[bigt0169]

I have a first gen macbook pro 15" notebook 2.0 GHz core duo and I am unable to have the notebook off of the power cord for longer then 3 mins. I have the power cord plugged in and the battery charge shows 100%. I unplug the cord and in about 3 mins or so the screen goes black and the computer dies. I can click on the battery button on the to test the battery and all the green lights still show up as fully charged. Is it the battery? or is it the computer? How can I fix this? Has anyone else has this issue? What should I do? I don't want to buy another battery for roughly $80 and that not be the issue. Anything that could help please advise.

[Spheric Harlot]

Batteries generally die after two or three years, max, completely regardless of how you've treated them.*

If yours is really five years old, there's really no point in wondering what's going on.



*Apple's current lineup has batteries that supposedly last three times longer than conventional designs. We'll know in about three years.

[ghporter]

I had to replace battery for my 1st Gen MBP (MBP 1,1) last year after solid service since the fall of 2006. As Spheric Harlot points out, batteries will generally die no matter what. Good stewardship of the battery notwithstanding, it's gonna happen. With the new battery, I can surf for a couple hours wirelessly without being plugged in. In fact, I'm doing that now.

It's almost certainly your battery passing to the great beyond, not the computer. Click on the Apple () menu and select "About this Mac." Click on "Power" in the left hand panel. Now read the data about your battery. Your "Full charge capacity" number will be very low, indicating that the cells in the battery are worn out and unable to hold a charge. The "Health information" will also show two important pieces of information-"Cycles" says how many times you've fully discharged and charged that battery (cumulatively, adding partial discharges together), and the "Condition" will say something other than "Normal."

Or you could take the computer and battery to the nearest Apple Store and have one of their "Genius" people check it out. I will bet they agree that the battery is dead.

One of my co-workers had a similar problem with the (scrap-aluminum) MacBook Pro battery not holding charge properly. In 12 months, he had to send his MBP in for repairs 3 times, and he got 2 battery replacements. Even when I wrote out a detailed procedure for him to charge the (first replacement) battery correctly the first time around, that battery still failed months later. He ended up getting a third battery, and so far it's been working fine in his machine. We discussed connections to the battery, but they were fine, so he basically got a couple of dud batteries.

It sounds like your battery also bit an early bullet for whatever reason.

Scroll down this page halfway and click on the first list item:

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

See if the SMC reset works, at this point it won't hurt.

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Batteries generally die after two or three years, max, completely regardless of how you've treated them.*

*Apple's current lineup has batteries that supposedly last three times longer than conventional designs. We'll know in about three years.

Spheric, I have no idea what kind of experiences you've had with batteries in Apple notebooks, but I can assure you that they are supposed to be able to last A LOT longer than 3 years. The maximum capacity of the battery may be reduced after 3 years, but I gave my 466 MHz iBook to my parents some number of years ago. That 10-year-old iBook still has the stock battery and still gets a solid three and a half hours on medium screen brightness. Based on your footnote, my Macbook's battery should still be able to get 5 hours of charge in the year 2018. I am 99% confident that I can testify to that. If that battery was s*** to begin with, it'll be s*** in three years anyways.

[anthology123]

Check your battery with the app Coconut battery coconutBattery 2.7 - by coconut-flavour.com
most likely if you have a 4 year old MacBook, the battery has used up its charge cycles, meaning it will
charge very fast and not last very long.