17-inch MacBook Pro Battery Expansion (literally)
We’ll it seems my 9-month old MacBook Pro battery has suffered a fate similar to that of others.
About two weeks ago I noticed it randomly shutting of after a few minutes on battery power (not shutting down but rather completely losing power as if the battery died). This situation was rather scary as I’m currently working on my second book and a computer that loses power without notice isn’t a good thing while writing.
The battery indicator in the title bar read fully charged and the little green lights on the battery also indicated fully charged. iStat Pro indicated about 85 charge cycles and a battery health of 95%. This was strange. After a power failure, the battery indicated it was totally dead until it began to charge at which point it was full again. After trying this a few times, iStat Pro indicated a battery health of 3% — not good.
I searched the web for similar problems and began to fear the worst or at least I thought I would have to purchase a new battery. It seems there is a recall for batteries but it wasn’t for the 17-inch model that I have. First however I though I’d try 1-800-SOS-APPL — and it worked!
After briefly describing my problem, the Apple service rep — no questions asked — politely offered to send me a new battery at no charge! Sweet! I now have a new battery but while waiting for it to arrive I had left the bad battery in my MacBook to fill the gaping hole in the bottom. After only a day, I noticed that it wasn’t sitting quite so level on the desk and flipping it over revealed the problem:
It’s only grown bigger in the last few day. The funny part is the lights still indicate it’s charged! I guess It’s time to ship it back.
Defective products are never fun but congrats to Apple on not hassling me. I’ve only had a few issues with Apple products over the years and every time it’s been dealt with fairly and quickly.
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It’s frustrating to have these problems at all, but laptops are fragile things, and it is gratifying to know that Apple doesn’t give customers any BS about fixing stuff. I’ve just had my MacBook about 7 months now, and I’ve had to change the topcase twice, as well as get a dead battery replaced.
But yeah, I wouldn’t be keeping that swelled battery anywhere near your machine. Stick it in a box in the store room and try not to think about it.
hey guys, I purchased my first macbook pro a month back and am really scared about all these things happening. I just hope nothing bad happens to mine.
I Always Have Bad Luck Buying Laptops. I Had An iBook G4 and it had the battery problem. Then i got the MacBook Pro. Last night i chaged til 100% and this morning my battery was dead. I think both have the battery recall but i have not searched.
My brother has a 17 inch powerbook. Last night the battery swelled up and destroyed itself in our dining room. Not sure what is going on electro chemically but this is a product design flaw since batteries should never swell up and grow. Realizing that energy and chemicals are involved this failure event should be considered hazardous. It happened in our living room while the Kids were watching a DVD movie.
Apple response was to remove it from service immediately and never use it again as it is dangerous. The only offered solution is to buy a new battery. There is no options for these products that are outside of the warranty period. This is definitely a product quality issue - definitely not the kind of product that you should turn on and trust in your home if you don’t know if it will swell up or not. A type of ticking time bomb. My brothers powerbook is over 1 year old but not by much.
Apple’s should take a more proactive position and provide guidance and replacement for known design defects. Especially those of this nature. Everyone who has a defective product such as a 17 inch mac powerbook battery should contact Apple before the battery blows up. Don’t wait for it to happen - just go ahead and make the call so you can be aware of the issue.
The apple macbook battery is very well.But I need a high quliaty digital camera battery.(http://www.digital-camera-batteries.net)