Neatly Sliced

According to iStat’s documentation on their battery section, battery health is calculated by the current capacity versus original (new) capacity, although I’m sure they include variables like average temperature and number of cycles in their calculation.

I have read in various forums that average battery wear and tear is 80% health at 300 cycles. As you can see from the photo, I’m at 244 cycles and 70% health. If I sit and watch my unplugged portable, I can see the battery percentage shrink as the minutes pass. It’s as fun as charades, only completely depressing.

I purchased AppleCare on my MacBook Pro because I have a tendency to have expensive things go wrong. I called the AppleCare phone number (1-800-APL-CARE [1-800-275-2273] as of December 2007) and endured about a half hour of troubleshooting by a rather nice fellow who was reading the script the computer was showing him. The possibly unnecessary steps I was forced to take:

1. Ensure that I am using BatterUpdater version 1.3. This is done by navigating to /System/library/SystemConfiguration/ and Get Info on BatteryUpdater.bundle. Of course, I have the latest version.
2. Shut down my machine, unplug the power adapter, and check the battery’s serial number and model number. This is to ensure that you battery is not in the defective range as detailed on the corresponding Apple Support page.
3. Replace battery, plug computer back in, start machine, only to restart to zap the PRAM. This is accomplished by holding the key combination Command+Option+P+R on restart, and waiting for the second chime. (Apple Knowledge Center reference)
4. Open Apple System Profiler (Apple menu > About This Mac > More Info…), and read off to my helpful assistant the information under Power > Battery Information.

After much ado about nothing, my helpful assistant concluded that my battery was defective and promptly mailed me (in less than 48 hours, mind you) a new battery, under the stipulation that I return my depressed chargeless power device.

The moral of the story is, my AppleCare has just nearly paid for itself by replacing my battery that I was using every day. Now I get another two years of peace of mind in case anything else breaks down.

Popularity: 15% [?]