I experienced this problem as well. The MacBook works flawlessly. But after a year (and a month) sitting on my wife's desk plugged into the wall, I took the MacBook out for a spin at the local cafe'. The battery allowed me to do 3.5 hours of work (MS Word and Safari surfing mostly). Everything was fine until the battery level reached 12%--at which point the computer cut off without warning. Just my luck to have a major meltdown 3 weeks out of warranty!
Anyway, I went home, read this forum entry and downloaded the battery update, charged the battery all the way
and reset the PRAM, etc. Next day, same problem.
I made an appointment with the local Genius Bar. They gave the MacBook a thorough going-over and determined the problem was in the battery itself. I bit the bullet and bought a new battery for $135. Charged it for several hours at home. Then spent the next 4 hours surfing and sending emails on battery power. Low and behold, when the battery reached 10% or so, I received the familiar battery warning. Ahhhhhh... It's not a logic board problem. I think... I've only run the new battery through one cycle.
I've talked to at least two other friends who own MacBooks. They've experienced the same problem. What's incredibly frustrating is that the Mac Genius made it seem as if this was the problem of it's kind he's seen with MacBook batteries.
MacBook 1.83, 2GB RAM, 120GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.10)
MacBook 1.83, 2GB RAM, 120GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.10)