Battery capacity rapidly decreasing?

[Si_]

Hey,

I have one of the new mid 2009 MBPs, and using coconutbattery it says:

Current Capacity: 5298 mAh

Original Capacity: 5450 mAh

Battery Loadcycles: 10

Age of your mac: 2 months

That seems a fairly hefty loss of capacity after only 10 cycles?! Is that right?

[Miuku.]

Are you keeping your Mac plugged in constantly? Have you used the Apple's calibration guide yet? ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490 )

On that note, it could be worse - here's a copy paste from my 2007 MBP broken battery that Apple would not replace because it was bought during the summer and they said it did not match the list of broken batteries even thought it exhibited the *exact* symptoms;

  Charge Information:
  Charge remaining (mAh):	0
  Fully charged:	No
  Charging:	No
  Full charge capacity (mAh):	128
  Health Information:
  Cycle count:	61
  Condition:	Check Battery
  Battery Installed:	Yes
  Amperage (mA):	0
  Voltage (mV):	12303

The battery *died* after 60 cycles - beat that :-) And no, it's no longer in use :-)

[shihchiun]

150 mAh isn't that much. It could just be due to measurement error.

I will say that my late-2007 MBP battery didn't even get to 80 cycles before it lost most of its capacity. At the end I was barely getting an hour, and that was with everything turned off (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) and the brightness all the way down. I wouldn't be surprised if the newer batteries aren't much better.

[Aldur82]

It depends if those were complete cycles (totally dead to full charge) or just top-up cycles (75%-90% charge to full charge).

Try a couple of complete cycles (let the battery run dead, and then re-charge to full overnight), see if you can 'reset' the battery.

[dolby71]

i'm on 95% health with my battery after 255 cycles....

is that a good result? looks like you all have way worse results from your batteries.

[Miuku.]

255? That can't be right.

[shihchiun]

They're supposed to last for at least 300 cycles, so maybe he's got a good one.

[dolby71]

255? That can't be right.

yup.

got it for just over a year now. bought it in June 2008..

[_bobcat_ Veteran]

For camparison, after 16 months mine has gone from an original of 5020 mAh to 4740 mAh and is at 94% health. It's had 120 cycles.

Edit: Just found this article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

You can calibrate your iBook, PowerBook, MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro computer's lithium ion battery for best performance.

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. The website www.apple.com/batteries has more helpful information regarding batteries and offers an iCal calendar to remind you to calibrate your battery.

Edited July 17, 2009 by Laura

[well...]

My macbook unibody battery is at 100% health with 112 cycles, has dropped to 94% then gone back up though (after calibration)

[sn00pie]

The battery readings fluctuate all the time. I'm at 95% on my Macbook after 99 cycles. I've seen it go down to 92% and upto 96%.

The batteries are suppose to retain 80% capacity at 300 cycles.

[suspiria]

I've performed the battery calibration from Apple's site 3 times, and every time the battery capacity has gone down a few percent.

So now my iBook (Late 2004) original battery is 74% capacity at 784 cycles.

[REM2000]

for batteries of any kind (laptop, phone, camera etc) Ive always followed the rule of allowing it to discharge completely before charging

Battery is still at about 103% after 792 cycles :)

Macbook White Core Duo 1.83GHZ, brought Oct 2006

Used everyday since, 2GB RAM 320GB HDD

[j.nudd]

for batteries of any kind (laptop, phone, camera etc) Ive always followed the rule of allowing it to discharge completely before charging

Battery is still at about 103% after 792 cycles :)

Macbook White Core Duo 1.83GHZ, brought Oct 2006

Used everyday since, 2GB RAM 320GB HDD

This is generally good policy; however, with modern Lithium Ion batteries, this is less important. As far as I understand, full charge and discharge cycles are much more important on Nickel Metal Hydride batteries as they can develop a "memory." Lithium Ion batteries, through calibration, can maintain great condition (through a finite cycle count) with partial charge and discharge cycles.

I'm not sure if this link was posted here yet, but Apple's battery page has some good information on this topic.

[suspiria]

for batteries of any kind (laptop, phone, camera etc) Ive always followed the rule of allowing it to discharge completely before charging

Battery is still at about 103% after 792 cycles :)

Macbook White Core Duo 1.83GHZ, brought Oct 2006

Used everyday since, 2GB RAM 320GB HDD

That's almost hard to believe... just too good to be true. I'm not insinuating that you're a liar, it's just... well... I wish my iBook's battery was that good still.

[Miuku.]

I'm testing out a little theory on the old battery that I have, I chatted with someone who had issues _after_ 10.5.7 was released, apparently the AppleSmartBattery extension has some issues that a lot of people are seeing (as in reduced power, not charging etc).

It's a bit dangerous and tricky so I'll let you know how it goes. :>

[REM2000]

i know what you mean, modern batteries shouldn't require these steps, however i believe they do help.

I also know what you mean being hard to believe, it's the reason i stuck a screen shot up there. I might have been incredibly lucky with this battery, however ive managed to get three years out of a compaq pc laptop battery.

[j.nudd]

i know what you mean, modern batteries shouldn't require these steps, however i believe they do help.

I also know what you mean being hard to believe, it's the reason i stuck a screen shot up there. I might have been incredibly lucky with this battery, however ive managed to get three years out of a compaq pc laptop battery.

Oh no, I wasn't saying they're not required; I was just contrasting the importance of "calibrating" the battery when using a lithium-ion battery as opposed to a nickel metal or nickel cadmium. I can attest to the fact that calibrating a lithium-ion is important if you don't usually fully discharge and recharge your battery. I had a MBP battery die out after about 100 cycles, mainly because I didn't take good care of it. I know better now :)

[_bobcat_ Veteran]

For camparison, after 16 months mine has gone from an original of 5020 mAh to 4740 mAh and is at 94% health. It's had 120 cycles.

Edit: Just found this article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

After following Apple's instructions for calibrating, my battery is now at 96%, or 4849 mAh.

for batteries of any kind (laptop, phone, camera etc) Ive always followed the rule of allowing it to discharge completely before charging

Battery is still at about 103% after 792 cycles :)

...

Your battery capacity went up after you bought it? I guess you got lucky and your battery had more than the standard arbitrary 5020 mAh to start with :p

[REM2000]

yep, as hard as it is to believe, my battery actually got better over time. I think the figure used to be higher, im sure i posted it on neowin earlier in the year.

I just get the feeling that one day ill switch on the mac and the battery will just rapidly hit 0% health :)

[Miuku.]

Interestingly enough, I was able to zap my broken battery back to life with some.. unorthodox methodology, the battery meter now shows 720mAh maximum capacity, yesterday it was 170, 280 and 490 respectively - it seems to be going up every time I completely discharge and re-charge it.

This was the battery with the 61 load cycles and 0% by the way.

I wonder how high it'll go :p

[Brian M. Veteran]

After following Apple's instructions for calibrating, my battery is now at 96%, or 4849 mAh.

Your battery capacity went up after you bought it? I guess you got lucky and your battery had more than the standard arbitrary 5020 mAh to start with :p

Mine has too (ignore the 6 months, it's a new refurb):

It's on 97% as I've been using it, it charges to the full 4900.

[Miuku.]

Well, magic does happen - now a few days of emptying, resting, charging the battery the results are so far;

  Charge Information:
  Charge remaining (mAh):	2051
  Fully charged:	No
  Charging:	No
  Full charge capacity (mAh):	2051
  Health Information:
  Cycle count:	61
  Condition:	Good

For some reason it says not fully charged and the cycle count doesn't go up even if I completely discharge it. Note, this battery was originally 61 mAh max capacity until I zapped it and it keeps going up 50-200mAh on every discharge-charge.

[Snowl]

Get a battery that will last you 3+ years, like my battery (sig)

Joking, anyway. If it's wearing out, get apple too look at it (need to go to sleep so haven't read the thread but w/e)

EDIT EDIT: Look's like you solved it. Ignore this post plz :)

Edited July 23, 2009 by Kirbeh