If you bought a MacBook or a MacBook Pro between February 2006 and April 2007 (like me), watch your battery’s performance more closely.
Apple has recently discovered that some batteries used in its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks purchased between those dates may have battery performance issues. Apple offers a software update that is designed to improve battery performance.
Apple emphasized, though, that the performance issues do not present a safety risk and the battery can still be used.
Affected batteries will have one or more of the following symptoms:
- Battery is not recognized causing an “œX” to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
- Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
- Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count of less than 300.
- Battery pack is visibly deformed.
If your MacBook (Pro) shows any of these symptoms, you can bring your computer with the battery to any authorized service center. A verified defective battery will be replaced. Also, Apple has extended the repair coverage of batteries for an additional two (2) years from date of purchase. (Woohoo!)
As for me, let’s see:
- Bought my MacBook last October 2006
- Though I use my battery sparingly, I did notice a sudden ten (10%) percent drop in battery health for a mere 25 charging cycles, according to my iStat Nano Dashboard widget. The battery updater merely put back 1% of my battery’s health.
Hmmmm… so this means I have to use my battery more and monitor its performance closely.