Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Cult of Mac, Bugs/Recalls, Bad Apple, Apple, Macbook Pro, MacBook
MacBook/MacBook Pro batteries problematic?
Sean Bonner, former TUAWer and current king of Metroblogging, thinks that something is rotten in the state of Cupertino. It seems that Jonas Luster informed Sean of a problem with his MacBook Pro's battery. He went to the Apple store to replace his fried battery and had an interesting encounter with an Apple store employee. It seems that Apple may be aware of some issues with the batteries on the MacBook/MacBook Pro's.This is purely anecdotal evidence but Sean Bonner knows his stuff. Apple, you can tell us if there is a problem (especially since I'm typing this post on a MacBook right now), we'll understand.
Sean is collecting serial numbers/date codes of MacBook/MacBook Pro batteries to track this problem. Head on over there and check out the full story.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
charles moore said 10:10PM on 5-31-2006
yes, there is a problem with the macbook pro battery and it appears apple knows about it.
the problem->unexpected sudden shutdowns when battery life gets below a certain level.
i called apple, they asked for my serial number and immediately shipped me a new replacement battery, no questions asked. seems to have solved the problem.
it's a known (and fairly common) issue on the apple support discussion boards.
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andy said 10:32PM on 5-31-2006
this isnt a 1st hand observation (im sticking with G5 for now) but there does seem to be a LOT of hardware isues with these intel portables, considering its meant to be one of apples bigest and most inportant areas, anyone feel theres been rushing going on here? think ill wait and see the feedback on the mac pros before i convert.
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ciprol said 10:50PM on 5-31-2006
I don't get it. How long has MBP been out? How can any unit not be under AppleCare at this point in time?
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ben said 11:56PM on 5-31-2006
I'm glad I'm saving up to buy either a MB or MBP. Sily defects. I figure by the time I have the money, they'll be second or third gen. :D
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lonewolf2222 said 12:49AM on 6-01-2006
What is a "fried" battery? U mean the battery gets too hot or died?
If the battery just died, how can Apple not replace it since the MPB
is still under 1 yr warranty?
The alleged conversation that this Jonas guy had with the Apple store
staff makes no sense to me.
And for Sean (the person who supposedly knows his stuff), he might have
done better to ask Jonas this question first no? before jumping around
collecting serial numbers and such?????
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ToeKnee said 2:07AM on 6-01-2006
In the case of my niece's 2 month old MacBook Pro, the recent SMC firmware update seems to have killed her battery. She can use it less than five minutes off power and the whole thing shuts off suddenly, no warning, no sleep. Just boom. Can't restart until you plug it back in. Button on battery bottom will still show five good lights, but battery shows 0% when the MBP is restarted.
Researching finds reports of this are growing geometrically each day.
T
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Daniel Gattermann said 2:16AM on 6-01-2006
Posted one month ago: "Silent recall issued for some MacBook Pro batteries" http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1717
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Franois Lloyd said 2:37AM on 6-01-2006
...now inflating too, and could indeed explode:
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2006-05-29/#5545
(And to poster #1, battery issues are nothing specific to this new Intel based hardware, PowerBook and iBook have had their share too. The last recall I can remember of was related to some batteries made through LG Chem)
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michel said 3:00AM on 6-01-2006
growing
exploding
geometrically
he knows his stuff
me too I know my stuff and I read sensational news here. hIIIIIiiiiiiii
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anthonysimilion said 4:10AM on 6-01-2006
I agree - wouldn't these faults be covered under standard Apple warranty? It's definitely within the first year (since it hasn't been out for a year yet!)
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Thayne Miller said 4:12AM on 6-01-2006
In the end you will all get working machines. Have none of you any faith in Apple? Take your machines in to the genius bar and have them fixed; easy as that.
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Cryptonome said 4:37AM on 6-01-2006
We exchanged 3 batteries for 3 different MacBooks, the problem is that new ones have the same problems. We start thinking about another bug on the SMC implementation of the MacBooks, first the problem with the remove battery bug, second the problem when come back from sleep bug, now a problem with the communication with the battery logic circuit.
As the manufacturers of the batteries are different and the problem have to come from the SMC nor from the battery.
The batteries where recharged only 43, 24, 41 times. The new one fail after 4 recharges.
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Owen said 5:15AM on 6-01-2006
I have an early model Macbook Pro (W8608) and I had my battery replaced last week after it kept cutting out randomly when off AC power. Apple were very good about it, the genius just took the serial number, looked at his screen and went off to get a replacement. No problems with the new one, but it made me wonder what was on that screen that made him go into the workshop that quickly.
Other than that I've had absolutely no trouble with my MBP. I don't want to join the seemingly endless mass of people complaining about these machines, because really, they should try a PC laptop for a week. There's just no comparison.
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lucio said 8:09AM on 6-01-2006
i think apple isn't apple anymore, in terms of quality...i mean, every day there's a new hardware-related issue with these new machines...and that's a consequence of Intel's CHEAP hardware that apple is using in those machines. I'm not talking about the microprocessor, but the rest of the components. It's an intel motherboard with all intel components (sound card, video card, etc); in other words, it's a cheap pc enclosed with a fancy, good-looking case made by apple, instead of a great combination of hardware AND accesories which apple was used to bring us when buying their notebooks(there's no mini-DVI to VGA adapter anymore, or even the RAM offered in the apple store isn't Kingston) ...and all this for u$s 100 extras than before...i don't get it...
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Zilla said 8:23AM on 6-01-2006
funny, i've got a new macbook that i'm testing out and sharing with my boys...last week the battery got so hot that my son freaked and shut off the machine...i went out and bought a laptop base that lifts the machine to allow for some heat to escape from below, but it still gets smoking hot...no failure (knock on wood) but i have noticed that even when it does a full charge overnight and i unplug, lower screen brightness, disable bluetooth and have only firefox running (and a wifi connection) the battery still starts below 4 hours, even though they claim upwards of 5 hours...and yes, i've calibrated the battery. i'm gonna hit the store and ask them to calibrate as well...and yes, i'm convinced that some things were rushed to get these all to market...otherwise, performance is outstanding on the 1.83 base with 1 gig of mem instead of 512...
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Adam M said 8:53AM on 6-01-2006
I recently had to get my Macbook Pro battery replaced. My computer would randomly shut down when running on battery. This progressively got worse to the point where a "fully charged" battery would shut down after a few minutes. The apple store determined it was only the battery and its been fine since I got the new one.
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olly said 9:22AM on 6-01-2006
Same problem with going off after 5 minutes.
coconutBatterie says that the batterie hast just 2% off its maximum Load left.That means 163 mAh from 5500 mAh.
That just come up, after the SMC Update.
New Batterie will arrive here mid next week. hope the best...
olly
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Mike said 12:13PM on 6-01-2006
Sean Bonner? He's the guy who did the "Elian- Whazzup?" thing, right?
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Peter Payne said 1:18PM on 6-01-2006
The reason I bought the MacBook was to avoid the issues with the MBP's (whining, etc.). And it's been a superb purchase, with no problems or issues at all. So go get one now!
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Ted Brzinski said 4:25PM on 6-01-2006
The problem started after one of the firmware updates. The batteries on the very first MBPs would cause the laptop to shut-down at 30% with no warning (there mst have been some faulty components in the batteries). This only happened with batteries with a certain range of serial numbers, and not even with all of the batteries in said range (it's been a month since I figured this all out, so I don't recall the exact range, but you should be able to find it on the apple support boards by now). Apple replaces these batteries no questions asked, and in my experience they behaved exactly as they should. In fact, we don't hear this often enough, but kudos to mac on some expedient and hassle free tech-support.
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