Battery Capacity question


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I have a Mid 2009 17" MacBook Pro with about 260 Load cycles on it, according to system reports. Since I got a Surface Pro I've mainly only used this laptop at home with the power plugged in with occasionally taking it out with me on the road. I noticed the battery status showed "Service Battery" so I went to system reports and it showed I had about 8500mAh capacity left of the 13000mAh original design.

 

So let the unit run on battery to drain it completely, which is still in the process of doing so. Now I see the battery condition is Normal and the Max charge capacity at 10750 of the 13000.

 

Is that normal, or is that a sign the battery is crapping out?

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(I'm going to assume it hasn't been used for a while)

 

Let it have a couple of full cycles, then report back, sometimes it's just because it hasn't been used for a while, and the capacity 'appears' to have been effected, (After almost 6 years, it most likely has mind you)

Do you remember how long you used to get out of a full charge? As after a couple of cycles, if uptime difference is negligible, you should be ok.

 

That's about the level of advise I can safely offer, sorry

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I still use the laptop about a few times week. But I've always left it plugged in cause I only use it for less than an hour each time. It's just more curious than anything to why the battery went from "normal" to "service battery" then back to "normal" without actually doing anything to it and was wondering if this happens often with MacBook batteries in general. This isn't the first time I've seen this either. My previous MacBook Pro did the same thing too but that one I might or might not have accidentally completely drain the battery on more than 1 occasion. :p 

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Discharging and recharging a battery occasionally helps it keep track of its health. Without these cycles, the battery status is a projection based on the last acquired data, and the projected status can become inaccurate as time passes.

 

The battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate and to keep the battery operating at maximum efficiency. You should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months after that. If you normally leave your Apple portable computer connected to AC power and very rarely use it on battery power you may want to perform this process once a month.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201575
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