Q: Mavericks - power use / service battery

What is the best way to file a report with Apple? Not that they're going to react immediately, but the more people file complaints, the faster Apple will realize there are serious issues with this OS.

Since i found out that my battery was dieing bin also holding a record. My battery i dieing fast. Before meverick i had over 90% with only 112 cycles. I really don't want to buy a new battery because of a bug in maverick. Apple better comes with an fix soon but i doubt it :-(.

Cbgny23 wrote:

 

What is the best way to file a report with Apple?

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Pete

I not only filed a report, but I talked to the Genius Bar.  All they could offer is that I got  "bad battery" and that I should have bought Applecare.  They ran a series of test and confirmed they battery is less than 80% with 194 cycles.  I uninstalled Mavericks and went back to Mountain Lion, calibrated again... no change.  I don't know what a Mavericks update can do. 

So has anybody replaced the battery and found that the problem was then fixed for good. I don't want to fork out money for a new battery and have the same thing happen again!

When I spoke with the guys at the genius bar, they assured me that there's no way an OS upgrade could break the battery. I tried to point out the fallacy of that logic: the #1 feature of Mavericks is better power management. If the software can control resource usage to minimize strain on the battery, doing the same thing in reverse would cause a heavier load on the battery. So clearly the software can affect the battery in some manner.

Exactly how, I don't know. And whether it can cause the kind of total battery failure they claimed I (very, very suddenly) had is also unclear. I've tried to imagine what Mavericks would or could actually do that would fry the battery. I've gotten a lot of spinning beach balls under Mavericks, and mysterious pauses that can last 10-30 seconds, during which nothing responds I've wondered if there's some kind of power management equivalent of "thrashing" in paging systems, where perhaps some edge condition is causing Mavericks to eat up power doing something that's actually supposed to be saving power. I have no idea, however.

I'm tracking my new battery life and capacity via screen shot every few days. If Mavericks is the cause, I hope the battery fails within 90 days so I can take it back under warranty and show them the problem.

(Though they told me that even if that happens, they can't refund the $129 for my currently-new battery because their systems can't give refunds on service. Sounds weird to me and definitely *****.)

Yes. I had Apple replace the battery and it is now working. I still believe that it was Mavericks that bricked the battery though. Everything was fine until I upgraded.

I'm gonna wait it out. Cant see paying $129 to have that bricked in a few months. Hope there is an SMC fix coming.

CambridgeBoy, how did you get them to escalate the case, especially after you already shelled out for a battery? I went to the Apple Store and basically got the "it's out of warranty, the battery's bad, you can pay $129 for a new one period" brushoff.

Cant resist. OS X is free but  $129 for new battery every year is just fine.

rickjscott wrote:

 

Cant resist. OS X is free but  $129 for new battery every year is just fine.

I've never needed a new battery. Only seems to be happening on a few Macs. Similar issue happened with some after Lion and Mountain Lion were released and it was addressed. Probably harder for Apple to work out why a few computers are having an issue and most are not. I would think an update will be forthcoming when the issue is diagnosed and addressed properly. No good getting a half baked update.

Cheers

Pete

Did you do the SMC reset already? sometimes you have to do it 2 or 3 times even.

I did. I will try it a few more times once I am home, when I did it the first time it said to service the battery, but the charge went from 17% on full charge to roughyl 2 hours of use time.. The problem for me is that the closest apple is 3 hours away, My MBP is just out of warranty and has roughly 400 charge cycles. It's not about the money, it's the fact that this issue has not been taken care of and we have 4 MBP's in our family and diehard apple consumers. I could understand if I bought a 300 dollar HP, I expected this MBP to last. That is all.

Edit- Also, thank you for the reply Pete. And others..

you are absolutely right!

Do not take anything for granted: we are not there to belong, we want the performance we pay for.

I don't know where you are, but if you are in the warranty period (in europe 2 years, elsewhere 1 year) go for it.

The best company in the world should deliver the best performance in terms of service.

Same here.

13-inch mid 2012 Macbook Air

134 (!!) cycles and Service Battery.

Waiting for apple to respond. Not willing to purchase a new battery before they approach this issue.

Battery Information:

  Model Information:

  Serial Number:          D8623740GC4DKRNAN

  Manufacturer:          SMP

  Device Name:          bq20z451

  Pack Lot Code:          0

  PCB Lot Code:          0

  Firmware Version:          406

  Hardware Revision:          000a

  Cell Revision:          162

  Charge Information:

  Charge Remaining (mAh):          4727

  Fully Charged:          Yes

  Charging:          No

  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          4727

  Health Information:

  Cycle Count:          134

  Condition:          Service Battery

  Battery Installed:          Yes

  Amperage (mA):          0

  Voltage (mV):          8267