No Warning Shutdowns with a Battery Level at 60%

Question

The latest battery update seems to have totally borked my MBP. Previous to version 1.3, I was having goofy problems such as a discharging battery showing 5% remaining, then two minutes later showing 22%.
Since 1.3, my MBP just shuts down with no warning when the battery indicator reaches 40%. I did a recalibration and that didn't work. I reset the PMU, and now it shuts down when the battery indicator reaches 60%.
I thought maybe the MBP was just misreading the battery status, but my mac is exactly one year old and I am getting less than an hour before the 'no-warning' shutdown, which seems rather low.
I did check the battery exchange program page, and my serial number isn't recognized. I went to the battery update page and called the support number (as per their instructions), and the dork told me I had to pay $40 for phone support. *Apparently their is no way to actually get service on the battery that has an extended two-year warranty because of power issues??????* I might be able to get a better response at the genius bar, but the nearest apple store is about 2 hours away and with these gas prices, it might be cheaper to pay the 40 bucks. So I'm hoping I can get help here first.
Is anybody else having similar issues, or a solution to this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks....

Answer 1

Hey Nathaniel,
I had your same problem.
My Macbook is 7 months old & after I installed the battery update 1.3 it was suddenly shutting off instantly (while not plugged in to the AC adapter) at around 84% power left.
I called Apple (1-800-275-2273 - use the battery update extension) and talked to two different reps explaining my newly acquired problem. The first rep had me do a pram reset (which I had done already to no avail), and kinda questioned my comprehension of the problem. She told me to do the reset and to wait & see if that helped matters & call them back. I told her I had done that already the previous night, and would know within 15 minutes if it helped me or not, but she kinda wanted to get me out of her hair, it seemed.
Anyway, I did the reset (again), and called back...boy, what a difference! I got a new rep and he immediately knew what the problem was. He just simply stated that he would have apple send a new battery to me (gave them my c.c. # & said they would charge $1.00 to it, until they got the old battery back to them), no problem, and he was totally cool, knowledgable & efficient.
I really appreciated that help from him.
I'm certainly not an idiot, and I really scoured these boards & various online sites to try to figure out my problem BEFORE calling Apple, so I was a little miffed when the first rep was questioning my understanding of the problem....ugh.
Anyway, long story short, I received the new battery 2 days laters, installed it, and...voila!
problem solved.
The battery update 1.3 killed my old battery by maybe changing the power settings in it's microprocessor (?) ...I'm not sure. Anyway, the new battery works great. No more instant shutdowns.
It's probably a temporary fix (only a 3 hour battery life?), but until Apple addresses this issue with another fix or battery update 1.4, i'm happy.
My advice is calling Apple customer service until you find somebody willing to help you. The first rep gently reminded me that my phone support had ended when I first spoke to her, but I also gently reminded her that my problem was due to Apple's recently released battery update 1.3, which I had installed in good faith upon their recommendation.
So it didn't really matter if MY phone support warranty had ended.
Live & learn.
Good luck & give us an update.
Message was edited by: VesperLynd