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

Dear All

I last posted on the 16 January. Since then, nothing has really changed. Some of the posts have I believe made great sense. In particular I like the one (do excuse me, I'm on a PC and cannot quickly revert to the thread to quote names), which states that we did not particularly monitor our batteries in the past. There again, until we all noticed a problem, why should we?

My battery is now sitting at 9% - less than 600. The MBP still works fine, plugged in, as it normally is, and generally always has been.

As I stated before, the battery appears to have lasted about as long as the first one. The big difference is the fact that it has, for several weeks, caused a "black out", as opposed to a controlled discharge complete with warnings. This, at least, has to reflect on SL.

My daughter has my old iBook 500. It still works fine although the battery long gave up. It has the original in it and for the many years I used it, never gave a problem or "black out".

Mr. Hagen, with all due respect, I presume you are retired or at least have a very easy life. How you can spend so much time typing, "buy a battery", defeats me. You may, or may not be, correct, but you do suffer from tunnel vision.

Can anyone give details of a relatively new battery that has suffered from a rapid drop in performance? There are a couple of mentions without any figures.

As a last rejoiner, it is a great pity our Italian friend did post before I left the UK. A new battery for UK 49.95 is a bargain! I'll probably buy a new one next week in Florida and keep it in it's box until the need is dire.

Sorry, that was not my last. I took the battery out a week or so ago to do that technical thing (pressing the power button for 5 - 50 seconds) and found an indentation on the underside of it. I cannot recall that being there when I put in over a year ago and cannot recall it ever being taken out. It really does look as though it has been dropped and indented but I know that is impossible. Amyone else ever seen this?

Best regards

TY

Hi,

There is a site that offers replacements for the A1175 (and others) battery at £49.00. I have added the link below. I have not purchased from them as I'm waiting to see what happens over the next month or so so I'm afraid I cannot vouch for the supplier.

Good luck.

http://www.battery-laptop.co.uk/toshiba/906.htm

DaveEvans wrote:
Hi,

There is a site that offers replacements for the A1175 (and others) battery at £49.00. I have added the link below. I have not purchased from them as I'm waiting to see what happens over the next month or so so I'm afraid I cannot vouch for the supplier.

Good luck.

http://www.battery-laptop.co.uk/toshiba/906.htm

Have a look at this site as well:

http://www.ultralastgreen.com/battery-match/?page=searchResults&R=&categoryid=9&ULBatterySearch=0&charger=0&subcategory_id=29&manufacturer=Apple&device_mod el=0&device_batterymodel=A1175

We're essentially talking about companies that buy used Apple batteries, and replace the cells with new ones and sell at a fraction of the retail price. I bought a bunch of them for a kiosk deployment. To be safe, at the last minute we decided to re-image all the laptops using Leopard. So far the batteries haven't displayed a hint of any issue, they're aging gracefully. I have no doubt there would be issues had we imaged these laptops with Snow Leopard.

The MacBook Pro laptops are recharged at night and kept unplugged during the day for the wire free appearance. Once the exhibit is over, I may take a couple of them and upgrade them to Snow Leopard to see what happens.

Until then, I'll continue to lurk, and I'll continue to flip past the "Buy a new battery" matra coming from the usual suspects.

Don

Don,

I was hoping you'd post that link, so thank you for that. Now this company just needs an exchange program, where I send them my old battery and they send me a new one at a discounted price. =)

-John

I've had my 17" MBP for 10 months (early 2009 model) and funnily enough after upgrading to Snow Leopard it started showing the "Service battery" warning. It's currently at around 11% health... after 10 months!! After various other issues with this MBP I'm beginning to think owning an Apple Mac is a bit of a mugs game.

Not had chance to take it to the service center yet since I use it for work. I'll be taking it in next week to get multiple problems fixed...

a) battery
b) firewire port continually causing bus resets
c) mini-display port to VGA adaptor not working correctly; no output on external monitor unless I plug it and unplug it several times. Occasionally get distorted display on external monitor also.

I've had less trouble with my 5 year old PC running XP. What a joke!

Problem solved by downgrading away from Snow Leopard.

I have two batteries, both of which ran for nearly two hours under Leopard. As soon as I installed SL, neither ran for more than about 20 minutes before the machine shutdown without warning. Trying the SMC reset and battery calibration suggestions did not help.

I blew away my Boot Camp partition and installed Leopard on it. I took one of the batteries which had been run down and sitting on a shelf for a while and put it into the machine. I let it charge up overnight, then unplugged the computer. It ran for about an hour and a half, gave a warning that I was on reserve and should plug in, and then ran for another 15 minutes or so.

It should be quite clear to anyone that this is a Snow Leopard software bug. I can imagine that there are batteries out there that coincidentally fail around the same time that SL is installed, but that certainly was not my situation, and from reading this discussion, I would guess that it is not the situation for many people.

Message was edited by: sferrari1234

Hear what happened!
Yesterday I sent an email to FastMac 'cause I was interested in buying a new battery for my MBP but I had to be sure that their warranty and assistance works also here in Italy.... well.... read may email and the answer and Rod, please, try to say there's no problem now....

My email:

da "I'm sorry, my personal information"
a sales6@fastmac.com
data 25 gennaio 2010 21.57
oggetto MacBookPro 15" Early 2008
proveniente da vodafone.it
nascondi dettagli 21.57 (14 ore fa)

Dear fastmac,
I'm an italian MacBookPro owner and I'm writing to you 'cause my battery, after upgrading to Snow Leopard, in September '09, became unstable and the system tells I have a "Service battery"!!! After only 29 cycles (now I'm on 37) and doing the battery care Apple suggests....!!!
Apple support told me to change my battery but, at this point, I don't think I would buy one of them...
Some people suggest me your company and I would like to have some more words from you. I would like to know if I can buy a battery from you, I'm in Italy, and benefit all the support and warranty you give. I also want to ask you some stats about your batteries: "Do they last like Apple ones?" "Do they have the little button behind that indicates charge left?" "Do they have problems with Snow Leopard?"

I'm sorry if I disturb you

Their answer:

da FastMac Sales <fastmacsales@gmail.com>
rispondi a Sales6@fastmac.com
a "I'm sorry, my personal information"
data 25 gennaio 2010 22.33
oggetto Re: MacBookPro 15" Early 2008
proveniente da gmail.com
firmato da gmail.com
nascondi dettagli 22.33 (14 ore fa)

Hello "Me",

I'm surprised that Apple did not tell you about a known bug w/ Macbook
Pro batteries and Snow Leopard. Here's the thread in Apple's
Technical Support forum about this at
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2139186&tstart=0.

At this time, there appears to be no official "fix" for this issue.

Snow Leopard would cause the same problems w/ the TruePower battery.

Darlene Conners
FastMac

Saw this on mac rumors this morning, but have yet to try it:

Apple yesterday released Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1 for the 2007 model of its wireless keyboard, addressing both battery life issues when used with the company's new multi-touch Magic Mouse and an issue related to unexpected key repeating.
{quote}

This firmware update improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless
Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices (eg. Magic Mouse, some
bluetooth headsets) and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the
2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing.

The update weighs in at 1.52 MB and requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.6.2. Additional information on the update is available in the associated support document.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL997

I saw it, but I don't think is related to our problem....
I don't want to try DIY solutions, I want Apple to fix this problem and release a FW update for our computers. Here in Italy prices are not like in the States, I pay 2.000 € for my MBP less than 2 years ago and I treat it better than my wife!!!
I'm also a very very good Apple costumer, I own:
- 1 iMac alluminum;
- 1 MBP;
- 4 iPhones (all my family);
- 2 TV;
- 3 Airport Express;
- 1 Airport Extreme;
- 3 iPod nano;
- I don't mention accessories!!!

It's not only a matter of money, though batteries are really expensive (140 €, http://store.apple.com/it/product/MA348G/A?fnode=MTY1NDEwMQ&mco=MTE0MzQxMzY)),
but it's a matter of respect for the customers. When I make mistakes I always fix my faults!

P.S. (Sorry if my english could be wrong sometimes but I come from the ancient Italy.... )

Message was edited by: Fedux

I've just been informed by one of the primary Mac magazines that they're running my letter about this issue referring to the forums. Hopefully we should see some movement from Apple soon as a little publicity always helps a user base. Can I suggest a few more emails to the mags asking for help?

Personally I don't care what the answer is providing its accurate and provides a long-term solution to the issue. If they prove that it's not SL and it is indeed the battery then I'll buy one. I just need an appropriate, scientific answer from Apple as to the root cause of the issue.

I guess that as Apple do not read this forum the answer unfortunately isn't going to come from here.

I have to applaud those who are trying and offering a range of suggestions and keeping an open mind on the issue. The best result I have had is the feeling I am not alone in my concerns and that there are a great number of people willing to assist. Thanks.

Finally, I'm just off to eat the toast I cooked using my overheating Mac. I guess there really is a positive to every negative. I've made a fortune selling my cooker and microwave. Thanks Apple for adding the new functionality.

Dave, you failed to mention that your MBP was also acting like a toaster in your earlier posts.

All of that heat has to come from somewhere. The most probable explanations are either that you are running some very intensive processes, or, more probably, that you have a "rogue" process of some kind generating a lot of CPU heat (and chewing up battery charge life into the bargain). see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473 for the approach to dealing with this.

Rod

Fedux, Given that the only source which your correspondent cites is this very thread, it adds nothing at all to the "evidence" concerning this matter.

Cheers

Rod

Try running some CPU intensive apps on the same batteries under leopard, sferrari.

Rod

Rod,

thanks for that link, that is useful, however, I own stock in targus chill pads because my laptops always run hot. I hear the same complaint from my trends with MBPs as well.

The battery that you link to , don, is just a regular new third party battery for an MBP (with the wrong picture for the model referred to) , rather than a "green" one in which the old cells have been replaced. It is distributed by Ampergen (a company formed from the amalgamation of the old "North American Battery Company" - who used to also trade under the "Ultralast" name, and a couple of others.)

The batteries that they actually label as "Ultralast Green" are simply their rechargeable Ni-Zn AA, C, D cell models, designed to replace 1.5V alkalines etc. From what I can see they are no more and no less "green" than any other consumer rechargeables of this type. There are a range of Ni-Zn batteries from various manufacturers out there these days. They have some advantages over Nicads and NiMH batteries (most noteably increased voltage per cell and less toxic disposal problems) but on the downside they have a lower actual capacity (in mAh) and a shorter battery life in high demand situations. Not relevant to the MBP batteries , of course, but worth knowing about if you have a need for rechargeable "small appliance" batteries that provide a voltage closer to those of a standard alkaline than NiMH and the like

Do you have an actual link for the batteries you mention with replaced cells? I can't find any information on the company's website (or anywhere else for that matter) indicating that they provide such a product. There were some places who undertook cell replacement in early Powerbook Lithium Ion batteries, but I haven't seen mention of them for some years. It was a tempting idea given the price of the "real thing" in the dollars of that period, but the risk of fire etc always put me off a bit.

That battery usage pattern of yours plays havoc with Lithium Polymer batteries. Charging up and running flat like that every day does them no favours at all. I can understand why you wear them out fast.

Rod