Hi, A replacement OEM 13'' MacBook Pro battery sometimes shows 'Replace now', which disappears itself and again shows the status as 'Normal'. It has done about 140 cycles and about a year old. Should I change the battery? Or problem is elsewhere? The battery was claimed to be an OEM one on the seller website and it looked exactly identical to the one it replaced. Thanks.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)
Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Choose the appropriate method.
Thanks 'dominic23' for the advice. But it did not work. For instance, after the SMC reset, the battery status from 'Normal', reverted back to 'Replace now'!!😕
Where did you get the battery?
SOP here would be "replace with known good battery" - problem disappears? Replace battery.
Hi spudnuty!
I purchased it from a leading e-commerce site (A****n). I am from India, where we do not have any Apple stores but some 'authorized resellers'. The MBP is already more than 5 years old and do you suggest to go for replacement battery at the those resellers, but the billing amount is always much higher than what is to be paid at an US Apple store. Most importantly, will that resolve the issue?
Thanks!!
What was the issue with the old battery? It is possible that this battery has failed, but try a "hard SMC reset" first. That would involve disconnecting all power including the battery. Press the power button for 10 seconds. Wait 10 minutes. Press the power button again. Reconnect all power and restart.
You could also download Coconut Battery Monitor:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19085/coconutbattery
and see what that says.
Also go under the Apple - "About this Mac - More Info - System Report - Power" and post back what it says about the battery.
Mine is like this:
Hi again,
Thanks. The issue with the old battery was that it lasted for 4 years and then showed 'service battery' message. Additionally, it bulged out and jammed the trackpad, as reported by several users. So, it needed a replacement. I got this one for about 60 USD, which gave decent backup, until this issue came up.
I paste below two screen shots. One taken after 141 cycles, when this issue first came up. As you can also see that the battery condition in 'System profiler' shows 0 mAh charge remaining!! Interestingly, just now, I took another screen shot (pasted too) after 161 cycles, where you can see the same battery health is perfectly normal!! This is behaving in an erratic way and I never know when the battery health will be reversed by itself!! I have 'coconutBattery' installed in my mac and both it and the 'System profiler' shows the same status at the SAME TIME.
So Coconut battery seems to thin that battery is OK.
I just put the older battery, in mine just for grins.
Here's a screenshot:
So look at my serial numbers.
Now we can't tell anything without knowing the serial number codes but yours seems really old.
So bottom line,
Coconut says it's fine. Since you bought it on that "leading e-commerce site A....n" and I know them to be pretty good see if they'll take it back. If not you might have to live with it or buy a new one.
Hi spudnuty,
So, you want to put it down as a battery failure. I can buy a new battery. However, I have a hunch that the present battery is OK and the problem is in the hardware. My 5 yrs old Mac still runs like a dream and would be sad to part with it. Wish we had an Apple store in India. I am thinking to send my mac to an authorized service centre (not a direct Apple store), where they can make a thorough check.
Thanks for all the advice. Ciao!
"you want to put it down as a battery failure."
So it keeps telling you to replace the battery but does the battery problem affect the performance of the laptopl
"Wish we had an Apple store in India"
Yes, then you could just take it in there and they would put a "known good" battery in there and verify if it's the current battery or other hardware that's the problem.
Thanks for the star.
Issue with replacement battery (A1322) in 13 inch MBP late 2009 model.
