my laptop says service battery but im still getting my hours out of the battery like normal but been like service battery for like 5 days straight now so do i need a new battery only had it since december 2010 normally the batteries last 3-5 years

Craig, did it jump from 563 to 565 on charge cycles since this afternoon without being charged? That would definitely indicate you need to do something in the near future rather than wait.

OGELTHORPE wrote:

Take to the Apple store and let the Genius look at it. You have nothing to loose. The warning is not there to be ignored.

Ciao.

la parola si perde, non perdere

And that inidcates 18% charge remaining.

Yes.

The ratio of the Charge remaining to the Capacity is the percentage of charge left in the battery...but keep in mind you cannot fully discharge a Lithium-Ion battery...if it shutsdown and force a restart and continue until it goes to zero you will cause serious damage to the battery.

User have done that and not been able to charge or do anything afterwards.

The full charge capacity you gave is 4564 mAh, and the amount of charge remaining is 815 mAh, so 815 divided by 4564 means you have 18% of the battery's full charge remaining. If you look at in terms of the gas tank on a car, it means you have less than a quarter of a tank left...not a great deal unless you are close to a gas station.

If your goal is to run the battery down to shutdown, you are getting close to that point, just make sure you save your work frequently so when it shutsdown you don't loose much.

Craig, these things are jumping all over the places...the cycle count has gone up and down, charge, condition of the battery.

You really need to have it checked out, systems aren't supposed to behave this way.

Good luck with it and if you get it checked, post back with the results...be interested in the outcome.

Craig, that charge cycle prediction is only a statistical average...lifetimes follow a Gaussian (bell-shaped) curve with the predicted lifetime being at the peak of the curve. There are batteries that will last longer cycles, batteries that will last shorter cycles. The predicted number of cycles is only an estimate, not a guarantee of life expectancy.

There are many factors that can influence the lifetime: temperature exposure both hot and cold, depth of charge/discharge that may have occured even out of your control such as on-th-shelf, manufacturing tolerances and defects, charge circuitry issues. So, don't take any battery life prediction as a guarantee.

I know this is post is old, but how much was the replaceable battery for your Macbook Pro Craigboi2011? I'm having the same issue, I did the "re-Callibration" battery status normal instead of check battery. Even when the "service battery" was on it still lasted me the normal time as if it didn't have the "Service Battery". Today its lasted me all day with it on. and everything is running normally.

Charge Information:

Charge remaining (mAh): 1048

Fully charged: No

Charging: No

Full charge capacity (mAh): 4474

Health Information:

Cycle count: 538

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): -558

Voltage (mV): 11055