The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

You didn't discharge the battery to 40% before storing your laptop?

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i had exactly the same experience. when i traveled for a few weeks and came back, my macbook wouldn't start up at all unless i attached the power adapter. and the charging indicator was always green instead of orange. this was mid 2007 i think.

but i was luckier -- at that time my macbook was still in 1-year warranty, so i drove to apple store and got a free replacement.

then it happened again when i traveled again, and i got free replacement again. i kept doing so for 3-4 times. at the last time i brought all the documents of the previous replacements and presented them to apple store, asked the mac genius if this happens so often and consistently, shouldn't it be a design issue? the response was like "we are not sure but you can keep doing so as many as you want before warranty expires, which is 1 yr of your macbook or 3 months of this new battery, whichever comes later".

for the last battery before warranty expired i started to be careful. whenever i travel, i charge it and detach it from the macbook. everything worked well then. but it's a shame that apple products require such speical care that no other laptops need.

i was hoping to remind them this is a real issue by repeatedly requesting replacement, but too bad they didn't do anything to address the root cause, until now (this time the issue description makes me think they finally addressed the real issue).

don't get me wrong -- i'm neither anti-mac nor anti-pc. i'm just stating my experience. using mac is like a mixed feeling. in general it's a pleasure, but such little glitches let you down from time to time. their customer service within 1 year is very good, but 1 year is too short and i don't think i should pay more for a longer warranty.

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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3421

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