Falling Battery

Well, I haven't seen anyone else post this topic, so I guess it's just me.
My Late 2001 iBook has, on a couple of occasions, lost its grip on the battery. To be specific, the lock on the bottom of the computer turns to the unlocked position and the battery falls out. Not tragic (At least not yet, I haven't been doing anything crucial when it happens.) but inconvenient for one big reason- If the battery is fully charged when this happens, when I put the battery back in both the iBook and the battery say that the battery is dead. It recharges, but now it's lifespan is shortened.
Some background; I purchased this replacement battery about 1 year ago. The lock mechanism seems to be loose and turns more easily than it has in the past. Resetting the PMU didn't do anything, although I see on this board that sometimes multiple resets are needed, so I'll try that.
Has anyone seen this problem and have any suggestions on what I can do to stop this happening again and maybe reclaim my lost battery life? I'm down to about an hour now...

Hi, Robin.
I'm not sure how you would go about installing it, but you may need a battery latch kit.
As for regaining battery life, I don't think there's much hope of that. You can try calibrating the battery.
As long as the battery is recognized by the iBook and charges okay, I don't think I'd try any other procedures.

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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.

Do You Know Your iPod Battery May Fall Under Warranty Replacement?

I have the extended warranty on my iPod Touch. My batter life was horrible... without wifi just playing music getting just over 3 hours. I also had a bad MBP battery. Called up AppleCare and got case numbers for both after diagnosis. Was taking a long drive to an Apple Store with Genus appt the next day...
My name was called and my Genus re-ran the MBP battery check finding it at fault and went to replace it... I said that I was having an issue with the Touch battery as well. He said "You know that the battery is NOT covered under warranty!". I said NO, if a battery is faulty that it is covered under warranty. I told him that it was THE reason that I purchased the warranty... He argued with me about it and I just couldnt believe my ears... I said that all he had to do was go to the Apple site and find the Touch battery warranty description... He started printing out the MBP battery replacement agreement and we had another video test to run on the MBP... he went in the back to get a DVD.
As I sat there I started hearing all the genus say to every customer with a iPod battery issue say that battery replacement cost blah blah blah... no one was asked if they had a warranty or that if the battery was found to be faulty the battery replacement would be covered. One guy came in with his son saying the iPod was a Christmas present and the battery was only getting blah blah hours... Again, he was told that a battery replacement would cost $$$. It was surely under warranty but he was still charged! ***?
My Genus comes back and runs the video test with a Howdy Doody DVD, UGH... anyways... he goes back to return the DVD and comes back with something in his hand, unwraps a Touch and tosses it my way. I asked him what was up? He says that the original Touch battery is not replaceable so here was a new one. I said OK... thinking, why was he giving me one after arguing with me about the battery NOT being under warranty???
So, I guess it pays off to know your warranty with Apple products as the Genus wont offer the facts. Maybe this was just at the Cleveland OH Apple Store. So, wondering if you know that your iPod battery may fall under warranty and if this is a national fraud by Genus?
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB591LL/A#overview "3. Service coverage is available for battery depletion of 50 percent or more from original specification."

According to this page -> http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=United_States&product=ipod
Will the data on my iPod be preserved?
No. You will receive a replacement iPod that will not contain any of your data, songs, etc. Before you submit your iPod for service, it is your responsibility to keep a separate backup copy of the data stored on your iPod and reinstall that data. Please do not send any accessories with your iPod as they will not be returned.
Attention iPod touch customers: Before obtaining service, it is important to back up your data using iCloud or iTunes. Apple is not responsible for the loss of information while servicing your iPod touch and does not offer any data transfer service.
Following service your replacement iPod touch may have a newer operating system (iOS) version and you will need to restore your data using the method used to back it up (iCloud or iTunes). As a result, you may also need to update your App Store applications to ensure compatibility with the newer iOS. If you experience a problem with an application purchased from the App Store, check iTunes to see if an update is available or contact the application vendor directly.
B-rock

Any ideas on how to prevent the battery cover from falling out?

My battery cover continuously falls out. Is there something I am doing wrong?

Usually it's because the cover isn't fully inserted for the latch to catch. The left photo is incorrect. The right photo shows the cover fully inserted. Just push harder on each side of the latch.

Battery of a 4 week old macbook (2012) pro 13''. It reaches 100% after a hard time but fall down to 99% after few seconds. What is the problem?

Why does my newly bought Macbook pro 13'' 2012 battery has a hard time reaching 100%. It reaches to 100% with a longer charging but then falls down to 99% in a few seconds time. I have heard and read about calibration. But I think that the computer is young (only 4 weeks old) to be calibirated. What might be the issue here? This problem started just recently.

When my MBP is plugged into the wall (when I am near a plug, I usually have it plugged in) it will stop charging at 100% and drop slowly to 95% before auto-recharging to 100%.
Saves the circuits from charging all of the time.
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Previous Recall battery falls in rage but show "invalid"

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What a hassle. Thank you Sony.

I was having a problem where my laptop was recognised but the battery was not, even though it was in scope according to the numbers.
I phone Apple UK and after getting over the initial stumbling block of the guy not knowing what I was talking about. He arranged to send me out a replacement battery. He took my credit card details and said if I don't send the old one back within 10 days of receiving the new battery I would be charged. he said the battery should be with me within 7 days. The call took about 30 minutes while I was holding on the line. The number for U.K. is 0870 8760753.

E75 - Battery Level falls drastically quick despit...

Hi,
since 2 weeks, the battery level of My E75 falls very quick.
The first 50% are use in 8 hours, and the last 50% sucked the next 2 hours.
Last week, i've tried to reinstall the actual firmware. this has temporary improve the battery life for 3 days.
I thought it was due to failing battery, sor i've purchased an original brand new one, fully loaded it Thursday evening and now, the folllowing Saturday, the battery level falls from 3 lines to nothing in 1 hour time in the afternoon.
I do not have changed my mobile habits. My battery normally live from 3 to 4 days and the level allways falls slowly in a continuous way.
I've the last Firmware installed on my E75 since a very long time.
Could it be a software issue ?
Is there any use to reset the device to "firm" status and restore the backup token with OVI-Suite ?
Could my device need reparation for this issue ?
Please give me some feedback. This is my wife's mobile and she really loves and needs the device.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Reinob,
thanks for your post.
There is definitely no background application running at all.
This is a pure Phone-sms usage. Only Bluetooth is on (since the beginning) for carkit usage purpose.
This is the reason why the battery low issue sounds to me very strange. Nothing has been changed in usage and habits.
This morning i made a hard reset of the phone *#7370# and reapply firmware and restore backup.
The last full battery load was this night so let's see if something will be changed by the restored.

Mac falls asleep when battery gets down to roughly, half charged

it falls asleep once it gets to this point, and then i wake it up and the charge has gone right down.
Does it need to be calibrated? or is the problem bigger than that?

Most likely you need a replacement. There are known issues with MBP batteries, and an extension of the battery warranty to 2 years, as described on this page:
http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/
Go to System Profiler (Apple menu > About this mac > More info) and click on Power. If the Full Charge Capacity is less than 4400 mAh for a 15" or less than 5000 mAh for a 17" MBP, your battery is failing. If your Cycle Count is less than 300, your battery is failing prematurely and Apple will replace it for free. If that's the case, call Apple or visit an Apple Store for a free replacement.

Replacement battery is falling apart!!

I had my battery replaced as apart of the exchange program that took place some time ago. I noticed today that the replacement battery is falling apart. The top plate is lifting off of the battery, on the edge where the 5 power indicator lights are. The rest of the battery looks to be in fine condition, so I don't think the entire battery is in danger, but potentially it could be, if the top plate lifts off anymore. My big question is, my warranty has run out, but since this was the replacement battery that Apple gave me during the battery exchange program, should they replace this for me at no cost? If so, could someone post a link to an email address I can write to, to tell them of this problem & hopefully have it resolved? And for arguments sake, this battery is barely used. I use my laptop as a desktop, which means, I have the battery out about 98% of the time. So this wasn't caused by normal wear & tear. Please let me know what I can do, thanks!

For starters, you should not be running your MacBook with the battery removed. The battery gets very minor charge/discharge cycles while it is plugged in which helps to keep the battery exercised at least somewhat. You should make it a point to calibrate your battery however if you primarily use it plugged in... every few months or so. Your machines performance also drops significantly when run with the battery removed... and unless you are plugged into a UPS, you risk losing anything you may be working on, but haven't saved, if you have a power fluctuation. There are certain conditions during which A/C power does not supply enough current. The battery makes up for that difference. This is why the performance is designed to drop when run without the battery being installed.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
There is no email to contact Apple for your problem. You should give Apple a call directly and explain your problem. Only they will be able to let you know if your battery replacement would be covered.

BatteryPower, doesn't fall asleep when battery empty.. keeps running

Hi,
I'm having a weird "problem"/"feauture" (depends on how you see it :P)
When i'm running on batterypower, and the battery reachers 1%, it sticks there
where it normally falls asleep... I can just keep working. This worries me because I don't want to kill the internal battery for when it is asleep :\
I don't remember where I saw it, but in some little app i read that my battery capacity is merely 55mAh (or something like that) That's not much
Could it just be that the battery isn't at 1% at all... but at like +/- 50% ?
Maybe the battery gives wrong information or something... is there a safe reset for it somewhere?
Thanks in advance

Try booting into OS 9 and see if the problem exists there, too. If so, it is probably your reed switch at fault.
Apple says not to run it with the display closed.

Lenovo T410s, T420s, T430s, Ultrabay battery falls off

Hi,
At the company i am working at we have bought a whole bunch of T410s, T420s and some brand new T430s with a extra battery (ultrabay) instead of a DVD player, but for some reason the extra battery falls off at random when you lift the laptop. This problem is not on every laptop but i'ts on 3/10 of them.
It seems like the lock for the dvd/battery is broken, but I've open it up and made sure nothing was broken. Nada, but on one of the computers (a t430s) the battery connector was broken and some small parts of the battery was still stuck on it, like someone has bruteforced the battery to connect to the computer to not fall off.
Might this hardware problem be a cause of wrong batterys for the model? Or is this factory-related?
Ideas on how to fix this or is it just to send them to lenovo for repair?

I've found a way to start battery charge process - turn off (disable) BIOS -> I/O -> "Ultrabay CD/HDD". But the problem is that charge current is too small - it starts at 0.10A, then (very quick) drops to 0.01A value and stops when 2% of capacity. What is this? I need to work (I'm a microelectronics engineer), not to repair notebook.
PS I'm monitoring current at Power Manager software.

Macbook battery falling apart/buldging

I have one of the black 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo Macbooks. In the last few days the battery on it has started to fall apart. It's 'buldging' and the top is literally 'blowing' (peeling) right off of it. The machine is out of warranty/applecare but this seems like a product defect. Would apple do anything about this, or am I stuck having to replace the battery?

If you have a MacBook with the removable battery you can get a new third party battery fairly cheap on eBay.
Black Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+black+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+white+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313
White Batteries http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=macbook+white+battery&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=12 &_dmpt=Laptop_Batteries&_odkw=macbook+black+battery&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0. m 270.l1313
Or for $129 from Apple http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA566LL/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

Battery Frequently Falls Out

My girlfriend's 12" iBook G4 (1.2ghz) has a problem that I haven't encountered before. The battery falls out often. She doesn't have two batteries, and there is no reason for her to ever unlock the battery latch, but somehow it unlocks itself and falls out at the most inopportune time....
Anyone else have this problem?
The only fix I can think of is taping the battery in, but I wish there is another solution.

I also suffer from this problem with my G4 iBook. I know that it is not something I am doing wrong, as I have owned (and still do) a G3 iBook and the battery never falls out.
I've had my iBook for 6 months now and the battery falls out at least every 3 weeks with regular use. The battery lock is much looser than on my G3, so even though I make sure I twist it the whole way to 'lock' it still seems to gradually work it's way back to 'unlock' - and the battery comes crashing out.
I took it in to the Apple Store in Chicago and they looked at me like I was crazy. They also told me "Aesthetics aren't covered under warranty" - which made me wonder if the kid even knew what that word mades. They totally dismissed me and said I'd have to replicate the problem in-store (which is impossible as the loosening of the battery occurs over a week or two of regular use).
He also then exlpained how I needed to turn the lock all the way to the "lock" symbol. This annoyed me even more, as I felt like I was being treated like an idiot. If I can operate a mac for 15 years, I'm sure I can understand how to interpret the battery lock symbols and their function.
I don't know what to do now?
G4 iBook Mac OS X (10.4.3)

When using nav in car battery % still falls.

Hello
When I use the Copilot USA navigation in the car I still notice that the percentage charge drops despite it being plugged into the USB port in the car. I am using a flush mount iLuv USB car charger which claims to be 5V 500mA. The 12V power plug is under the arm rest so I cannot use a big chunky car adapter.
Do I need more power? Does anyone have a USB port 12V power adapter that is small and has more power? I cannot use a direct to dock cable charger, I have to use a USB port charger.
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Keeping the iPhone on charger all the time doesn't do it any harm - if the battery doesn't need to be charged, the iPhone doesn't charge it. Some argue that car electrical systems aren't as clean as home electrical systems are and that it is dangerous to use a car charger on electronic devices. That may be true several iPods and cars later I see no evidence of that - I've always replaced iPods for improved specs not because they stopped working.

Battery capacity rapidly falling

SInce the battery update about 10 days ago my battery has been losing it's maximum charge capacity. I noticed that when unplugged the time remaining on my powerbook went from about 2hrs 30mins to about 1hr 30mins after the update.
I downloaded CoconutBattery to monitor this and since Jan 13th, it has gone from 2440mAh to 1805mAh today (20th Jan). I have tried re-calibrating the battery and resetting the power manager (each several times), but this seems to make it worse!!
My battery is 13 months old (15 according to Coconut battery) and has had 314 loadcycles.
Is my battery failing and is this just a coincidence that this has happened just after the battery update?
P.S. perhaps I should give my wife this powerbook and swap for her MacBook Pro when it arrives?
15" G4 1.33GHz Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.4)

That thread doesn't solve my problem.
After the Battery Update, I noticed that my battery capacity was much less than before, I then downloaded Coconut Battery and started recording the capacity. At that time (after the update) the capacity was 2440mAh (13th), it has declined pretty rapidly from then on (2190mAh on the 15th, 2097mAh on the 17th, and 1805mAh on the 20th). During this time I have tried recalibrating and resetting the PMU etc, and this actually seemed to make things worse?!
I would assume that a decrease of 600mAh in one week is not what one would expect.
My questions are:
1. Is the battery failing?
2. Is this related to the battery update?
3. My battery has had 315 loadcycles, how many loadcycles should I expect from a battery before replacement?
4. Is it possible to reset the battery? Or remove the update?
Thank you for any assistance.
Rob

Falling Battery

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