[pupspals]

I already had apple replace my battery 6 months ago (about) under the defective battery. I had no symptoms of battery errors at the time but saw the recall, checked the stats, & replaced it per the instructions. Apple said it was bad & sent me a new one. Now my battery is worse than it was before!!! I can't go 5 mins without my battery. How nice of apple to send me a battery that was worse than the one I had. I need to tell them this of course, I just haven't yet...

[wardoggie]

From the Battery Exchange website:

"The affected batteries have model number A1175 and a 12-digit serial number that ends with U7SA, U7SB or U7SC."

Close, but no cigar. My fourth-to-the-last "digit" is W, not a U. I guess my symptoms are normal wear and tear? This is the first laptop I've owned with a Li-ion battery.

[akdce]

I sent my MacBook Pro into Apple a couple of months ago for an unrelated issue when they discovered the problem with my battery. The battery only had 92 cycles on it at the time and would not go over 38% health on my iStat Pro widget. I would only get around 30 minutes of use after a full charge and then just shut down without warning. I calibrated it on a regular basis and I had already installed the battery update with nothing. When I got my computer back from Apple, they told me the battery was defective, but would not replace it because it wasn't under warranty, even though I had purchased AppleCare. Instead they kindly offered to send me a replacement for $129 plus free shipping! That doesn't sound like a free replacement plan to me!

[wardoggie]

So this article has me wondering--what are some good options for replacement batteries? I googled and found some from Battery Technology and FastMac. Both are Li-polymer batteries, not the Li-ion type that came with my macbook pro. Anyone have any experience with these? How do they compare against the OEM replacement from Apple? (Which seems to be Li-polymer now, too, but is not getting good ratings at two stars out of five.)

[cphoffman42]

Quick follow up - I took my MacBook Pro into the 5th Avenue Apple Store today (which still had a fairly long line for iPhones...) to have them check out my battery. Dave, the Apple Genius who helped me out, checked out my battery through the System Profiler and was like, "Yeah, your battery is toast." He then scanned my MBP and said that it was not coming up as being under warranty. I then mentioned the two year extended warranty and showed him a printout of the webpage that I had brought with. He then got a little confused as to why the page said that the warranties were extended, but the battery was not coming up as under warranty. He wandered off for a minute, came back, and said that they did not think it qualified for some reason, but that they would give me a new battery anyway. So I am now the proud owner of a new battery for my MacBook Pro!

Lessons for others:

1) Make sure you have a printout of the Apple support page with you - your Genius will likely not know about the particular extension, since it seems they just scan a barcode to see if the system is under warranty. I think having this with me helped immensely.

2) Don't be a jerk. It seems like they have some amount of discretion to help you out on this, so being nice can only help.

Anyway, hope others are having luck exchanging their batteries as well!

[Martin_Baker]

Well I'm certainly not alone then...I bought my 15" MacBook Pro in Oct 2006 and am now on my third battery. The original one kept switching the Mac off without warning even though it said there was 20 mins or so left. I took it to the Apple Store in London and they swapped it for a new one in Aug 2007.
Then recently I've only been getting about 80 mins use from a full charge. Took it to the Apple Store in Kingston and they swapped it again without any problem. I was told that capacity on full charge should be 4700mAh after 200 charge cycles. Mine was around 3500mAh after only 50 cycles so it was clearly another rogue battery.
I'm kinda stunned, that others haven't had such a hassle free experience, don't take no for an answer, there's clearly major problems with a lot of these batteries. Good luck!

[derkathon]

I figure I'd post my story as well regarding getting the battery problem resolved.

I purchased my MacBook Pro in fall 2006--right in the middle of the affected date range. I talked to phone support earlier this week, and the woman on the line didn't seem to know about the issue linked to in this article. I offered to give her the web address and she read it over. She told me that she didn't think she could authorize a replacement since my computer was out of warranty but said that she would give me a case number and an Apple store would be able to take care of me. I somewhat dreaded this since the closest store is 100 miles roundtrip and always packed. However, once I got to a genius, I handed him the printout and within 5 minutes I had a new battery. He said that normally they would have to order a replacement and I would have to wait a few days, but since I researched the problem and had a case number he'd just give me a retail one off the shelf. When we tested it in store, it registered 50% charged and already registered more time available than my defective, fully charged battery.

[ABCIPA]

About a month ago the battery on my MBP was at 0% and I wasn't able to charge the battery. My battery had only been through 21 cycles at the time. I contacted Apple and after trying the software install and reset there was no change. Apple shipped out a new battery (no expense to me) and I shipped the old one back. I have Apple Care, which is worth every penny you pay. My MBP was over 2 years old when this occurred.

[terigox]

Not to beat on the dead horse here, but to help clarify how big of an issue this is, I have also had this problem!
My original 1.8 mbp was part of the first battery recall, so I got a new battery about 6-8 months after buying my laptop. Then just recently (about 1.5 years later I guess) the "replacement" battery had the same exact symptoms yours described. Then eventually it just died. Literally! No lights, not power, no charge, nothing.
Apple replaced it, but it's still a pain to go through. I believe (not positive) all of these batteries are Sony batteries, so Apple really has no control over them. Hopefully Sony can get their battery act together.

[serickjr]

My Battery is behaving exactly as described on Apples website. I took mine in to the genius bar and they told me that mine was not covered under the replacement program that only certain serial numbers were covered, but mine was not one of them and then quickly offered to sell me a new battery for $119 bucks.....

What next? Do I try a different Apple store?

On a good note though, they did replace my hacked iPhone that had a burn mark in the screen. Makes no sense why they can replace something they shouldnt and dont replace something they should!

[akdce]

I thought that I'd try again at the Apple Store, this time with the printout from Apple detailing the replacement program in hand. I only had 97 cycles at 37% health (according to iStat Pro). My system profiler stated to "Check Battery" so by all means I should have qualified. Again, to my surprise, I was told I didn't qualify. But this time was offered an explaination. The battery replacement program is only good for Intel Core Duo MBP and NOT Intel Core 2 Duo machines which mine is. The Apple Store Genius showed me on my printout where it does clearly states "Intel Core Duo." I questioned whether it was the battery or the computer that was the problem and he said that as far as he knew it was a battery issue. I then pointed out that it was the same battery in all 15" MBP whether Core Duo or Core 2 Duo. He agreed and then you could see almost see the light bulb turn on above his head. He immediately said, "Hmm...that is interesting. Tell you what, we'll get you taken care of." Less than five minutes later I had a free replacement battery. It's just too bad that a month ago I had purchased a new replacement battery from Amazon.com that I've been using since it arrived. The replacement batteries given by Apple as part of this program are not in a retail box, so I unfortunately I couldn't just send it to Amazon and get my money back. Amazon will only take unopened products back for full refunds. Oh well, at least I have two working batteries instead of one good one and one piece of junk.

[derkathon]

That's interesting that they would point out the fact that the document says "Core Duo" and not "Core 2 Duo" since during part of the February 2006 and April 2007 timeframe mentioned in the document Core 2 Duo laptops were offered exclusively; I specifically waited for Core 2 Duo before purchasing mine in October 2006.

[derkathon]

I would try calling phone support first. It seems like most of the employees I've spoke to were looking at a separate battery exchange issue located at http://www.apple.com...atteryexchange/ (which as of yesterday, 7/25, has been closed, according to the site). When I pointed the woman at phone support to http://www.apple.com.../batteryupdate/, the document mentioned in this article, she looked it over, set me up with a ticket number, and sent me on my way to the apple store. When I went to the apple store and spoke with a genius, I gave him the print out linked to in this article and my ticket number and was taken care of in less than five minutes. He said that normally they have to order replacement batteries through a special process, but since I did all the necessary research for him he let me go that day with a new battery off the shelf.

[terigox]

Well, just when you thought everything was fixed.... I'm thinking this really isn't a battery issue. As I said a couple weeks ago, I was having the same issue. I ended up getting a brand new battery after calling into Apple Support.
Yesterday, my battery started acting up again. The battery said "Not Charging", and was putting out 0 amps according to the system information. This battery had 9 charge cycles on it.

I called Apple Support back and stated the problem, he did a couple of things with me, had me reset the system parameters (Holding down option, apple, r, p and the power button for 4 boot up chimes; I think this was the key combination, don't hold me too it) and that didn't change anything.


He suggested to take it into the local store for them to run diagnostics on. I'm going to see if I can find the diagnostics software tonight when I get home and run it myself ahead of time to see what it has to say.


I'm starting to believe the charging system in the MBP's or something else is flaking out. My MBP is an original 1.8ghz Core Duo that fell under the "battery recall"; so this is technically my 3rd battery.

I wouldn't tie the battery recall to a specific system though guys, it is battery specific. I'm pretty sure the core duos, and core 2 duos share the same battery.