Service Battery Alert on Retina MBP Early 2015

Haly · 11 Jul 2017 at 17:42

Possibly a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question but it's handy to know what to expect.

My Early 2015 Retina MBP has started showing a service battery warning. It's only done it a couple of times so far but it feels like I haven't really had it long enough for that to be happening just yet. Only bought it January 2016. Last MBP took a good year or more longer to start showing that.

Nearest Apple Store is 50 miles away so not like I can just pop in, but is it worth sorting out an appointment yet? What's the most likely outcome? I've not had a laptop problem before so don't know if it gets sent off to repair? I can't afford to be without it for any length of time so that's not really an option.
It's not got AppleCare, unfortunately.

Obligatory screenshot for anyone that cares

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Jul 2017 at 17:45

Batteries are meant to be 1000 cycles! Yours has done 236! That has to be a faulty battery! I would get it booked and get it sent away for a repair.

Haly · 11 Jul 2017 at 17:49

They don't offer repairs in store? Like I said, I can't do without it for any length of time as my work depends on it.

Don't really want to lose out on income etc!

Feek · 11 Jul 2017 at 19:24

I would say you're good for a repair due to the low number of cycles, I'd use the Apple online chat first of all to see what they say and then perhaps a call to the store to ask them if they swap on the spot. I'd be surprised if they don't.

Oh and o/

Haly · 11 Jul 2017 at 20:13

Hey Feek

Will give all that a shot and see how it goes. Thanks

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Jul 2017 at 20:21

Haly said:
Hey Feek
Will give all that a shot and see how it goes. Thanks

Course Apple do repairs in store. This your first time owning an Apple product? lol

oh and hello "Woman of Honour". What did you have to do to get that

lol

Haly · 11 Jul 2017 at 20:23

mrbell1984 said:
Course Apple do repairs in store. This your first time owning an Apple product? lol

oh and hello "Woman of Honour". What did you have to do to get that lol

No

But I've never had anything go wrong before so have no idea what's involved in the repair process!

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Jul 2017 at 20:27

Haly said:
No But I've never had anything go wrong before so have no idea what's involved in the repair process!

I do apologise! To make you feel better I broke a MacBook 2016 board today on a rose gold version. They are virtually like butter. No room to fix no matter how careful you are! literally ripped the ribbon cable and socket out of the board as it fell from my hands!

it was a customers MacBook as well. oops!

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Jul 2017 at 20:31

oh...

To compare stats this is mine, due for a repair soon so I'm going to order myself a new battery and fit it since it's out of warranty.

Haly · 11 Jul 2017 at 21:08

mrbell1984 said:
I do apologise! To make you feel better I broke a MacBook 2016 board today on a rose gold version. They are virtually like butter. No room to fix no matter how careful you are! literally ripped the ribbon cable and socket out of the board as it fell from my hands! it was a customers MacBook as well. oops!

Oops

Only ever opened one MBP (my last one) to swap out the HD and RAM. That went a bit more smoothly

Looking at your stats, yup, mine is definitely a bit of a mess then

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Jul 2017 at 21:36

Haly said:
Oops Only ever opened one MBP (my last one) to swap out the HD and RAM. That went a bit more smoothly

Looking at your stats, yup, mine is definitely a bit of a mess then

You may want to do an SMC / PRAM/NVRAM reset. To do this there are a key combo on boot up. These store initial config files and it just resets them.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201295 & https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204063

ajf · 11 Jul 2017 at 21:40

I assume this is a third party app, so is there a possibility it has false readings?
Not installed on mine, but my Macbook Pro is coming up to three years old and not noticed any degredation in performance per charge.

Haly · 11 Jul 2017 at 21:44

mrbell1984 said:
You may want to do an SMC / PRAM/NVRAM reset. To do this there are a key combo on boot up. These store initial config files and it just resets them.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201295 & https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204063

Tried that the first time I got the service battery warning, but it returned a few days later :/

ajf said:
I assume this is a third party app, so is there a possibility it has false readings?
Not installed on mine, but my Macbook Pro is coming up to three years old and not noticed any degredation in performance per charge.

It is, but the 'service battery' alert is coming up independently of that/part of MacOS. I just used Coconut to see further details.

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Jul 2017 at 22:31

I'm sure I read if the battery had less than 1000 cycles they may replace it free. Trying to find where I read it now. It's 100% a battery issue as it's starting to fail.

Deleted member 138126 · 12 Jul 2017 at 11:04

A 3rd-party battery replacement kit (the iFixit one is around €100 and takes 2 hours to replace) could be an option if you desperately need to keep the Macbook.

The_Abyss · 14 Jul 2017 at 01:52

Wow, that is poor, definitely needs looking at. Mine is October 2013 and is operating at 90% with 399 cycles.

sbi5ar · 14 Jul 2017 at 07:47

Very poor and worth getting it looked at...

Mine is September 2013 (1403 days) - 686 cycles - 88.2% of design capacity (which I must say I am quite happy with)

Haly · 14 Jul 2017 at 12:31

rotor said:
A 3rd-party battery replacement kit (the iFixit one is around €100 and takes 2 hours to replace) could be an option if you desperately need to keep the Macbook.

I've got a feeling I might make a mess of that

I've dealt with Apple support online and they agreed that the battery is almost certainly defective, but they can't guarantee the store will be able to replace it on the day. Going to get an appointment sorted for next week and hope I can sort something out on the day!

Thanks for the extra insight into everyone's battery lives. Handy to know that this is far from typical.

GeX · 19 Jul 2017 at 07:09

mrbell1984 said:
I'm sure I read if the battery had less than 1000 cycles they may replace it free. Trying to find where I read it now. It's 100% a battery issue as it's starting to fail.

I took my 2012 MBPr in because the capacity dropped to 76% at approx 750 cycles. My thread is here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/2012-mbpr-service-battery.18781809/

tl;dr of the thread is that they agreed very quickly that it was faulty and would be replaced free of charge under consumer law despite my MBPr being 5 years old. However, the battery is bonded to the top case and so both are replaced at the same time and there's no stock of the top case till September. I was given the choice to wait, or have a refurb (likely higher spec) MBPr instead. I opted for a refurb, which I will pick up later today. I'll update the thread once I do

Deleted member 138126 · 19 Jul 2017 at 09:40

That's insane that they will replace a 5-yr old battery. How come they don't do this for iPhones and iPads?

Service Battery Alert on Retina MBP Early 2015

Woman of Honour

Woman of Honour

Woman of Honour

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Woman of Honour

Deleted member 138126

Deleted member 138126

Woman of Honour

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