Dead Macbook Pro battery

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:12 pm

I don't remember if this was a known issue awhile back so I thought I would check with you guys. I got my Macbook Pro new about a year and a half ago. It is rarely unplugged but over the last couple weeks I've noticed that when it is unplugged it turns off after about 5 minutes. This makes me think the battery is a dud or has done it's time.

I do have Applecare so this should be a free replacement, but I am going to be annoyed if this is something I have to ship it away to fix considering there are countless Apple Stores around me and Apple HQ is about a 10 minute drive from me.

Anybody have any experience with this?

dcease · Post by **dcease** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:18 pm

that sux dude... even if you can get it in their store, it'll take forever to get help

but they SHOULD give you a replacment. that 350 should have been for something... including not hassleing you. corporate basturds with their pretty computers

formatk · Post by **formatk** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:19 pm

i had the same prob with my macbook. It's a battery issue, you should be able to walk into an apple store and have it replaced on the spot if you can get to the genius bar.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:27 pm

formatk wrote:i had the same prob with my macbook. It's a battery issue, you should be able to walk into an apple store and have it replaced on the spot if you can get to the genius bar.

Awesome. That is what I was hoping but maybe I'll check ahead before I go since it's an older model and they may not have the batteries just laying around the store.

tacvbo83 · Post by **tacvbo83** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:59 pm

formatk wrote:i had the same prob with my macbook. It's a battery issue, you should be able to walk into an apple store and have it replaced on the spot if you can get to the genius bar.

That is right. MBP batteries have come out bad couple of times. Since I do not have an apple store near, they have sent me a replacement battery twice in the past 2 years that I have had it. (seems you have the problem I had with the old batteries) This last battery I have had it for months and it works great. They know about the issue so it shouldn't be a problem.

The only reason I hate my MBP is for the heat. Everything else is great. If it had good temperature, I would say best laptop to get. anyways thats just a rant on how I feel

4ace · Post by **4ace** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:01 pm

That's crazy that the battery crapped out that quickly.

My PB G4 is still cranking along at 4 years now.

Def. get to a store ASAP you should have NO issue getting a new one same day,that's BS!

shaneblyth · Post by **shaneblyth** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:16 am

4ace wrote:That's crazy that the battery crapped out that quickly.

My PB G4 is still cranking along at 4 years now.

Def. get to a store ASAP you should have NO issue getting a new one same day,that's BS!

modern batteries have some electronics in the battery.. yeah i know , sounds weird but thats normal these days and the fault has been that the electronics on the battery is faulty so thinks your battery is flat so basically turn things off
These batteries are not only found in Macs but some other PC manufacturers have had this issue. Anyway it has not been a big problem but there was a batch of bad batteries.. I think Sony had a similar issue at the same time but i cant be sure it was them and not one of the other main PC manufacturers

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:07 am

It's good to know Apple is aware of this and taking care of people will little hassle. I posted on here because I seem to recall this being a major complaint about a year ago and I thought I just lucked out at the time.

Timur · Post by **Timur** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:30 am

I think a few days ago I've read about some software/firmware fix for battery life problems that also mentioned that if the fix doesn't work you should have your battery replaced even if it's out of warranty already!

But it's possible that I'm confusing things or don't remember it right.

4ace · Post by **4ace** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:40 am

Timur wrote:I think a few days ago I've read about some software/firmware fix for battery life problems that also mentioned that if the fix doesn't work you should have your battery replaced even if it's out of warranty already!

But it's possible that I'm confusing things or don't remember it right.

That sounds right, thankfully....I've had good experience's with apple repair and warranty claims.

theque · Post by **theque** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 3:17 am

it might be your power supply, my mate had what he thought to be a bad battery but it turned out to be be the power. this is a known problem, after some bugging he got a free replacement.

dango · Post by **dango** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:13 am

applecare or not, these new batteries come with i believe a 2 year replacement deal with apple because they had problems with some of them. check on apples user forums for the details.

substance_g · Post by **substance_g** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:41 am

I had exactly the same problem on my Powerbook G4. It seemed to appear after I installed the 10.4.11 update.

After finding the correct PMU reset procedure on the Apple Support web site, it fixed the problem.

The battery was one of those replacement batteries that Apple sent out, but - at least in my case - I don't think the battery made any difference. Looks like some software/firmware misconfiguration caused by the 10.4.11 update and then the PMU fixed it.

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 8:52 am

Have you even called Applecare yet? I mean, c'mon. Just call them. It takes a few minutes.

sadmac · Post by **sadmac** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:44 am

substance_g wrote:I had exactly the same problem on my Powerbook G4. It seemed to appear after I installed the 10.4.11 update.

After finding the correct PMU reset procedure on the Apple Support web site, it fixed the problem.

The battery was one of those replacement batteries that Apple sent out, but - at least in my case - I don't think the battery made any difference. Looks like some software/firmware misconfiguration caused by the 10.4.11 update and then the PMU fixed it.

What is the PMU Reset? Could you please explain my how can i do that? I have a powerbook and it switchs off either very fast either very slow. And the battery (its a replaced one) is running out sometimes suddenly.....