When my MacBook Pro i7 runs out of battery, it powers off.

Have you calibrated the battery?

launch Terminal
enter:
*pmset -g*

what are the results?

The same thing happened to my new MBP 2.66 i7 while I was calibrating the battery. I suspect that it is a hardware designed feature since the contents of my memory was saved to the HD and was subsequently restored after I plugged the MBP and turned it on.

It would, however, make me feel more comfortable if more people can confirm this...

Message was edited by: ube

I have an update regarding this issue. Since receiving my new MacBook Pro, I have calibrated the battery 3 times. Here are my findings of each calibration when the battery reaches 0% charge:

1st calibration: MacBook Pro enters SafeSleep (saving contents of memory to HD) and powers down (no pulsating light indicating memory is still being maintained until plugged-in or battery reserves are depleted). Plugging adapter in and powering up results in memory being restored from HD.

2nd calibration: Same as 1st calibration

3rd calibration: MacBook Pro shuts down without entering SafeSleep. Plugging adapter in and powering up results in normal boot sequence with logs indicating improper shutdown.

SMC and PRAM have been reset prior to these calibrations.

pmset -g returns the following (looks normal to me):
Active Profiles:
Battery Power 1
AC Power -1*
Currently in use:
womp 1
halfdim 1
sms 1
hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
gpuswitch 2
disksleep 10
sleep 0
hibernatemode 3
ttyskeepawake 1
displaysleep 10
acwake 0
lidwake 1



I don't think this is the intended behavior for this MacBook Pro. I've started a case with AppleCare and I hope an engineer will respond to what I'm experiencing as I don't think this is normal. It appears that the MacBook Pro is not accurately determining the bottom threshold of the battery. It thinks there are reserves when there is actually none, causing weird behavior at the end of the battery charge life.

Anybody else experiencing this with their MacBook Pro 15" i7?

Will update as soon as I find out more.

Message was edited by: ube

I have had the same issue on my 15" i7. I would bet that this is tied in some way to the inability of my MacBook Pro to automatically sleep. I have a feeling a firmware update is needed for the new machines.

I'm having the same problem too, the lack of it going to safe sleep is alarming as I have never had a Mac that wouldn't do this unless the battery was already rather knackered like the two year old one I had on my 2003 PowerBook or the two and a half year old battery I had on my 32-bit Core Duo MacBook Pro. The battery life is also not that great either as I am only getting 3-4 hours of battery life and I was getting 2:30-3 on my old MacBook Pro with a 7 month old battery but that's for another topic.

Hi!
I am having the exact same issue on my MBP2010 iCore7.
When the battery gets low, I don't get any warnings. The laptop will shut down and for some reason also the laptops BIOS date is reset to 2001 or so.
b.r.

Hi everyone,
I am having the exact same issue, sometime it goes into safe sleep and sometime it shuts down without saving memory content to disk.

My previous macbook pro (the santa rosa one) went into safe sleep only if I didn't plug it before battery reserves are depleted (typically during battery calibration process); but it never rebooted with a "normal" startup process.

This seems to me not normal.

Some one got news from Apple ?

Usually when my battery gets to about 15min (I set mine so it shows in minutes rather than percentage) I get a warning. And then if I don't plug it in after another 10mins or so it goes into sleep mode.
In the last couple of months however (I had this computer for about a year and a half), if I keep it unplugged for a while it occasionally shuts down without giving me a warning or going into sleep mode.
Anyone know what might be the problem??

Seems like mine is doing the same thing.

This is the info I get when running pmset -g :
Battery Power 1
AC Power -1*
Currently in use:
lidwake 1
halfdim 1
sms 1
hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
gpuswitch 2
disksleep 10
sleep 10
hibernatemode 3
ttyskeepawake 1
displaysleep 10
acwake 0
womp 0

I'm very curious to hear what Apple has to say to anyone else with this same issue as I would like to get it resolved while still under AppleCare.

I still have an open case with a AppleCare Senior advisor. He told me that the Apple engineering response is to have my computer serviced. I am asking them to consider my MacBook Pro DOA since this problem was reported shortly after receiving the machine and to send me a new replacement. I don't think it's fair to buy a new product and have the machine serviced for something that was clearly defective out-of-the-box. Also, from prior experience with having computers serviced through AppleCare, they will make that nice pristine Mac that you bought only weeks ago look like a used product with definitely less resale value.

The advisor was nice to look into it for me and will get back to me.

From the looks of the discussion threads, these seem to be isolated cases affecting perhaps a few new MacBook Pro owners only. Otherwise, we would be looking at multiple page discussion threads concerning this phenomenon.

If you are reading this thread and haven't posted your similar experience, please do! I don't think Apple is considering this a widespread problem unless we speak up.

My June 2009 MacBook Pro went into sleep mode every time I calibrated the battery. Since I replaced it with the 2010 Core i7 model, it completely shuts off. I thought I was the only one. Since I am getting another Core i7 MacBook Pro (because the one I had was a lemon, wouldn't boot to any external devices) I'm hoping it would just go to sleep mode....

The AppleCare Senior advisor placed my MacBook Pro in DOA condition and a replacement one is being sent to me. I think there have been too few incidents reported to make this problem widespread. For those of you who have the same problem as I do, I think perhaps there was a bad batch of MacBook Pro 15" i7s that went out. Otherwise, we'd be seeing a huge thread regarding this problem. The only thing that made it easy for my MBP to be placed in DOA condition was that I reported this problem within the first week of me receiving the machine. For those of you who have not reported it and have had your MBP for sometime now, I think Apple will require you to have your MBP serviced to fix the problem.

I will report on the replacement MBP if indeed it has the same problem.

I just got a replacement, and calibrated the battery and it didn't shut down after the battery went out. Left it off for 5 hours, and when I went to power it on, it left off from where it was before the battery went out. So, I think you're right about the bad batches. It wouldn't even boot to any of my external devices via USB or FireWire. Even the Genius guy was perplexed! That was the main reason for my replacement.

So, new machine works great!

Do you recall if your replacement had a pulsating sleep light when you drained the battery for calibration?

The issue for me was that sometimes it would improperly shutdown and sometimes it would save the contents of the memory to the HD and then shutdown. Either way, there was no battery reserve to maintain the contents of memory in RAM.