Nov 14 2008
Apple stands behind my Macbook, $159 saved.
Our aging Macbook which we purchased in early January 2007 was suffering from battery issues. Yes, it’s approaching two years since we’ve owned it, and it was actually slightly used (store manager demo) before we bought it, so I figured that it was just wearing out as most laptop batteries eventually do.
However, when I actually started looking closely I was disgruntled to see that the batteries onboard diagnostics showed that it had actually only completed about 120 “Full” cycles, and yet was reporting a dismal 35% health remaining. At about 300 cycles one would expect this sort of lifespan, but at 120 cycles it seemed premature.
However, a long charge cycle during which the system seemed to become easily confused about power remaining, as well as anemic battery runtime (~30 minutes) indicated that something was indeed wrong. I checked the Apple support pages and learned that there was a battery firmware update released some time ago (which I remember installing) that aimed to address some of these issues, but after confirming it was applied and then performing the published battery calibration procedure there was little to no improvement - a battery that originally would push 5 hours of usage was now barely providing a half hour.
I had resigned myself to eventually having to buy a new battery - a $159 hit.
However, some further digging earlier this week revealed this page where Apple documented issues with the original Core Duo Intel Macbook batteries. It explains the typical symptoms, the following of which explained our situation perfectly:
Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
And then, the key words:
If Apple or an AASP determines that your battery is eligible for replacement, you will receive a new battery, free of charge, even if your MacBook or MacBook Pro is out of warranty.
I immediately booked a genius appointment at the east Toronto Apple Store for this evening. What did I have to loose?
The frustration of actually getting to the mall itself aside (who designed the Toronto Yorkville mall, anyways?) we arrived with time to spare. We would have had more time to spare it our attempt at getting to the mall didn’t look like a scene out of a Benny Hill show, but I digress.
My son immediately took to an iMac and played Spore (I’ll admit, it was addictive) while I awaited my appointment time.
Once at the desk I flipped open my Macbook and made my case, having the above linked Apple page already loaded up, and system profiler open showing my low battery cycle count. The rep started out with exactly what I had anticipated - “Your battery is pretty old”, and of course when he ran the serial number on their system it came up as having originally been registered sometime in early 2006 (when it originally became a manager demo, before being relegated to a shelf in the computer room) instead of when I actually bought it 8 months later. There was some more polite discussion about how “laptop batteries don’t last forever”, and “a few years of life is fairly normal”.
I expected all of this, but we both remained professional and continued to discuss the situation.
I politely rebutted the part about the battery being replaced “even if your Macbook is out of Warranty” so long as it exhibited these problems with a cycle count of less then 300. Sure enough, the tone changed for the positive. “Lets run some diagnostics on your Macbook”.
The tech ran the Apple diagnostics software and sure enough the battery reported “BAD”, instead of “WORN OUT”. That was the ticket, as after a brief discussion with what I’m going to assume was the supervisor/manager, I was informed that I would indeed be provided with a new battery!
10 minute later we walked away from the genius counter with a new battery, au gratis.
Color me happy!
Man, you’re an impressive negotiator. I would have caved at the first sign of resistance and paid for a new battery.
I once bought a third party battery for my old, old Powerbook G4 (Titanium). The new battery was worse than the original one, giving me 10 minutes of life instead of the 25 minutes I was getting from the original one. I assumed that it was something wrong with the computer and took it to the store, and after being charged a bunch of diagnostic fees for them to do stuff that I’d already tried (like resetting the PMU and letting the battery run down to zero and recharging it), they proved to me that with a new healthy Apple brand battery it got 3+ hours life. And then the bastards at the third party battery store wouldn’t take the battery back because I’d thrown out the box it had come in. So the moral of the story is that Apple laptop batteries are too complicated to trust the third party battery makers. And third party battery makers are scum.
My digging that discovered the extended warranty of the original core-duo Macbooks was a result of my interest in actually rebuilding the battery pack myself - I was Googling it, and came across the Apple page completely by accident.
I’ve rebuilt a battery pack myself once before, albeit for an ancient Compaq machine, but it worked OK in the end. I figure that the Macbook battery might have been doable as well at probably about 1/4 of the cost of the new battery, so I was willing to give it a shot.
I’ve heard some bad stories about third party laptop batteries as well, although I did buy one for our original iBook and it was actually quite good. It wasn’t cheap though, still cheaper then the $200 (at the time) cost of a genuine Apple replacement, but still over $100 if I remember correctly.
That said, just getting a new battery outright directly from Apple was much easier, and I’m going to assume that it carries a full warranty that will have me covered for another 2 years from yesterday.
Back when Apple had the battery recall (due to Sony fire hazard) I think I was about one letter off from getting a new battery. Oh well, I’ll stick to the AC adapter. However, later on the hard drive on my five year old PowerBook died, but using Google I was able to find instructions on how to replace the hard drive myself, and also what kind of drive to order. So I ordered a new drive from NCIX and took apart my PowerBook all by myself. It wasn’t too hard and the instructions were good. Only problem was there was a LOT of small screws, and I kind of warped my keyboard a little. Oh well!
Brian.