Another MacBook Pro Battery to Be Replaced

The replacement battery I got from Apple almost 5 months ago didn’t live very long. During the last days I recognized that the battery capacity dropped dramatically from almost 5500mAh when it was new to about 300mAh after about 45 (complete) recharge cycles and run out of power when the battery meter in the menubar showed about 0:30 to 0:45 hours of left battery capacity.

If you want to find out how your battery is doing, click on the Blue Apple in the upper left corner of your Mac, then on “About this Mac” -> “More info”. You can check the battery details under “Hardware -> Power”.

So again I brought the MBP to the Apple Store (not that I’d been there a few days ago to have my broken Superdrive replaced) and informed them of the issue. I didn’t have to say much (using the keywords “MacBook Pro” and “battery” was enough information). I saw a bunch of replaced batteries behind the counter. As I suspect that the Genius Bar is (most likely) kind of cleaned every night, they must have replaced at least about 6 to 8 batteries only today—the customer who had the Apple Genius appointment just before me had the same problem with her MacBook.

Apple is aware of this kind of battery problem and has set up a corresponding battery replacement program. If you experience similar problems please see your local Apple dealer.

I must say I truly love Macs and I really don’t want anything else anymore. I think I’m also a “good” customer because I’m so overwhelmed by (and happy with) the Mac experience that I try to talk others into buying a Mac 😉 Worked so far with at least 3 buddies… and that seems to be an upward trend!

But I’m really afraid of the quality issues Apple seems to have right now. The third battery in 8 months and in addition the optical drive that needed to be replaced. They will have to address these problems. I’m lucky that the MBP is still under warranty and after all I’ve seen so far, I really consider buying an AppleCare Protection Plan–will sure be worth it (just in case) but that’s not so easily affordable for a student.

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