Fluctuating Battery Capacity

Yesterday my MBP had a funny turn relating to it's recognised battery capacity. I had been using it for most of the day on fairly boring tasks and I was running it on battery power when all of a sudden it shut down on me. I plugged in charger and fired it up and when I looked at the battery it was at 0% however the capacity had fallen by over 75%.
Originally it was about
93% of original
4440mAh
270 load cycles
10months old
All of a sudden it was
16% of original
762mAh
I used System Profiler and Coconut to check the levels.
I left it charging for a couple of hours until it said it was full then I turned it off. I let it cool, took the battery out, dusted it, polished it and put it back.
When I turned the machine back on the battery capacity was back to 93% original.
The basic question is has anyone seen this before? Quickly followed by software glitch or intermittent hardware fault.
Cheers for any help.

The design capacity of a new battery is often exceeded slightly by its actual capacity. You got a good one.
My late-2008 MBP's battery has a design capacity of 4600 mAh, but it started off at about 4800 and still has never gone as low as 4600, after 11 months and 64 cycles. Right now it shows 4622.
It isn't possible for your MBP to have operated on battery power for 24 hours without sleeping. Something is wrong, not with your battery but with your story.

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Fluctuations battery capacity

Please help me out... I'm confused. My Macbook is only a month old. My battery had 8 cycles. Since last week the battery capacity started fluctuating its realy confusing and anoying. It started at 97%, than dropped to 93%, came back up to 98% and now is at 90% (4561 mah were it used to be 5020 mah)!
What is the problem here? A failing battery or is it some kind of sofware error or different?

i already have 596 cycles.
1 year old mac book pro

Fluctuating battery capacity. can you give any tips to maintain my 596 cycles? (1 year old MBP 2012 13")

battery capacity went from from 80.4% to 78% to 86% within the same day. is this normal?
i alraeady have 596 cycles
1year old mac with applecare
before i'am always draining my battery, now that i knew that it is bad, what should i do now?
any tips and suggested routine?

Here is a list of Apple support documents regarding batteries.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1446
Look at the articles under the 'Optimizing battery life' category.
Ciao.

Concerned about falling battery capacity on rMBP

Hello all, I'm starting to worry a bit about my battery capacity vs design capacity on my retina macbook pro 15". It's a early 2013 model that I bought in July. I know that apple guarantees the battery will have at least 80% of it's design capacity after 1000 cycles, but I'm worried mine is going to fall far short of that. Here's my coconut battery info:
As you can see, I've only had 60 cycles on the battery, the computer is barely half a year old, and it's already down 6%, under 8000 mAh. Should I be concerned/take it to the apple store? I know they won't replace my computer since I'm far outside of my 14 days, but still wondering if they'll do something. Will they even do anything before the battery falls below 80% design capacity?
I waited to post because I know battery capacity often fluctuates from 5% below to 5% above design frequently and will go up and down with use, but mine has steadily decreased, and has never increased. Every time I check coconut battery, it's 10-50 mAh lower than it was. My macbook does stay plugged in a lot, but I also make a point of using the battery at least once a week to keep the electrons flowing, and most weeks it gets off the charger more like two or three times. Often the battery will get used down to at least 50 or 60 percent before it gets plugged back in, sometimes even as low at 15 or 20 percent. I've tried draining it until it goes to sleep and then letting it charge to full again, but it didn't change anything. I didn't think it would, since lithium based batteries don't suffer memory issues, but I thought maybe it was just an error in measurement by the system.
Speaking of that, I did reset the NVRAM/PRAM and the SMC (multiple times). Only one of the times I reset the SMC did the light turn orange and then charge more, but it didn't change the max capacity number at all.
I see a lot of people posting their cocunut results/system information screen and finding they actually have above design capacity. Did I just get a lemon battery, or is it because I have it plugged in so much?
Thoughts? Thanks!

Apple guarantees that if your battery is well taken care of and not abused, however your battery looks fine.
You state: ~ As you can see, I've only had 60 cycles on the battery
Cycle counts dont account for much. People (some) leave their macbooks always hooked on power and worse still in sleep mode and on power and this can ruin a battery in "50 cycles", ergo it means little.
As for the 5% power fluctuation this means absolutely nothing since charge is just an estimate and the 5% is within that range.
Information:
Bad discharging or battery use conditions:
Heat (due to environmental conditions or due to rapid discharges from heavy use = gaming / video editing)
Rapid discharging of the battery frequently causes chemical changes over time in the battery leading to decrease capacity and resistance of current flow.
The very worst use of your battery is often draining the battery very low, and worse still letting it remain in such a state.
*Most long-term rapid damage to the battery occurs from discharging it with high loading (gaming) conditions but paramount is avoiding deep and frequent low DOD (depths of discharge) in use.
Undesirable charging or charged conditions:
High perpetual SOC (state of charge), where the battery is always or very often connected to charge
Parasitic loading where the battery is both usually on and charging or worse both always charging and in sleep mode, since this induces mini-cycling of the battery.
Bad general handling conditions:
Temperature use conditions when either too hot (95F and above) or too cold (50F and below)
Storing your battery away with a low charge (40% and less) long-term.
Considerations:
Your battery is subject to chemical aging even if not in use. A Lithium battery is aging as soon as its made, regardless.
In a perfect (although impractical) situation, your lithium battery is best idealized swinging back and forth between 25 and 85% SOC (state of charge) roughly.
Further still how you discharge the battery is far more important than how it is either charged or stored short term.
Ultimately counting charge cycles is of little to no importance. Abuse in discharging (foremost), charging, and storing the battery and how it affects battery chemistry is important and not the ‘odometer’ reading, or cycle counts on the battery.
Everything boils down to battery chemistry long term, and not to an arbitrary number, or cycle count.
Keep your macbook plugged in when near a socket since in the near end of long-term life, this is beneficial to the battery.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
"Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time."
General rule to remember of Lithium batteries is:
Never drain them LOW & dont always/often store them HIGH
While cycle count is commonly seen to be the “miles” on your Lithium Ion pack cell in your Macbook, which they are, this distinction is not a fine line at all, and it is a big misconception to “count charge cycles”
*A person who has, for example, 300 charge cycles on their battery and is recharging at say 50-60% remaining of a 100% charge has better battery usage and care than another person who has 300 charge cycles at say 15% remaining on a 100% charge.
DoD (depth of discharge) is far more important on the wear and tear on your Macbook battery than any mere charge cycle count. *There is no set “mile” or wear from a charge cycle in general OR in specific.    As such, contrary to popular conception, counting cycles is not conclusive whatsoever, rather the amount of deep DoD on an averaged scale of its use and charging conditions.
(as a very rough analogy would be 20,000 hard miles put on a car vs. 80,000 good miles being something similar)
*Contrary to some myths out there, there is protection circuitry in your Macbook and therefore you cannot overcharge it when plugged in and already fully charged
*However if you don’t plan on using it for a few hours, turn it OFF (plugged in or otherwise) ..*You don’t want your Macbook both always plugged in AND in sleep mode       (When portable devices are charging and in the on or sleep position, the current that is drawn through the device is called the parasitic load and will alter the dynamics of charge cycle. Battery manufacturers advise against parasitic loading because it induces mini-cycles.)
Keeping batteries connected to a charger ensures that periodic "top-ups" do very minor but continuous damage to individual cells, hence Apples recommendation above:   “Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time”, …this is because “Li-ion degrades fastest at high state-of-charge”. This is also the same reason new Apple notebooks are packaged with 50% charges and not 100%.
LiPo (lithium polymer, same as in your Macbook) batteries do not need conditioning. However...
A lot of battery experts call the use of Lithium cells the "80% Rule" ...meaning use 80% of the charge or so, then recharge them for longer overall life.
Never let your Macbook go into shutdown and safe mode from loss of power, you can corrupt files that way, and the batteries do not like it.
The only quantified abuse seen to Lithium cells are instances when often the cells are repeatedly drained very low…. key word being "often"
The good news is that your Macbook has a safety circuit in place to insure the battery doesn’t reach too low before your Macbook will auto power-off. Bad news: if you let your Macbook protection circuitry shut down your notebook at its bottom, and you refrain from charging it for a couple days...the battery will SELF-DRAIN to zero (depending on climate and humidity)…and nothing is worse on a Lithium battery being low-discharged than self-draining down to and sitting at 0
Contrary to what some might say, Lithium batteries have an "ideal" break in period. First ten cycles or so, don't discharge down past 40% of the battery's capacity. Same way you don’t take a new car out and speed and rev the engine hard first 100 or so miles.
Proper treatment is still important. Just because LiPo batteries don’t need conditioning in general, does NOT mean they dont have an ideal use / recharge environment. Anything can be abused even if it doesn’t need conditioning.
From Apple on batteries:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Storing your MacBook
If you are going to store your MacBook away for an extended period of time, keep it in a cool location (room temperature roughly 22° C or about 72° F). Make certain you have at least a 50% charge on the internal battery of your Macbook if you plan on storing it away for a few months; recharge your battery to 50% or so every six months roughly if being stored away. If you live in a humid environment, keep your Macbook stored in its zippered case to prevent infiltration of humidity on the internals of your Macbook which could lead to corrosion.

Macbook Pro MD101 battery capacity

Hi,
I've bought a new Macbook Pro MD101 for a month ago. Everything go fine until I checked the System Report and saw that the Battery Capacity is 5166mAh, different from the others MD101 are about 5700 or higher. What's the problem?
Thanks

The capacity always declines with use, and fluctuates on a daily basis. If you check it in a couple days it may be more than your current value. They float up and down a good amount.
More important is the Condition...that should always be Normal or have it checked.

Battery capacity rising on MBPr 13"

I've noticed something very strange on my 3-month old MBPr 13" (late 2012 model).
In order to monitor my battery, I'm using the coconutBattery program. A week or two earlier, the maximum capacity was something along the lines of 98.* - 99.* %. Now, it shows that the "design capacity" is over 100%!
Here's the screenshot:
When I first bought the computer, the battery reported 101%. Then, it went down to 98.* % and now it's rising up again. What does this mean? Do I have a malfunctioning battery? Is it dangerous?
As a sidenote, one day my Macbook became really cold and I saw some very minor condensation on it when I came back home. Obviously, I didn't turn my computer on in order to prevent damage to its inner components and left it turned off overnight. Could these temperature changes have caused this sudden change of capacity? Or are such fluctuations normal?

My battery capacity keeps rising, it now shows 6714 mAh. Is it really normal?

Battery capacity 97%?

Hi everyone!
I bought a Macbook Pro 13" for a week ago, and I have charged it only 3 or 4 times, but coconutBattery says that my battery capacity is 97% :o I have also calibrate the battery once.
This is my first mac and I'm really worried... Is this normal?
Message was edited by: HarisValjevac

Hi HarisValjevac - welcome to the discussion forums. Yes this is normal, it is not a perfect science. You did everything correct. The capacity will fluctuate a bit up and down, no worries mate. Have fun !
Here is some more causal reading: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1764220
Hope this helps.

Random Battery capacity!

A few days ago, I notices that my battery had weird reactions. The charge indicators fluctuates, goes into the red, back well into the black, ...
Yesterday, I checked wit coconut battery. It gave me a capacity of 1740 mAh (39%)!! Five minutes later, it showed a capacity of 4407 mAh! When I recharged the battery this morning, it stopped at the "full" capacity 2149 mAh and is now back to 4400 mAh.
My battery has 16 cycles (has been exchanged recently with the exchange program). What is going on? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hallo there,
i have got the same problem with my battery.
i received a new battery -also as part of the battery exchange program in germany- in October 2006. Now, since two weeks or so, the battery-life is just 1 - 1,5 hour, depending on activity (1 hour, if running iTunes and streamripper simultaneously, for example). I checked the system profiler for battery-capacity and noticed the same weired thing: max. Capacity is 2400mAh, then it's 27xxmAh some hours after, then 35xxmAh, some minutes after that it is 29xxmAh, a day later again at 27xxmAh, and so on...
i calibrated the battery and did pmu-reset (2x). charging the battery is no problem, 20 cycles were done for now.
i called apple-support, but they told me, there is no more warranty for changed batteries and they can not send a new one to me. they gave me no other advice then buying one. did anyone solve this problem, or any suggestions on that? And what may be the defective part, battery or pmu?
My system is a powerbook (bought in juli 2005) g4 1.67GHz, 512MB RAM, osx 10.4.9
greetings from germany and looking forward to your help
bastian
powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Total battery capacity

Hi all,
Rather concerned about my battery. I got my MBP about around September last year, and lately been noticing that total battery capacity has been dropping rather rapidly. I only have about 20 cycles on the battery, I was at about 98% total charge capacity two weeks ago, dropped to 94% last week, and just dropped to 90% 2 days ago. It's never recovered fluctuated back up again.
I also once/twice a month use my computer and drain it all the way to 0 and charge it back up to make sure the battery is healthy.
Is this normal? Anyone know what's going on?
Thanks

About Batteries in Modern Apple Laptops
Apple - Batteries - Notebooks
Extending the Life of Your Laptop Battery
Apple - Batteries
Determining Battery Cycle Count
Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance
MacBook and MacBook Pro- Mac reduces processor speed when battery is removed while operating from an A-C adaptor
Battery University

Battery capacity 97% - New MB

Hi, this is my first MB and i got it 5 days ago. Now the battery capacity shown on coconut battery is 97% and only after 3 cicles.... is that normal? I calibrated the next day i received it...
Thanks for your help
Message was edited by: montanasz

Full charge capacity as reported by the battery to the OS can fluctuate, kind of like blood pressure. Don't worry about it unless it shows a trend.

Battery capacity dropping and changing constantly?

I recently purchased a MBP 13" a few days ago and downloaded coconut battery to check my battery capacity and it seems to fluctuate a bit. It has been approximately 5 days since I began using the computer. I haven't been keeping the display on the highest brightness (do sometimes, but only when plugged into the charger at home) and keep other power saver settings on but the battery is still at about 5570 mAh, is this good or bad? Coconut battery says this is approximately 96% of the designed 5770 capacity. It dropped down to 5536 just yesterday and has risen back to 5576 as of this post. Is this normal because my computer is so new and it can't exactly calculate how much it has, or am I draining the battery that heavily?
I use it for school daily, and return home with approximately a 35-50% charge (depending upon usage during the school day), and begin charging when it reaches approximately 20%. Should I be charging earlier than this? I know not to let it drop to critical levels such as 10%, but not sure when I should exactly start charing to maximize this batteries lifespan. Thank you for whomever answers!

The small fluctuations you're seeing in your battery's Full Charge Capacity are entirely normal and will continue, perhaps lessening somewhat as time passes. I still see fluctuations (up as well as down) of 2-3% in my two-year-old battery's capacity, though of course the overall trend is gradually downward. It began at 4805mAh (103% of its design capacity of 4650) right out of the box, and it has been reported as low as 4320. It's now at 4530 after 137 cycles (this battery is rated for 300 cycles, unlike yours which is rated for 1000). I don't check it but every couple of months, so it could very well have gone outside that range at times without my noticing. I suspect that part of the reported variation is due to calibration error (I occasionally go longer than I should between calibrations) and part is due to limited precision in the measurement. I just don't worry about it at all, and I recommend that you don't either.

Battery capacity going down way too fast

So problem is that my mbp 13" is about 2 weeks old and battery capacity seems to going down too fast. I only have 2 cycles and I did calibration 4 days ago. When I bought it, it was like 5770 or smth and now it's 5500. Think it's normal or maybe it's just wrong info there?
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number: W004858Q9D3LA
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0201
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0165
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5431
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5505
Health Information:
Cycle count: 2
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -589
Voltage (mV): 12339

It's fine. Cycle to cycle fluctuations of 300-500 mAh are normal.

Battery capacity after 10 weeks only 90% ??

Hello community!
I hope I'll get some information here, since I am a new mac user
Hope you guys can help?!
Here's the thing: I got my macbook pro in october 2010 (mid 2010 model)
I've been using coconut capacity monitor since the beginning and always monitored the battery life. Yesterday I noticed, that coconut says battery capacity is 90% of the original capacity! Coconut says that I did around 48 load cycles so far.
my question: What am I doing wrong here? I always try to work with the mbp until it runs out of battery; I don't plug it in before, no charging when the battery is not completely empty. How can it happen, that the capacity reduces that fast?
What should I do in order to preserve the battery life? Is it possible to restore the 100% battery capacity by recalibrating it several times (like the apple support page advices) ??
Thank you for you answers and your help in advance!!
Kind regards,
griesTraum

With 48 load cycles in only ten weeks, you're working your battery very hard. And always running the battery down to zero before recharging it is a bad practice that will age your battery prematurely. If your work and lifestyle don't require you to consume the full capacity of the battery almost daily, don't do it.
It's not unusual to see the battery's reported Full Charge Capacity (and consequently its "health") fluctuate up and down by several percentage points from day to day and week to week, particularly when it's relatively new. If you give the battery at least a little use every few days, it should be calibrated every two or three months. Calibrate it now or as soon as it's convenient for you, then try to keep it plugged into AC power most of the time, using the battery for just an hour or two every day or two "to keep the electrons moving," as Apple says. This will be an ideal use pattern for the longevity of your battery. If it doesn't fit your life, don't do it: the battery exists to serve you, not you to serve it.
The best summary of useful information about MBP batteries that I know of is here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1764220
If after following these suggestions for a few weeks, your battery's health continues to decline steadily and rapidly, you may have a defective battery. But until it shows less than 80% health, you're unlikely to get anything from Apple other than a report that it is "within specifications." So if you think it may be defective, wait until it shows 75-78% health for a least a week or two, and continues to show less than 80% after a new calibration. Then take it to an Apple Store, where they have a specific test they can run on it, and ask to have it tested. If it's defective, you'll get a free replacement.

Mid 2010 MacBook Pro battery capacity at 89% with 64 cycles

Hello everyone,
I have a 13" mid 2010 MacBook Pro that I got around Christmas time. I downloaded coconutbattery a couple days ago and when i used it then My battery capacity had been 91%. So I thought that this was odd because of how new the computer is still (15 wks old with 64 battery cycles) so I read about how the battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time and after doing so (followed the directions perfectly) My capacity is now down to 89%. Should this be something to be concerned about or is this normal?

It's quite normal and sometimes a recalibration can see things go up as well as down

MacBook Pro Mid 2010 Battery Capacity

I've read a few threads about this, mostly about battery capacity rapidly dropping after an install of ML. I installed ML when it first came out, and just noticed the drastic decrease in battery life about 3 weeks ago. My capacity could have potentially been dropping since I installed ML (and I just now noticed it), or it may have just started a couple weeks ago when I noticed. I'm not sure.
Either way, my MacBook Pro (Mid 2010) now has a battery life of less than an hour, even with extremely light processor load. I contacted Apple about this, and the tech said that the battery was rated for 1000 cycles. I'm currently at 220, and my battery capacity is a pathetic 30%. He said that since I wasn't under warranty, there was nothing they could do besides replace the battery - which I really want to avoid since I'm a broke college student.
Is there anything I can do here? I understand that I'm not under warranty anymore, and this wouldn't be a problem if my battery was degrading normally. However, getting 1/5th of the recommended battery life is pretty sad. I've read that doing a clean install of Mountain Lion/Lion might help. Is there a way I can do this without having to back up all my files? I don't have an external hard drive or anything.
It seems this is a common topic in these forums. Any help or links to solutions would be great. If this is answered in a similar topic, I'll gladly delete.
Here is the system info on my battery, incase that might help:
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number:          9G030040MD3MA
Manufacturer:          DP
Device Name:          bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:          0
PCB Lot Code:          0
Firmware Version:          201
Hardware Revision:          2
Cell Revision:          158
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh):          1453
Fully Charged:          No
Charging:          Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          1939
Health Information:
Cycle Count:          220
Condition:          Service Battery
Battery Installed:          Yes
Amperage (mA):          1507
Voltage (mV):          12214
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):          0
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          15
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Wake on LAN:          Yes
Current Power Source:          Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep:          0
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):          15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          10
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
Reduce Brightness:          Yes
Hardware Configuration:
UPS Installed:          No
AC Charger Information:
Connected:          Yes
ID:          0x0100
Wattage (W):          60
Revision:          0x0000
Family:          0x0085
Serial Number:          0x00cb7bc3
Charging:          Yes
Thanks in advance

Condition:
     Service Battery
You need a new battery.

Fluctuating Battery Capacity

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