Losing Faith

stooge

Came back after xmas and turned on my macbook, noticed there was an 'x' where the battery charge should be. Further investigation showed that the battery wasn't being recognised and a reset of the SMC and PRAM did not pick it up.

Was well under the 300 cycles limit before I left for xmas so it shouldnt have been a problem. Phoned up support and as I was 10months over warranty they said they wouldnt replace it :mad:

I'm not a happy bunny, paid quite a bit for the laptop and was expecting better from a battery that isn't even 2 years old and has had medium usage. Have an iphone/ipod video/shuffle and a good few other accessories from apple but I'm really thinking about going back to Dell for a laptop (had a battery replaced 2 years after my warranty ran out).

Suppose I'm ranting but my normally unwavering support for apple has taken a huge hit.

big_moe

happened me as well. i had to buy a new one for 129 quid i think they are

Thomas_S_Hunterson

You may well be covered under consumer legislation. A battery which fails before it should could be deemed to be not of merchantable quality.

johnk123

You can't lose faith over one bad experience that you have had with a laptop battery. With every products there is going to be some bad ones that come from the batch and your battery was unfortunately faulty and unluckily you were out of warranty. If it had happened in warranty, apple would have sent you a new battery and nothing would have been said.

I wonder how many times has something like this happened to a DELL customer?

Don't Leave!! :pac:

Ham'nd'egger

stooge wrote: »

Came back after xmas and turned on my macbook, noticed there was an 'x' where the battery charge should be. Further investigation showed that the battery wasn't being recognised and a reset of the SMC and PRAM did not pick it up.

Was well under the 300 cycles limit before I left for xmas so it shouldnt have been a problem. Phoned up support and as I was 10months over warranty they said they wouldnt replace it :mad:

I'm not a happy bunny, paid quite a bit for the laptop and was expecting better from a battery that isn't even 2 years old and has had medium usage. Have an iphone/ipod video/shuffle and a good few other accessories from apple but I'm really thinking about going back to Dell for a laptop (had a battery replaced 2 years after my warranty ran out).

Suppose I'm ranting but my normally unwavering support for apple has taken a huge hit.

Just because you consider the macbook to have "medium usage" doesn't essentially mean that the battery has underwent "medium usage"; that depends on how hard the processor and systems have to work.

My Macbook is 17 months old and for 177 charge cycles, it has 99% life remaining. I use mine every day for several hours and as far as possible I will leave it on the charger, taking it off about every week or so to help calibrate it. If you are coming anyway close to 300 charge cycles I can only assume that you are running it without the charger on a regular basis. The more you use a battery the more it will wear out the battery's lifespan, especially if you are using heavy duty programmes on the Macbook.

stooge

thats just the thing... when I say 'medium usage' I actually do mean the battery not the laptop.

I have taken very good care of the battery, followed the battery care steps on apple's website, I've kept it plugged into the ac adapater most of the time (as I only really use it in my house). I've also really only used the macbook for browsing and music, nothing processor intensive. I wouldnt mind so much if the replacement was a half decent price but 140E is ridiculous for something which I may have to replace in another 18months.

Sad Professor

Where did you buy the Macbook? You could threaten the retailer with a small claims court. Provided you can successfully argue that the battery was faulty.

When Apple support tell you it's out of warranty and they won't replace it, they are speaking as the manufacturer and as such have no legal obligation to you. Go after the retailer. If you got the Macbook from the online Applestore then you may need to contact them or bring this fact up when dealing with support.

su_dios

Was there not a repair scheme for macbook batteries?

Elessar

See here http://www.apple.com/uk/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/

The "X" issue is covered under this replacement program. Ring them again and point them to this website. You should be covered. (Edit - if it's a core duo machine)

If not, ask to be put through the Apple customer relations and explain your situation. Make it absolutely clear that your understand your statutory rights and that Apple's warranty is not a substitute for them. If the battery is showing an X and not charging it is clearly faulty and you have a reasonable expectation for said battery to last longer than what it did. Proof need only be saught by looking at anyone else who has a laptop (apple or otherwise) with it's original battery still charging for longer than yours did (plenty on here I would assume!).

If all else fails you could lodge a case with the Small Claims Court and let the judge decide. I doubt Apple would let it get that far.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

ronnie3585

Will a battery only last 300 cycles?

ethernet

That's rough, stooge. A new battery is a little pricey indeed. Somewhat discouraged to see something similar. 8 month-old MBP. Battery calibrated three times since purchase; last time two weeks ago. 91 cycles and health of 57%. Doesn't hold charge very long -- doing well to get more than 90 minutes. Time to seek a free replacement methinks.

K.O.Kiki

Whoa, that's rough.
IIRC, I've had my late-2007 MBP for 11 months (refurb) & 130+ cycles, and I'm still getting 90%.

Chardee MacDennis

bought my MB in July 06, had to replace the battery by Feb/March 07 due to it warping. so my current one is about 2 years old and still has 87% health - seems to be luck of the draw really.

im...LOST

I've only had my MB for a year and according to my iStat widget I'm on my 450th cycle.

Does that sound right?! People are saying that they've had theirs for years with only like 200 cycles.

Type 17

ethernet wrote: »

8 month-old MBP. Battery calibrated three times since purchase; last time two weeks ago. 91 cycles and health of 57%. Doesn't hold charge very long -- doing well to get more than 90 minutes. Time to seek a free replacement methinks.

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Whoa, that's rough.
IIRC, I've had my late-2007 MBP for 11 months (refurb) & 130+ cycles, and I'm still getting 90%.

BastardPrince wrote: »

bought my MB in July 06, had to replace the battery by Feb/March 07 due to it warping. so my current one is about 2 years old and still has 87% health - seems to be luck of the draw really.

im...LOST wrote: »

I've only had my MB for a year and according to my iStat widget I'm on my 450th cycle.

Does that sound right?! People are saying that they've had theirs for years with only like 200 cycles.

Battery calibration is key here - needs to be done a few times a month.

My MBP (Oct '07, 90 cycles) and the wife's MB (March '07, 153 cycles) are both still showing 100% in iStat, and when they go down into the high nineties, a calibration brings them back to 100%.

When my brother showed me his '02 iBook, which is on its second battery, which was showing 87% after 50 cycles, I recovered it to 100% by turning off all sleep/power saving settings and running it flat, leaving it overnight and then charging it up fully. After doing this three times or so, it was back to 100% too.

im...LOST

Health is at 96% though so it's not too bad.

But how come my cycle count it so high? Actually, that's quiet a silly question. I never shut it down and just leave it on charge most of the time.

Type 17

im...LOST wrote: »

Health is at 96% though so it's not too bad.

But how come my cycle count it so high? Actually, that's quiet a silly question. I never shut it down and just leave it on charge most of the time.

That is a bit high, especially when you say that you just leave it on charge most of the time. Can't think of a reason, TBH.

Either way, try calibrating it see here and see if you can get it back to 100%

@ OP: I'd look at Elessar's post, as your MB should be a core 2 duo machine if it is 10 months out of warranty around now, and you did get an X out of the blue, rather than have the battery health decline to a low percentage over time.

PS: Keep the faith!