against "the Apple super-hero" here wont help us that much, we need to take some actions. I am not at web site designer and all that stuff, but if someone wants to start a website to denounce this nightmare we are suffering and how Apple is ignoring this. I think some explanation / proof of the issue along with a link to this thread will be nice. Also we could add some kind of "counter" saying something like. "SL damaged my batteries". Apple doesnt like "public" reactions with bad publicity to their products, so if anyone is up for this, count on me.

Same problem. Battery is less than 6 months old. Tried all the suggestions, but no fix.

Which "same problem" do you have, Altoids. There are quite a variety of different ones mentioned in this thread!

How many cycles, what is its current maximum capacity and what brand is it? If you purchased the battery only six months ago from Apple or an Apple dealer you are probably eligible for a warranty replacement.

Cheers

Rod

Look my battery stats and try to imagine how much angry could I be....
I agree with every action that could bring apple attention to us, let's organize something!
P.S. (everything is in italian but you can see "Conteggio cicli:37" that is "cycles" in english... 37!!!!)

Informazioni batteria:

Informazioni sul modello:
Produttore: Sony
Nome dispositivo: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0001
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Versione firmware: 0110
Revisione hardware: 0500
Revisione cella: 0303
Informazioni sulla carica:
Carica restante (mAh): 1003
Carica completa: Sì
In carica: No
Capacità a carica completa (mAh): 1053
Informazioni sulle condizioni della batteria:
Conteggio cicli: 37
Condizione: Controlla batteria
Batteria installata: Sì
Amperaggio (mA): 0
Voltaggio (mV): 12411

Message was edited by: Fedux

Fedux, what your figures show us is that you have a bad battery (a very, very bad battery, in fact). No point getting angry. What you need to be getting, very clearly, is a new battery.

Cheers

Rod

I thought I'd add myself to the list of people with computers who seem to be negatively affected by updating to Snow Leopard. My Macbook Pro is from April 2008 (no apple care), and is getting the service battery since updating to Snow Leopard about three weeks ago. Battery wears down fairly quickly if not plugged in (perhspa 60-80 minutes of battery use with normal use). It's still functioning, and I don't plan to downgrade, but for a 20-month-old computer (that cost more than $2000), I would have hoped for better performance. I have also posted in apple's macbook pro feedback form.
Here's the battery Information:

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): 2466
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 2466
Health Information:
Cycle count: 91
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 149
Voltage (mV): 12603

Yes, Soul Forest, I would have liked better battery life in my late 2007 MacBook Pro, too. I'm on my second battery on this computer (the first got too unreliable for my needs about three weeks before Snow Leopard was released, when the computer was about the same age as your is now, after about 140 cycles, and I replaced it with a new one, bought at standard Apple price, before updating to Snow Leopard).

I know I'm pretty hard on batteries. Work demands that I use it as a desktop a fair amount of the time, and, when I don't, I tend to be charging it right up and running it right down. Other members of my family always get far more out of their batteries because they quite different usage patterns. They plug in when there is a charger available (there are half a dozen scattered around the house) and but they use their Macs off the charger just about every day, too. They almost never leave it connected for days at a time, and on the other hand they almost never go through a full "charge cycle" in one fell swoop.

But 140 cycles was less than I usually expect, despite this, for a battery that, when replaced, was less than two years old.

The trouble in this thread, though, is that two very different issues have become confused. The simple fact is that Snow Leopard provides a much more honest assessment of battery condition than its predecessor did. It tells you when your battery is "on the way out" with a "Service battery" or "Check Battery" warning. Many people with batteries that are dying before they really should be are getting upset because Snow Leopard simply tells them the truth. Their batteries aren't living as long as they might hope for / reasonably expect them to, etc etc.

Batteries are still one of the weak points in modern computer technology, and usage patterns can have a huge effect on their life, but instead of complaining about poor battery life on these computers here I see person after person "shooting the (more honest) messenger" (Snow Leopard) when it simply "tells it like it is".

Yes, your battery has gone bad fairly early. Yes, its maximum capacity isn't what you would hope for (though, as I have said, usage can have a substantial effect on such things and your own "cycle count" is lower than desirable for a battery of this age).

But isn't it better to know rather than to blame it on the messenger? And wouldn't it be far more sensible for those who are upset because Snow Leopard says their batteries are going bad to focus on the underlying cause (batteries that don't live as long as they should), rather than an OS upgrade that in reality them more of the truth than its predecessor about such things?

Cheers

Rod

(follow on)

In many cases, of course, these batteries are failing simply because they have got too old and Snow Leopard's warnings have simply made them aware of this. There are a lot of people with early MBP models represented in this thread. Lithium batteries usually last two to three years. Many mentioned here have batteries in this age group or beyond.

In some cases (like yours, and, to a lesser extent, mine) it is obvious that batteries are dying before you would expect them to, perhaps because of usage patterns and perhaps because of the use of "conservative" formulas after the early fire scares with Lithium Polymers Batteries in MBPs, Dells, Thinkpads, Vaiaos, etc etc.

I have no doubt, too, that using Snow Leopard may result in increased power usage in some situations. The heavy CPU usage of the Adobe "Flash" plug in when run under Safari in 64 bit mode, for example, is pretty well documented, and this probably accounts for some of the reports of "unexpected shutdowns" and the like, when demand can't be met by an ageing battery. At the same time, however, the same sorts of shutdowns occurred all too often when batteries were dying under earlier OS versions, when other CPU intensive programs were being run. The trouble is the "messenger" didn't provide such honest warnings about the cause at that time. People blamed everything from flaky RAM to corrupted directories instead.

Yep, Snow Leopard might tell you that your battery is on the way out when you don't want to hear it. Those who experience such warnings might want to question the quality of batteries in their computers , too. But that is a very different thing from suggesting that Snow Leopard itself is actually responsible for such problems. Me, I much prefer SL's more honest appraisal of battery condition than living in a state of false security based on less comprehensive reporting. The "Ostrich head in the sand" approach undoubtedly has appeal to some, but I'm sure many users want the real facts, rather than false security.


Cheers

Rod

Hi, just purchased a second hand macbook pro 15" experiencing problems with the battery, when first turned on the battery displayed 0% and was not charging, I reset the SMC and the battery then showed 65% and charging, now fully charged unplugged, the laptop turns off without warning around 60-70%. Service battery warning is shown. Taking the battery out after power failure, the green led's on the battery itself still show 3-4 bars. I am running mac os x 10.6.2.
My battery information as it stands is:

Battery Information:

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): 2631
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3769
Health Information:
Cycle count: 114
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 636
Voltage (mV): 12351

Is this an old battery that needs replacing?
Unfortunately I didnt own the laptop before running 10.6.2 so I cant tell whether its software related.
Any help is greatly appreciated

Luke, I'm afraid that a battery which is down to 3769mAh capacity is way past its prime. It will inevitably be unpredictable. The "Service Warning" says it all in your case. You clearly need a new battery.

Rod

For worth it's worth, I thought I'd add the details of my conversation with Apple on this subject 5 minutes ago.

I called with an issue over the 'Service Battery' message I now get on my Macbook pro since I installed Snow Leopard. Despite my battery life being amazing under Leopard its now worse than a PC laptop since I upgraded to SL.

I phoned Apple UK support and after getting through to somebody they said that it appeared to be a software issue so they then checked how long I had been running SL. As soon as they realized that it had been more than 3 months he insisted that he would not continue unless I paid £35 per hour for software support as I was now out of warranty as I had to software for more than 3 months. Now I don't expect free support but I do expect customer service. Apple?

I asked what Apple's response to the issue was given that its was very public and widely known that there may be an issue with SL and Macbook Pro batteries. His response was that Apple were not aware of any issues at all and this was a new issue. So, either Apple are lying or or they are genuinely not aware of this thread and others of the same theme as they are not monitoring consumer confidence.

Personally this feels like, and I'm aware that I sound a little paranoid on this, a feeble approach to get us to buy replacement hardware (£100 ish) because we have owned our equipment and its about time we fed the Apple money machine again. I have used Apple's for over 20 years and I always thought that they were beyond this poor level of support. I used to work for Microsoft and despite frowns and poor comments I continued to use my Apple laptops because of their support and reliability which I now feel a little embarrassed about.

Also, Apple commented that they don't participate in forums! Well, this forum is actually hosted by Apple and proves that they are aware of the issues despite their comments on their telephone support lines. Check out MacRumors for more threads on this topic. If this was a Microsoft issue we'd all be up in arms over this and shouting from the rooftops.

My suggestion therefore is that we all make formal complaints to the local trading standards authorities (not sure what the US equivalent is) and make a little more noise over this subject so that they are able to hear what is typically a very enthusiastic user base who seem to have lost their voice (or is it that Apple have lost their ability to hear?).

Remember their brilliant 1984 advert? Well Apple, the worm is turning, Big Brother is now watching you!