Is my mac battery failing?

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Level 1

9 points

Is my mac battery failing?

I'm wondering if there's a good way to check the health of my battery. Recently my computer has been shutting down spontaneously when on battery power. It used to happen just when I unplugged it from power and started to use it. Now it's happening if I leave it unplugged and asleep (when I try to wake it up it's shut down and I have to reboot it). Sometimes it'll just crash when I'm using it.

The computer is old, it's a Mid-2012 MacBook Pro 15". I've used the system report to check the health of the battery, and while it has a lot of charge cycles, it looks healthy. Here's what it says:

Battery Information:

Model Information:

Manufacturer: SMP

Device Name: bq20z451

Pack Lot Code: 0

PCB Lot Code: 0

Firmware Version: 406

Hardware Revision: 2

Cell Revision: 158

Charge Information:

Charge Remaining (mAh): 5701

Fully Charged: No

Charging: Yes

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 6201

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 740

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 685

Voltage (mV): 12383

System Power Settings:

AC Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Wake on AC Change: No

Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes

Wake on LAN: Yes

AutoPowerOff Delay: 14400

AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1

Current Power Source: Yes

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

GPUSwitch: 2

Hibernate Mode: 3

High Standby Delay: 4200

PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep: 0

Standby Battery Threshold: 50

Standby Delay: 4200

Standby Enabled: 0

Battery Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 2

Wake on AC Change: No

Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes

AutoPowerOff Delay: 14400

AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

GPUSwitch: 2

Hibernate Mode: 3

High Standby Delay: 4200

Reduce Brightness: Yes

Standby Battery Threshold: 50

Standby Delay: 4200

Standby Enabled: 0

Hardware Configuration:

UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

Connected: Yes

ID: 0x0100

Wattage (W): 85

Revision: 0x0000

Family: 0x0085

Charging: Yes

I wouldn't question that the issue is battery related except I recently was messing around with EtreCheck to remove lots of old files the I didn't need anymore and in the process screwed up a bunch of stuff. This was also when the crashing started. However, since then I did a complete reinstall of my OS and while I used time machine to migrate over music, photos and some documents I did fresh installs of everything else, so I don't think anything that I screwed up would have carried over. And the problem has gotten worse with time, which suggests to me that the battery might be failing. I'd just hate to spend the money on a new battery only to find that it wasn't actually the problem. Thanks for your help.

[Personal Information Edited by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on May 24, 2019 7:52 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

HWTech

Level 9

56,048 points

May 25, 2019 7:13 PM in response to S_Snyder

It sounds like a failing battery if the issue only occurs while on battery power and never when plugged in with a charger. If the issue only happens as you are disconnecting the charger, then you may have other issues.

If you have not done so yet, perform an SMC reset and a PRAM reset (hold the PRAM reset for at least three chimes).

While this laptop is considered Vintage, you may still be able to have Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider replace the battery if the Apple warehouse still has it in stock (may vary by region and this is a relatively new ability). The Apple battery is best since the quality of third party batteries is usually very poor even OWC's seem to have issues.

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Answer 2

May 25, 2019 12:28 PM in response to S_Snyder

Hi S_Snyder,

Thanks for coming to Apple Support Communities for help today. It sounds like you are concerned that you're having battery issues since the computer will shut down on you when on battery power.

The max cycle count for your 2012 MacBook Pro is 1000: Determine battery cycle count for Mac notebooks. It is of course likely that it is not holding the charge it once was.

Have you checked with Apple Hardware Test? How to use Apple Hardware Test on your Mac.

Review this article for additional steps that might help in this situation: If your Mac spontaneously restarts or displays a message that it restarted or shut down because of a problem

You might also want to isolate the issue and see if it only happens in your user account or is system-wide. You can do this in a new test user account: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac.

Have a great weekend!

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Answer 3

S_Snyder Author

Level 1

9 points

May 25, 2019 1:07 PM in response to MichaelB2019

Thank you for your reply. So I'm at 740 charge cycles. It's pretty far up there, not at 1000 yet, but something that might make me suspect it could be a battery issue. That said (when it's not crashing), I can get a couple hours of good use out of it before needing to charge it. It could be better, but it's not at the point where I would worry about replacing it based on how long it holds a charge.

As far as the apple hardware test, this isn't an option. I'm using a non-original HD and I did not install the OS starting with the original system disks. This means that the hardware test is not installed on a partition on the hard drive, etc.

You link to an article on spontaneous restarts with a display message. I'm familiar with this type of message, the entire screen goes gray, the error message comes up and you have to restart it. That's not what happens here. In my case, the screen just goes black and you have to hit the power button to start it up again. There isn't any sort of error message (other than app specific error messages that the application had previously quit unexpectedly and do you want to open up an unsaved file).

As far as your last question about different user accounts, I don't think this would be the case as it was having the same problem both before and after a complete reinstall of the OS. The new user has the same user name to help facilitate the moving over of some files manually, but it is a new user.

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Answer 4

S_Snyder Author

Level 1

9 points

May 26, 2019 1:56 PM in response to HWTech

Hi, thanks for your suggestions. I just tried doing the SMC reset and the PRAM reset. Since doing these things the computer seems to be more stable. I used the computer for several hours (on battery) without any shutdowns. However I recently tried one of the things that would often trigger a shutdown. I closed the computer to put it to sleep, then plugged the charger in. I then came back a few minutes later, unplugged it and opened it up to wake it up. This time it didn't do a full shutdown, but it displayed the gray screen, like it would if it were recovering from a drained battery. It took a short while to wake itself back up again and everything seems to be fine afterwards. I just don't know why it went into that grayed screen mode (battery was about 30%).

Incidentally, I assume this is not related to any of my problems, but when I went to pull the battery for the SMC reset the plastic pieces on the battery housing that you screw the battery to the computer were all broken. Basically the plastic must have gotten brittle over time and had all fallen apart. Just struck me as odd.

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Answer 5

babowa

Level 9

78,115 points

May 26, 2019 3:07 PM in response to leroydouglas

I have a mid 2012 MBP non retina and it not only has a removable battery accessible with the back cover removed, but also an easily accessible hard drive and RAM as well - it is the last model with those feature. Model ID is 9,2.

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Answer 6

S_Snyder Author

Level 1

9 points

May 26, 2019 3:14 PM in response to babowa

Yeah, that's why I specifically got this model refurbished in 2013. I wanted the big screen and the ability to upgrade it. It currently has a 2TB HD and 16GB of RAM.

A side note, I don't think Apple would consider the battery to be user serviceable as you have to remove a few screws to detach it and use a spludger tool to detach the connector. I imagine if I can get a replacement directly from Apple they'll make me pay to have them install it.

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Answer 7

HWTech

Level 9

56,048 points

May 26, 2019 3:58 PM in response to S_Snyder

the plastic pieces on the battery housing that you screw the battery to the computer were all broken.  Basically the plastic must have gotten brittle over time and had all fallen apart.  Just struck me as odd.

This is very common and might be due to the plastic being too stiff. Every bump or twist of the laptop will put stress on these plastic screw mounts. Just make sure to get all the pieces so they don't make their way to the fan and jam it.

A side note, I don't think Apple would consider the battery to be user serviceable as you have to remove a few screws to detach it and use a spludger tool to detach the connector.  I imagine if I can get a replacement directly from Apple they'll make me pay to have them install it.

Yes, that is Apple's distinction between user removable. And yes Apple will charge a labor fee for the battery installation, but considering the poor quality of many third party batteries it is worth it if you plan to keep the laptop for several more years. Perhaps an independent service provider will have lower labor rates for a battery replacement.

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Answer 8

babowa

Level 9

78,115 points

May 26, 2019 4:01 PM in response to S_Snyder

That is why I go it as well - refurb from Apple in 2017 with Applecare to 2020. I upgraded to an SSD and more RAM, both from macsales.com. They also have a replacement battery and install videos. If I need a battery, hopefully it will be while on Applecare.....

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Answer 9

S_Snyder Author

Level 1

9 points

May 29, 2019 7:22 PM in response to HWTech

I wanted to follow up, it looks like the SMC reset (or that in combination with the PRAM rest) solved my problem. Since doing that my computer has been far more stable. I did have that one occurrence of it going into a deep sleep unexpectedly, but that seems to have been an anomaly. I've done the things that used to generate a shutdown several times and the problem doesn't seem to have reoccurred. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help with this.

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Answer 10

Jun 4, 2019 8:19 AM in response to babowa

babowa wrote:

I have a mid 2012 MBP non retina and it not only has a removable battery accessible with the back cover removed, but also an easily accessible hard drive and RAM as well - it is the last model with those feature. Model ID is 9,2.

The "Late 2011" and "Mid-2012" MacBook Pro models both have a built-in non-swappable battery design, and this battery is not designed to be removed or serviced by end users although it can be replaced with a bit of effort.

A SMC reset does not include removing this battery.

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Answer 11

May 26, 2019 2:05 PM in response to S_Snyder

A removable battery is one that has an outside access door where the battery drop out—this goes way back to the white/Black plastic MacBooks and iBook G4.

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Is my mac battery failing?

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