[bishopazrael]

So I've had this mbp about a year or so. It gets it's fair share of usage off the power brick. But I've always gotten like 2:30 or so on the full charge. Well now I just pulled off the power cord, it's 7:35 am and I show a full charge and the time left for the battery says 1:04. Now am I crazy or do I remember getting a firmware update recently that was supposed to help with the battery?

What can I do for my battery at this point? I don't have applecare, so I'd like to avoid having to buy another battery.

[klb5090]

First a more descriptive post topic may be helpful. or maybe just one '?' and '!'

Second, the first thing i would do would be unplug your MBP from the charger and allow the battery to run down till your computer goes into force sleep and then plug it in for till a full charge

[bishopazrael]

I've seen articles on conditioning the battery... should I do this several times?

[ghporter]

Conditioning the battery and calibrating the battery meter are basically one and the same for the MBP, and you should only need to do it once. How many cycles are there on your battery, and what is its health status? (I use iStat Pro to get that sort of information...)

[bishopazrael]

Health is 46%
Cycles is 154.

What does that mean in laymans terms?

[ghporter]

That means that you should have something like about half of the original power time, and it's because over time you've drained and recharged the battery over 150 times-which is why the health is at less than half. So basically, what the health is saying is "you should get around 1:30 worth of power from this battery." It is not something that a firmware update can magically fix, but recalibrating the battery meter can help the computer charge the battery better and more effectively, which may help improve the health and power time.

[bishopazrael]

Well what's weird about it, is I swear to God, last week I was getting like 3 hours to 2 and change. Then this drastic drop.

But it seems like life has caught up to me on this one. Oh well.. a battery can be replaced, no biggie.

[Marid]

Your battery may be defective. They are supposed to be rated for 80% charge at ~300 charge cycles. My battery went south after my MBP was about one year old. It had only 80 charge cycles, but my Mac would simply shut itself off when the battery level reached about 60%. Fortunately, mine was still in the warranty period and I have AppleCare so it was replaced. YMMV.

[ghporter]

Yeah, what Marid said. A sudden drop in capacity sounds a lot like a failed cell in the battery. Even decent batteries can be overdrained and no longer meet the 80% standard due to hard use or poor environmental conditions, so at 150 cycles it's possible to have a lower capacity (though definitely not desired). But going from 3 hours capacity to 2 hours capacity in a really short time is very different. Call Apple and ask about getting the battery replaced.

[bishopazrael]

Would it be better to call them or go to our apple store here in town to the genius bar?

[klb5090]

i would run down to the store if you have a chance or make an appointment before you call apple. Try to get some quick easy service (like a new battery) and if not you can go the other route.

[chipchen]

Condition the battery with a cycle, and run it down again to see how much time you get. Remember, the time estimates are just estimates, based on what you're doing. Maybe the computer was running harder at the moment and that initial estimate was based on that. I wouldn't be surprised if it still lasted over two hours, even if it says less.

[bishopazrael]

Ok I'll run it down again and try it again.

[Simon]

Make sure you have downloaded and installed the most recent battery software. Reset the SMC.

Calibrate the battery.

Note the number of cycles and the full charge capacity in mAh in Sys Profiler > Hardware > Power > Battery Information.

Then call Apple or go to one of their stores. Give them the numbers. Be prepared to point them to Apple - Batteries - Notebooks which states that a battery should sustain ~80% if its charge during the first 300 cycles. A new MBP battery has ~5.5 Ah capacity so within the first 300 cycles you should stay above roughly 4.4Ah. I've had Apple replace MBP and MB batteries this way - they were very courteous about it and I usually got the replacement battery delivered to my office within 48h.

[bishopazrael]

Originally Posted by Simon 

Make sure you have downloaded and installed the most recent battery software. Reset the SMC.

Calibrate the battery.

Note the number of cycles and the full charge capacity in mAh in Sys Profiler > Hardware > Power > Battery Information.

Then call Apple or go to one of their stores. Give them the numbers. Be prepared to point them to Apple - Batteries - Notebooks which states that a battery should sustain ~80% if its charge during the first 300 cycles. A new MBP battery has ~5.5 Ah capacity so within the first 300 cycles you should stay above roughly 4.4Ah. I've had Apple replace MBP and MB batteries this way - they were very courteous about it and I usually got the replacement battery delivered to my office within 48h.

Thank you very much Simon.. I'll be doing this tomorrow.

[bishopazrael]

Well I took the advice and I dropped in on the Apple store on a Saturday evening. Wow. With a FULL genius bar list, Mark @ the ABQ uptown store fixed me up with a brand spanking new battery in about 10 minutes! This is why I buy Apple! I'm back up to 3 hours now, and I'll be sure I fully discharge the battery from now on when it comes off the cord.

[Simon]

Glad to hear everything worked out well for you.

Also in my experience, Apple has been very courteous about battery replacements. No hassle, good service all along.

[jlgrandam]

My MBP battery has 156 charge cycles on it and only 3050 mAH left. I will be calling apple on monday. I really hope they will handle it over the phone as I hate fighting the crowds at the apple store in NYC.