15 dying MacBooks?

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Hi there,

I'm having quite a big problem with a few of the MacBooks at the school in which I work. I was hoping someone on here might be able to shed some light.

We have a batch of 15 13" MacBooks, purchased sometime between 2004 and 2005, so they are quite old. Recently, the batteries have started doing odd things. To put it simply, they just die! And I don't mean discharge quickly or show limited life...I mean completely cut out...without warning.

To give an example, a MacBook will have been charging overnight. It is switched on in the morning and will show good battery life. After about 20 minutes of use, and when the battery is showing maybe 60% or so remaining, the power will just cut out completely, as if the battery had been pulled out. Given a few seconds, the laptop can then be powered back on (without a charger!) and will boot up fine. It will then very likely repeat the problem after a few minutes. This is all with the battery life still showing as adequate.

This incident is not isolated. It has begun occurring on about 7 of our 15 MacBooks within the last couple of weeks. Very odd!

Can anyone shed some light on the issue? I've tried resetting the SMC on all of the MacBooks by holding the power button with battery removed. This doesn't seem to have made a difference. Am I looking at 15 new batteries sometime soon? :(

Many Thanks
 
There was an issue with batteries a while back. I'll have a bit of a look for more info on it but wouldn't be surprising to see faulty ones.
 
I would firstly reset the PRAM & the NVRAM on the MacBooks also take a look under the power tab on system profiler and see what condition the battery is in It could say 'Check Battery' It sounds to me like the batteries are on there way out. However give the above a try first.
 
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0003
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3308
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3476
Health Information:
Cycle count: 281
Condition: Check battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -18
Voltage (mV): 12319

Hmm...
 
The system profiler does not appear to have a 'Condition' option on the power tab. Is this a good thing?
 
That is definitley a faulty battery unfortunatley. It does this because it will have some bad battery cells. Same thing happened on my MacBook Pro, Apple replaced it no questions asked under warranty.

I'm not sure whether you will have 15 more batteries, or whether Apple will replace them for you, but I expect these laptops are put of warranty?
 
Cycle count: 281
Condition: Check battery
Click to expand...

This makes me think that it should be a free replacement based on their replacement program guidelines. I didn't bother with applecare.

There's also the fact that the MBP gets so hot it's not lap compatible - lithium ion batteries don't like high heat and as a result they die quickly..
 
Last edited:
NickK said:
This makes me think that it should be a free replacement based on their replacement program guidelines. I didn't bother with applecare.

There's also the fact that the MBP gets so hot it's not lap compatible - lithium ion batteries don't like high heat and as a result they die quickly..
Click to expand...

My MBP battery died last week i had apple care, lappy is only 1yr old and apple had me a new one within 3 days. Great Service.
 
If these were bought through the education scheme, they'll still be under warranty. 3 year warranty, and the Macbook was released in May 2006.
 
braz2kuk said:
My MBP battery died last week i had apple care, lappy is only 1yr old and apple had me a new one within 3 days. Great Service.
Click to expand...

Did you have to send the old one back?
My battery also cuts out on me without warning when it still has 30%+ battery on it so I will need to call applecare soon.
 
Without reading the thread it looks like the cycle count has exceeded the recommended / healthy limit.

Go to Apple > About this Mac > More info.. then click on Power.

The "health status" subsection, and "cycle count" will be a telling sign of fail.
 
To be honest my macbook has been quite useless, I love it to bits but it really has been poor in terms of build quality. The first problem is that I dropped it (accidentally) low a very low hieght and the screen stopped working (which) I managed to fix after dismantling it and reconnecting some lead that connected to the top left of the main board. Then I picked it up by the screen itself (only softly) and the screen cracked which means that only 3/4 of the screen is usable now. Not a huge issue as I use with an external TFT, but all the same think they aren't built to last :(
 
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