My MacBook Pro battery has given up. It has been working well until 
last week, but now the machine cuts out completely if it is not on 
charge after about 20 mins. The mac is about 18 months old and has done 
about 160 full cycles and was charging to about 92% or so. Is this 
normal? Just get a new battery? Or could there be some other issue?

Any ideas would be great.

Adie wrote:
> My MacBook Pro battery has given up. It has been working well until last 
> week, but now the machine cuts out completely if it is not on charge 
> after about 20 mins. The mac is about 18 months old and has done about 
> 160 full cycles and was charging to about 92% or so. Is this normal? 
> Just get a new battery? Or could there be some other issue?
> 
> Any ideas would be great.
> 

In my experience it is normal. If you have an AppleCare agreement, they 
will probably replace the battery free of charge.

Graeme Wood <Graeme.Wood@ed.ac.uk.nospam> wrote:

> Adie wrote:
> > My MacBook Pro battery has given up. It has been working well until last
> > week, but now the machine cuts out completely if it is not on charge
> > after about 20 mins. The mac is about 18 months old and has done about
> > 160 full cycles and was charging to about 92% or so. Is this normal?
> > Just get a new battery? Or could there be some other issue?
> > 
> > Any ideas would be great.
> > 
> 
> In my experience it is normal. If you have an AppleCare agreement, they
> will probably replace the battery free of charge.

I got a replacement on AppleCare after the battery when bad after 18
months.

Stuart
-- 
cut that out to reply

Adie  wrote:

> My MacBook Pro battery has given up. It has been working well until 
> last week, but now the machine cuts out completely if it is not on 
> charge after about 20 mins. The mac is about 18 months old and has done
> about 160 full cycles and was charging to about 92% or so. Is this 
> normal? Just get a new battery? Or could there be some other issue?
> 
> Any ideas would be great.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

As per that page, Apple's removable notebook batteries are designed to
retain 80% of their original capacity after 300 full charge and
discharge cycles. If your battery is failing after 160 cycles and is
only 18 months old, you will almost certainly be able to get a free
replacement battery from Apple. If necessary, point the dealer at that
page.

Given the sudden change in behaviour, it sounds like the battery has
developed a fault, such as a failed cell.

To be on the safe side, you should do the proper recalibration procedure
first, as it might just be that the calibration has drifted and it isn't
being charged fully.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

Adie wrote:
> My MacBook Pro battery has given up. It has been working well until last 
> week, but now the machine cuts out completely if it is not on charge 
> after about 20 mins. The mac is about 18 months old and has done about 
> 160 full cycles and was charging to about 92% or so. Is this normal? 
> Just get a new battery? Or could there be some other issue?
> 
> Any ideas would be great.
> 

It happened to me. Took my MBP into the Apple store - guy checked the 
charge cycles, etc and swapped it straight away (only 105 cycles).

However, the battery I got was just as bad and failed after 135 cycles. 
Got that swapped too.

I have since bought a 3rd party battery as a spare and this is at 200 
cycles an still showing 92% - well impressed.

Be interesting when the 3rd party one fails to open it up and see the 
battery brand (if it's marked). It only cost half the price of a genuine 
apple one too!

-- 
Clive

We don't die, we just stop paying taxes.

On 04/11/2009 23:19, in article
1j8pjag.1tjm832jkauvsN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz, "David Empson"
 wrote:

> Adie  wrote:
> 
>> My MacBook Pro battery has given up. It has been working well until
>> last week, but now the machine cuts out completely if it is not on
>> charge after about 20 mins. The mac is about 18 months old and has done
>> about 160 full cycles and was charging to about 92% or so. Is this
>> normal? Just get a new battery? Or could there be some other issue?
>> 
>> Any ideas would be great.
> 
> http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
> 
> As per that page, Apple's removable notebook batteries are designed to
> retain 80% of their original capacity after 300 full charge and
> discharge cycles. If your battery is failing after 160 cycles and is
> only 18 months old, you will almost certainly be able to get a free
> replacement battery from Apple. If necessary, point the dealer at that
> page.
> 
> Given the sudden change in behaviour, it sounds like the battery has
> developed a fault, such as a failed cell.
> 
> To be on the safe side, you should do the proper recalibration procedure
> first, as it might just be that the calibration has drifted and it isn't
> being charged fully.
> 
> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

Also I would like to point out that you could try doing a pmu reset and smc
reset take battery and power cable out hold down the power on button for 10
secs and then let go then replace battery
Try this its saved me a few times

Clive Sinclair  wrote:

> Adie wrote:
> > My MacBook Pro battery has given up. It has been working well until last
> > week, but now the machine cuts out completely if it is not on charge
> > after about 20 mins. The mac is about 18 months old and has done about
> > 160 full cycles and was charging to about 92% or so. Is this normal?
> > Just get a new battery? Or could there be some other issue?
> > 
> > Any ideas would be great.
> 
> It happened to me. Took my MBP into the Apple store - guy checked the
> charge cycles, etc and swapped it straight away (only 105 cycles).
> 
> However, the battery I got was just as bad and failed after 135 cycles.
> Got that swapped too.

My original MacBook Pro battery (almost 2.5 years old) is up to 395
cycles and still getting a fair amount of useful life (in the order of
two hours as long as I don't have any web browser windows with Flash
open). It has served me very well.

iStat Pro says its "health" is 59%, which is about right judging by the
useful run time I get out of it compared to when it was new.

Snow Leopard is telling me the battery condition is "Replace Soon",
which I'll do when I can justify the expense or if its usable time
starts to plummet. Might make it to three years old before that point.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz