Q: Mavericks - power use / service battery

Hi,

Just called Apple service centre. Anything that is connected to your computer (SD Card or other) and that is NOT on your spotlight exclusion list will generate spotlight to re-index constantly and cause power usage to be very high most of the times. Just my advice to ensure all external cards, drives, etc... that are attached to your computer must be put on your spotlight confidentiality exclusion list. Maybe you knew that, but I didn't. My indexing problem is solved.

And I have reformatted my SDXC card to apple's Mac OS extended journalised. I've removed the card from the exclusion list and I now have zero problems. All problems have vanished. Avoid exFat at all costs.

I have a late 2008 MacBook with a relativly new battery, it only has 44 cycles. Health was at 96% in Mountain Lion, right after installing Mavericks it dropped to 76% (now at 72%) and showed the Service Battery condition.

I have reset SMC and PRAM 4 or 5 times and re calibrated the battery 4 times, the Service Battery goes to Normal for a charge or so but then returns and the % seems to be slowly dropping further.

Has anyone found any other fixes and does anyone have any idea if a software update is on the way, I would hate to buy a new battery as I suspect there is nothing wrong with it, its a Mavericks issue?

At least after reading all this I'm not alone and it does appear to be a known issue.

Regards

Phil

I am using mac air 13" mid 2012, since the upgrade I got the "service battery",

after some time I have reset PRAM and SMC it helped a while and then re-appeared.

I've created another partion and installed Mountain lion there and then the "service battery" was shown as well.

I don't know what Mavericks did and why there is no fix till now if there are so manny posts in Apple community regards this issue.

mid 2012 Mac air - first the hard drive, now the service battery message... Come on Apple

Early 2011 13" MBP here. Same issue. 280 cycles and battery health dropped from 92% in Mountain Lion to 63% after Mavericks download. Tried resetting PRAM and SMC with no change. Also recalibrated the battery last night and still seeing 'service battery' notification. I'd rather not pay for another battery if this is a software issue. I also have the root kernel_task taking up 86 threads with 203 idle wakeups. Not sure what is going on.

Hey there!!

I`m new here...

For at least 1,5 or 2 year i have this "service battery alert", and it starts with Mountain Lion, but after reading a lot of contents about this, it seems to be 2 different problems:

1 - After updating the system, wich means a bug, that users with new MPB (about 2 or 3 years) have experienced, that just can return to original battery capacities and needs a software or firmware or whatever to upgrade and normalize from apple and;

2 - Users with old (OR  NOT) MPB, with long time use, in my case, MPB Mid 2009, that recalibrating, static drain and other things can help. After take off the battery, reset SMC and PRAM, for me, nothing seems to happen, but something happened. And now i'm draining to 0% and starts to recharge without let the MBP sleep/off, but using it, and the capacity starts to grow. After 68% (less than 4000mAh) and now i'm already get 73% (4724mAh), and i will save all the progress with Coconut and post here later...

So i suggest to remove the battery for release static energy, and try recalibrate...but there are too many different cases, something could work for ones and not for otherones...it doesn't hurt to try...

My battery went completely to 0% and the message "Replace Now" appeared with no warning. I called tech support last night after unplugging the MacBook Pro and battery cycles are only 49 - yes that is correct 49 - and it doing a complete power failure if not connected to the charger.

We tried resetting the SMC (I had done that previously to the call), checking battery cycles (did that prior to the call as well) and I told him I had had no issues with the battery prior to the installation of Mavericks - he immediately referred me to a local Apple Certified Repair Shop.

Prior to this event did you regularly discharge your battery to 5 percent or less?

At least once a week, yes.

It's very odd.

No, not odd at all,

That is extremely bad for your battery, you may have killed it, take it to Apple.

teejaystudio wrote:

 

he immediately referred me to a local Apple Certified Repair Shop.

What did the Apple Certified Repairer say about it?

Pete

Headed to the shop now.

Csound1 - how did I kill it?

By draining it repeatedly, that was correct procedure 15 years ago (for NiCad batteries), LiOn and LiPoly (Mac) batteries should not be drained to those levels repeatedly, it is very bad for their chemistry.

You might be able to persuade Apple to replace it, give it a try, otherwise buy a new one and dont let it go below 40% often, if you can plug it into the charger, do so as often as possible.

teejaystudio wrote:

 

Headed to the shop now.

 

 

Well may pay to wait and repost after you get advice on the battery's actual condition.

Good Luck

Pete