New April 2010 Macbook Pro battery health 93%?

Elessar

I've bought a MBP brand new (new 2010 models) when they were released in April and as of right now, July, the battery is showing only 93% health. That's not right surely?

I tried "calibrating" it last night by letting it deplete until the laptop turns off and charged it up again, but it only went from 94% to 93%!

Sad Professor

How many charge cycles has it had?

ciarraioch1

Coconut battery is listing my total capacity as 91% with 74 cycles; is this good or bad? I have basically lost 9% of the battery capacity in about 3 months..

Mars Bar

Sorry for hijacking, I just downloaded that cononut battery thing and it is class!

23 month old MacBook with 229 battery cycles has 98% battery capacity. Sounds good!

Sad Professor

After 15 months and 163 cycles, mine is showing 96% health at the moment.

But tbh the health stat isn't really accurate, especially if you haven't calibrated in a while. It will fluctuate a bit, so you need to keep an eye on it to get a general sense of your battery's health.

I definitely think I've lost more than 4 percent.

Mars Bar

I'll keep an eye on it!

I'd say mine is good due to the fact I'd be in college and would let it run on battery to the point it is at red about once a week when I'd be in a lecture hall for a few hours...

MagicMarker

531 cycles over 28 months and my battery capacity is at 93%.

Interesting.

Elessar

I'm at 51 cycles and 93%. WTF?

mymo

Just saw this and downloaded coconut, this is what it says:

Current battery capacity 5130mAh
Original battery capacity 5020mAh
100%

Battery cycles 447
Age 35 months


I got my macbook 3 years ago in October, while the battery life is still good, I thought it had gone down a little.
Must keep an eye on this. Thanks.

ronnie3585

30 months - 346 cycles and 99% battery health.

K.O.Kiki

Core2Duo.
500+ cycles.
35~48%

GhostInTheRuins

Well for some reason that coconut battery program thinks my one month old macbook pro is actually 104 months old!

41 cycles and 98%

Hogzy

20 Months
407 Cycles
97%

Im happy with that.
Cant believe the amount of battery cycles its been through though.

Sad Professor

Everyone should calibrate their battery first to get a more accurate result.

Hogzy

Sad Professor wrote: »

Everyone should calibrate their battery first to get a more accurate result.

How do you do that?

Sad Professor

Let the battery drain completely and then recharge to full.

Mars Bar

Sad Professor wrote: »

Everyone should calibrate their battery first to get a more accurate result.

Ah, you are right about calibrating it first. It told me 98% but then I calibrated it today and the correct figure is 95%.

Stainless_Steel

How does one drain the battery without causing an improper shut down of the OS? Short the battery?

uvox

Charge up the battery, then disconnect the mains. Use the computer, and save any critical work when prompted. When it runs down the machine goes into sleep mode itself. You need to leave it for a few more hours to fully exhaust the battery.

Sad Professor

Yeah, the Macbook will automatically go to sleep by itself (and wont wake up) just before the battery is drained. It will also save the contents of the RAM to the hard disk so that you can resume from the saved state upon reconnecting to a power supply. MacBooks actually do this every time you sleep, a rather annoying feature, which I have disabled when the battery above 20 percent, as it delays sleep mode. But it means you don't have to worry about losing data or improper shutdowns.

Stainless_Steel

Thanks guys!

Interesting that it writes the RAM data to disk sad prof! How do you disable?

Sad Professor

I use a preference panel called SmartSleep.

http://www.jinx.de/SmartSleep.html

It is useful as it speeds up going into sleep mode, which means I don't have to wait as long before safely moving my Macbook. But if you are used to waiting that extra few seconds it might be safer to leave it as it is.

fillefatale

This is a really basic question but I've been hearing conflicting opinions. In order to preserve my battery life, do I need to keep it connected to a mains at all times (when I have access) or does this increase dependency on the mains supply and therefore deplete battery help, or do I charge up the battery until green light shows and use it until it runs to red?

I did the former for over 6 months but was told that was unhealthy so I've been doing the latter for 6 months now.

A definitive answer would be much appreciated, thank you.

Sad Professor

Here are Apple's guidelines:

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

Generally you should connect it the mains whenever you can, but still ensure the battery gets some use. Completely discharging it all the time isn't good for it - only do it once a month or so to calibrate.