Macbook Pro battery dying :(

[SidewinderINC]

Okay, so I've had my macbook pro about 14 months now, and just noticed a few minutes ago that the battery life and health is looking pretty terrible, at a health of 58% (according to iStat)

From the system profiler I've got this info

Battery Information:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 3266
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 3266
Amperage (mA): 148
Voltage (mV): 12627
Cycle Count: 467



Is there anything I can do about this to get the health back up?
Will apple replace the battery for me? or am I going to have to buy a new one?

*prays mohinder can shed some light on whether I can get it replaced*

[Belmit]

I have the exact same issue. Mine's 18 months old and has done less than 150 cycles. Barely lasts half an hour on charge, then dies completely at about 20%.

Apparantly Apple have been sending out new ones if you call them. I shall be doing so myself shortly. I even tried the tricks they suggest, like completely discharging the battery then completely charging it and leaving it plugged in for x number of hours. Didn't help.

Edit for stats:
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1616
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 1632
Health Information:
Cycle count: 132

[SidewinderINC]

I have a feeling you should be able to get yours replaced free of charge with less than 150 cycles.

mine has quite a few cycles so I'm not sure.

[Daz]

Dont know how it is with Apple, but with HP and Dell certainly, they're considered consumables.

Couple of clients sales guys get new batteries every 12 months which is about the average life of them with regular use ime.

[Desmo]

My Dell battery is getting crap now and I barely get an hour out of it. £70 odd for a replacement is pretty steep I reckon and as I barely leave the house with my laptop, I'm not paying out for a replacement yet.

[SidewinderINC]

The friendly geeks over at OcUK have told me that as I bought it on the HE discount last year whilst I was at uni I get 3 years applecare as standard (even without adding it on as an option) and can just take it into one of the apple stores and they'll swap it out then and there.

[Mark]

Supposedly not in modern laptops. Older laptops this was certainly true. You will of course avoid your house burning down should the battery do a Sony on you.

[Mark]

That'll be why the batteries in my D600 still work (just) after four years then.

*whips battery out of D830 - thanks for the tip*

[LeperousDust]

Li-ion basically dies whether you use it or not, depending on how warm you keep it affects the life, but cycling is really a mjor factor. If you just leave it somewhere warm for a year chances are it'll still be pretty pap by the end of 18/24 months. Its how the technology works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery

The only reason it would last longer Lozza is because the laptop warms it slightly. If you want to hoard this battery and not use it then leave it in the fridge, but tbh i was careful with mine for all of 2 months then realised its going to die, why not just not worry and get some use out of it?

[LeperousDust]

I suppose i just walk about from room to room with my laptop, and being able to just plug and unplug it on the fly is a convenience i enjoy. Also last year we actually had pretty crappy power due to some major construction works nearby so having a battery was pretty handy!

What i'm saying is i don't feel i'm gaining all that much from plugging it in and out all the time. Sods law will also say i'll forget once and pull the power too it whilst the battery isn't in

The cycle and "memory" effect and most other battery related problems lie with Ni-Cad and Ni-Mh which aren't any use as high power batteries anyway. Li-ion is just more prone to explosion