Shuts down despite registering a charge

Question

Lately when running on the battery, my MacBook Pro quits despite showing a charge of ~20%, and with no warning. The battery has less capacity than when new, but still runs for maybe an hour or so. Is the unanticipated shutdown a battery problem or a computer problem? Any advice? Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi,
I am having the exact same issue as the others described. This just started happening about a week ago. I've had my MacBook Pro for 9 months. When the battery gets down to anywhere between, say, 30% to 40% remaining, the computer just turns completely off without any warning at all. No "lower power" warning or anything---it just turns off.
I looked at the link that is posted above on how to recalibrate your battery, however, I don't think any of us can do this because the instructions do not apply to us. Here is what the Apple article says to do:
-Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook's battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
-Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
-Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
-Continue to keep your computer on until it goes to sleep. Save all your work and close all applications when the battery gets very low, before the computer goes to sleep.
-Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
-Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.
The problem with this is that they tell you to use the computer until the low battery warning dialog box appears. However, since we do not receive a low battery warning dialog box, we can not follow these instructions. Our computers simply turn off without any warning.
Also, I don't know about others, but I have never been able to get a "green" or "fully charged" indication for my battery. It usually goes up to 98% or 99%---but I've never had it go to 100%. Sometimes the light will go green when the battery indicator shows 98%, however, I have never had BOTH a green light AND a 100% battery reading. Anyone else have this same thing happen?
I have also tried the PRAM reset (or maybe it's called SMC reset--I'm not sure). But this is where you restart the computer by holding down these four keys:
Command
Option
The "P" key
The "R" key
You hold these four keys down during a restart, and wait for it to play the startup sound two times---then let go of the keys and allow the computer to restart.
Okay, so do I have all of these right? If so, I think we are all still stuck and not sure what to do. Thank you very much!