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Rare battery issue that "MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7" was supposed to address.

I recently downloaded this update that is supposed to "address a rare issue on some Apple notebooks where a battery that has accumulated more than 1000 charge cycles may unexpectedly shut down or stop functioning." This did nothing for my battery, which has been completely shot for the past six months. My MacBook Pro is essentially a desktop now because it constantly has to be plugged in. My battery only had between 200-300 cycles when it shutdown. Apple service would not replace the battery free of charge because I was off my warranty, even though I knew this was a factory defect. My question is now that Apple has acknowledged that some of the MacBook Pros had faulty batteries, will they replace them free of charge even if i'm off warranty? It seems ridiculous that I have to pay $200 plus to fix a problem that was their fault in the beginning by supplying faulty batteries.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 13, 2013 1:59 PM

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8 replies

Feb 13, 2013 2:02 PM in response to aaronwlt

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities


Apple has fixed the battery problem by a SMC update, so the 1000 cycles problem is now fixed, and your problem is different.


During the first year of warranty, if your battery fails, you will get it repaired for free. However, if it fails when the warranty has expired, you will have to pay unless you have purchased AppleCare.


If it's a common problem with a lot of MacBooks Pro, Apple will start a replacement program, where they will repair all batteries affected for free. This is the only exception, so you will have to pay because your warranty expired

Feb 13, 2013 2:10 PM in response to mende1

But this isn't a different problem what it describes is what has happened to my computer. It shouldn't matter if I have warranty or not when this is a factory defect and the update solved nothing. What I am saying is that now that they have acknowledged that they were putting faulty batteries into these macbooks, they should offer a replacement program for the ones that are already completely shot.

Feb 13, 2013 2:12 PM in response to aaronwlt

It's different: your battery has got 200 cycles, not 1000, so it's not the same problem, and the firmware update wasn't designed to solve your problem, but a different one.


You have a defective battery, and the update solves a problem with defective firmware. You can complain about warranty, but that's all you can do and that's all we can say, because there isn't a different answer

Feb 13, 2013 2:21 PM in response to mende1

The 1000 cycles is irrelevant because it is just an inflated number to make them not look bad for having batteries shut down so early. There have been many other people with the same problem of batteries shutting down that were still new and that is what this update was supposed to address but in my case it was too late because my battery is already completely shut down.

Feb 15, 2013 3:00 AM in response to mende1

Just updated mine with this SMC firmware update. My MBP 15" 2010 is working fine until this update. Now my battery (when clicked once to pull down its options list) shows '! Service Battery' after this update. It also shows 'Check Battery' now on battery status while it doesn't have it before the patch.


So is this a glitch? Anybody else experiencing the same? I hope this update didn't just cost me problems instead... Mine was fine without this.

Feb 15, 2013 11:12 AM in response to d_main_man

I updated my MBP 15'' 2010 too and right after that it started to go into sleep mode sporadically?!!

I reset the SMC and the PRAM many times and now I don't have this sleeping pb anymore but an other one: it refuses to go into sleep mode when I close the lid!!!! Plus the battery light indicators don't work anymore???

I tried EVERYTHING to solve that.

Nothing worked.

Looks like the 1.7 SMC update wasn't a good idea for me either...

Feb 20, 2013 10:49 PM in response to aaronwlt

I have a Macbook Pro early 2011 with a SSD. After installing Firmware 1.7 I saw the beach ball over and over even after rebooting... this problem got resolved after I plugged in power cable and is now gone even when it is running on battery. But the sound of my MBP goes randomly on/off when I plug in/out my headphones and the worst problem is that prior to the 1.7 I got up to 5 hours of battery but now only 2:30 hours. I've only 470 cycles of my battery. Resseting the SMC didn't help and unfortuaneltly there is no way of downgrading the firmware. What should I do??

Rare battery issue that "MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7" was supposed to address.

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