Battery difficulties.

Sajan

Hey everyone.

Just recently I have noticed that my battery has been temperamental. For example. I had the macbook charging this evening and it got to about 67 percent. I needed the plug for something else so unplugged the charger. The battery got down to about 35 percent. I **** the computer down and started it up just 10 minutes ago. It says the battery is 0% and is calculating the remaining power. I have noticed that it hasn't been great lately and I was thinking it might be a result of moving house. In that respects I mean weird charging habits. When I was in my old place I rarely had m macbook off charge and it was more consistent. Any ideas on what the problem may be and more importantly how to fix this.

Thanks in advance.

jtsuited

thanks for that link bedlam. A right useful little gizmo that Coconut Battery is.

babypink

have you calibrated the battery recently??

Sajan

BabyPink I haven't calibrated the battery since I got the Macbook. Hard process?

Sajan

Bedlam.. I just downloaded Coconut battery. It says that my current battery capacity is 46% of original capacity. Macbook is 14 months old. Is that a battery problem?

Sorry for the number of posts.. All of a sudden my battery life has jumped from 54 to 73 % on the icon.. So I ran coconut battery again and now the overall capacity is at 85%. It's really all over the kip and it's getting me worried. New battery needed?

babypink

Calibrating the battery will, at least, give you accurate readings to capacity etc...

- Run the machine on the battery and drain it completely, until the machine automatically goes into sleep to preserve working data.

- Charge it completely (overnight)

Sajan

It's still quite tempramental. It says now it is at 83% capacity but this morning it said 38%. It is also working at below the 300 cycles which apple identifies as a problem. Bringing it in tomorrow to the guys at activate. Hopefully they can fix it as they are really helpful and sound lads out there.

Sajan

Just a quick update.. Did the calibration yesterday/last night and when using coconut it gave different readings. I used the laptop for maybe an hour and a half today with no charger plugged in. Was going fine until the battery got to 31 percent charged and then just went into sleep. Unable to be woken until I plugged the charger in again. Over the last 24 hours I have used coconut to monitor battery life and these have been the results. 85%, 38%, 46%, 85%, 49%, 73%, 85% and now at the moment it is 43%.

Sorry for bothering everyone but it's a little frustrating not being able to put my finger on the problem. Hopefully it is just a battery issue and will be fixed with a replacement.

Iomega Man

Sajan,

Had exactly the same problem myself.
Tried EVERYTHING,calibration,updates etc....
It got to the stage that the battery wasn't even being recognised(X through the battery icon).
Then after a few days it went back up to 100% in the icon but with only about half an hour actual battery life before it would,without notice go to sleep.
MBP was still under warranty so Apple just replaced it a few weeks ago.
Happy camper now,not a problem since.....:)

Sajan

Iomega man did they replace the battery or the whole laptop?

Iomega Man

They just replaced the battery.
Not a problem since.
One thing I did notice is that the replacement battery was looser fitting than the old one.rattles around a little bit,but I can put up with it.
Heard about this problem before but can't remember where.

MACHEAD

Man wrote: »

They just replaced the battery.
Not a problem since.
One thing I did notice is that the replacement battery was looser fitting than the old one.rattles around a little bit,but I can put up with it.
Heard about this problem before but can't remember where.

Now that you've got a new battery (or brent new as they call it up here)!
Make sure you drain it completely and charge it up fully for aprox 4 or 5 times, before you return to the regular use/charge practice. This gets the battery used to maintaining full operating current/voltage until it goes into the red. Even though they are lithium ion and shouldn't develop a 'memory' like the old Ni-Cad's, Apple batteries seem to be quite temperamental and require lots of TLC!

decob

I had a similar problem recently, battery wasn't holding a charge, capacity was dropping on a daily basis. In the end i found this http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/ (point 3 in identifying an affected battery) and got a replacement. Got a new battery within a few days free.

Sajan

Hye guys.. Got a new battery. No questios asked and certainly no hassle.