Mac Shuts Off After Battery Dies

Question

Level 2

485 points

Mac Shuts Off After Battery Dies

I was wondering if anyone else was having the problem where the battery doesn't keep a slight charge to keep the MacBook Pro on after the battery depletes. I plug my Mac in and have to press the power button to boot it up from the beginning.

MacBook Pro 15" 2.0 GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.6), 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, 100GB 5400rpm Serial ATA HD, ATI Radeon X1600 w/ 256MB memory

Posted on May 13, 2006 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tim Lorenzen

Level 4

2,307 points

May 13, 2006 4:37 PM in response to Mikey Rogers

So that means your MBP turns straight off, without even going to sleep? Because otherwise safe sleep (or hibernation) should kick in and recover the contents of your RAM.

Do you have any general problems with the MBP going to sleep, or just in this situation?

Have you tried resetting the PMU? (Power down, disconnect the power supply, remove the battery, press and hold the power button for 10 seconds.)

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Answer 2

May 13, 2006 5:08 PM in response to Mikey Rogers

I have this very same problem. though, it has developed recently. so far, I have reseted everything possible with no change. but still, my mbp is a week 8 - so I may have one of those faulty batteries... time to give apple yet another call.

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Answer 3

steve n.

Level 4

2,620 points

May 13, 2006 5:10 PM in response to Mikey Rogers

My MBP did this also when new. After calibrating the battery the problem went away and it now sleeps correctly and safe sleep kicks in if I remove the battery.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

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Answer 4

Mikey Rogers Author

Level 2

485 points

May 13, 2006 7:45 PM in response to Tim Lorenzen

Yes, it turns off (what seems like) immediately. The last time it "went to sleep" after depleting the battery, I plugged it in only a few minutes later, to find that it was performing a fresh boot. I have no other sleep issues. I went ahead and reset the PMU. I'm letting the battery drain as I type this. I will report back later tonight.

This has only started happening recently to me as well but mine is a week 10. The odd thing is that I only recently also calibrated my battery about 2-3 weeks ago.

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Answer 5

so-

Level 1

8 points

May 13, 2006 8:44 PM in response to Mikey Rogers

this also happens to me lately. in the beginning, it wasn't always. just randomly here and ther. but nowadays, my battery dies and i hv to restart. no other way around it!

how can i fix this?

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Answer 6

Mikey Rogers Author

Level 2

485 points

May 13, 2006 9:53 PM in response to Tim Lorenzen

Performing the PMU did nothing. I can also confirm that my Mac shuts off immediately. Very annoying.

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Answer 7

May 14, 2006 12:13 AM in response to Mikey Rogers

If re-calibrating the battery (be sure to follow the instructions in the manual to the lettert) doesn't fix it, the battery is probably defective and should be replaced.

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Answer 8

MBPdoc

Level 1

10 points

May 14, 2006 8:13 AM in response to so-

Mine started doing the same too! Died initially at 15%. And it seems to be getting worse , now dieing at 30%. I have had this mac for only 2 months and had so much issues!. Called Apple care (Bought the 3 yr package) and they wont replace the battery outright, I need to send it in for testing. But I need my MBP for work!

I should have stayed with Fujitsu.

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Answer 9

Mikey Rogers Author

Level 2

485 points

May 14, 2006 9:33 AM in response to Tim Lorenzen

Believe me. I couldn't have followed them any closer. As I said, I did this no longer than 2 weeks ago. Should I have to do it again? Also, since the battery dies after depleting, is that really following the calibration process?

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Answer 10

Mikey Rogers Author

Level 2

485 points

May 14, 2006 9:34 AM in response to MBPdoc

I think the reason they need you to send it in is because it may be related to something else. I would feel more comfortable sending it in, that way they can take a closer look at the issue.

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Answer 11

MBPdoc

Level 1

10 points

May 14, 2006 10:44 AM in response to Mikey Rogers

Update. Apple acknowledges the problem and will be sending in a replacement battery. I guess the tech support you get each time is variable. They should have a standardized policy on this.

Hopefully, this one will work better than the last.

I am concerned... will this happen again in 2 months? Everyone here seems to have the problem after 2 months of use....

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Answer 12

May 14, 2006 11:41 AM in response to Mikey Rogers

I think it might be something else than your battery. Even if you remove it while sleeping, it should just deep sleep, not shut down. When your battery dies, it should manage to "find" the time to write down evreything and go into deep sleep. But you said resetting PMU didn't work, so it's not the power management. Can it be your RAM's battery causing the problem or something between both batteries? Just a thought...

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Answer 13

Mikey Rogers Author

Level 2

485 points

May 14, 2006 1:52 PM in response to MBPdoc

Well I thought I read something a couple of weeks ago regarding earlier model notebooks. Where did you find this information? Will they replace all batteries that are having this problem?

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Answer 14

Mikey Rogers Author

Level 2

485 points

May 14, 2006 1:53 PM in response to labmouse vs mightytiger

As a test, I went ahead and removed my battery with my Mac on. Placed it back in, and I had to turn it back on.

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Answer 15

May 14, 2006 3:21 PM in response to Mikey Rogers

As a test, I went ahead and removed my battery with
my Mac on. Placed it back in, and I had to turn it
back on.

Try it this way: put the MBP to sleep using power button, after it starts to snore, remove the battery, it should go into deep sleep. And then replace it. Then push the button, it should wake up from deep sleep with the grey screen and everything.

Also, you may want to check the hibernation mode. Open a Terminal shell and type pmset -g live. From the list, check the hibernatemode. 3 means normal sleep, 0 means hibernation is turned off, 3 means deep sleep.

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