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MacBook Pro Battery Calibration

July 3, 2007 by debbie T | Mac Corner

I purchased my MacBook Pro on June 11; I calibrated the battery on June 13, and it really seemed to make a difference. I used Coconut Battery software to track my battery capacity on several occasions, and it is still doing very well; in fact, it is higher than the original battery capacity.

Important to Note: I am not a hardware or battery expert. I don’t know for sure if Coconut Battery app is a reliable source for testing battery capacity, but it appears to be regarded well in the Mac community.

MacBook Pro battery calibration is different from PowerBook calibration, so please read over the instructions at Apple.com very carefully. Basically, you allow the battery to run down until the laptop is forced into sleep mode. Allow it to sleep for at least 5 hours, or you can opt to shut off the laptop.

After five hours, the MacBook Pro can be plugged in and the battery can will start to charge. Keep it plugged in until it is fully charged.

Initially, my battery capacity was 5500 mAh. I unplugged and allowed it to drain fully. It took almost 2.5 hours for the laptop to force itself into “sleep” - it was actually a bit un-nerving watching the battery gauge go to 0% - waiting for it to fall asleep, hoping it would work and not mess up the laptop.

NOTE: Make sure all your apps and files are closed before the laptop falls into sleep.

I went to bed, and the next morning, I plugged in the MacBook Pro, and booted up. Logging into my account, it was exactly as I left it when it was forced into sleep.

As it charged, I checked the battery capacity with Coconut Battery, and it gained 85 mAh - from 5500 mAh to 5585 mAh. Cool.

The battery capacity has fluctuated up and down (peaking at 5695 mAh,) and when I checked this afternoon, the battery capacity was 5679 mAh.

I continue to check every few days, especially when I am running on battery power. Coconut Battery is a great app, but it doesn’t keep the “Saved Data” in date order, so it can be hard to read. You can find the coconutBattery.xml file in the Library>Application Support>CoconutBattery sub-folder, and that might be easier to read, as it is in date order.

Here is a screen shot of my last battery info:

Coconut Battery battery capacity screenshot

I don’t know if calibration works as well or at all, unless you complete the process a few days after you receive your laptop. In Apple’s documents, it does suggest to calibrate every two months or so. I will continue to track my capacity, but it might be too soon to tell if the calibration has a great impact on the battery life.

UPDATE: On July 9th, the battery capacity was lowered to 5591 mAh, and today (July 10) it is reads 5593 mAh.
UPDATE: July 22, the battery capacity is down to 5511, almost back to the original capacity of 5500 mAh. Doesn’t look like calibration actually added any substantial life to the battery. Time will tell a year from now.

UPDATE:

On Dec 23, 2007, my battery capacity is 5190 mAh @ 94% of the original capacity. I suppose that isn’t bad for a 6 month old MacBook pro battery. I will try to remember to keep posting updates! Thanks for the remind, Rob!

MBP Battery Capacity

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There are 42 comments

How’s that battery doing?

Comment by Rob Hyndman on December 22nd, 2007
Hello Rob. Thanks for reminding me to post an update! I checked coconut battery and the capacity is 5190 mAh @ 94%.

Comment by debbieT on December 23rd, 2007
Thanks for the update. I have two FastMac aftermarket batteries that I bought in Feb 07 after the original battery really faded (bought the Mac in Jan of 06). The better one is down to 3606. They fade pretty quickly.

Comment by Rob Hyndman on December 23rd, 2007
Does anyone know what Apple means with “turning off the computer” after it went to sleep? The only way to do this without plugging the power cord back in would be to force a shutdown by holding down the power button… It would be nice to have an alternative to not being able to use my computer during 5 hours but I’m not sure if a forced shutdown is the way to go.

After installing Leopard, the capacity estimate of my battery seems to have become very inaccurate, and my last attempt at calibrating it went wrong somehow. It showed a ridiculously low mAh estimate, which has climbed back up to 4479 mAh (81%) after some normal use. This battery has only 34 loadcycles and is one year old. I treat it exactly the same as the battery of my former iBook, which still had 75% capacity after 4 years…

Comment by Lex on December 26th, 2007
Yes, you can shut off the computer by holding down the power button.

5 hours isn’t that inconvenient if you try it at night right before you go to bed.

Are you up to date with all Leopard updates? I thought there was one for the battery, or maybe I am remembering it wrong.

Thanks for your comments, Lex!

Comment by debbieT on December 26th, 2007
I installed a battery update in Tiger, which at that time gave the capacity a small boost. That’s the last battery update I can remember. Anyhow, I just did a new calibration cycle and the forced shutdown appears to work indeed. Sometimes it’s hard to time everything so the battery runs out exactly when I want to go to sleep, so this is a useful alternative

The battery is now reported to have 75% capacity. I’m afraid this is more or less accurate because I didn’t notice anything unusual. When charging the battery (both before starting the cycle, and when finishing), it didn’t keep charging at 99% for too long (which would indicate a gross underestimate of the capacity) and the computer went to sleep when there was about 5% charge left. It seems that this battery simply is of lesser quality than the one in my trusty old iBook…

Comment by Lex on December 26th, 2007
I think the capacity fluctuates.

Last night I used the battery, and now it is charged to only 98% and 85% capacity (4679 mAh) - not so great considering it was 94% a couple of days ago.

Hopefully it will go back up again.

Comment by debbieT on December 27th, 2007
In Coconut Battery, clicking on the Date column header sorts the list by date.

Comment by SlyBriFry on February 17th, 2008
Thanks SlyBriFry! I appreciate the comment, and yep, it I have my list sorted by date now!

I checked my capacity while Coconut Battery was open, and it’s now down to 80% @ 4410 mAh with a 97% total charge.

Comment by debbieT on February 17th, 2008
How’s that battery chuggin’ along?

Comment by Greg on April 22nd, 2008
Hey Greg,

Not so good, I ended up replacing it a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully it was still covered under warranty.

New Battery Article

I am going to calibrate the new battery more often.

Comment by debbieT on April 23rd, 2008
I recently went a few rounds at apple to get my battery replaced. I have a questions though …

What does it mean if the Amperage reads 0 or sometimes a negative number? -2138

I Finally convinced them to replace it but boy it was like getting blood from a stone!

here is my current readout from the System Profiler:
Model Information:
Serial Number: Sony-ASMB012-364e-2826
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0003
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 102a
Hardware Revision: 0400
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1549
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 1549
Health Information:
Cycle count: 270
Condition: Check battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12503

Comment by Steve S. on June 24th, 2008
Hey Steve,

gee, I am not sure what Amperage means. Mine says “0″ as well.

Here is the current readout from System Profiler for my battery

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 5211
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5306
Health Information:
Cycle count: 34
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12429

I am down to about 96% of capacity, my original battery capacity was 5500 mAh. I don’t know what number you started with, but if you are at 1549, that sounds pretty low…have you downloaded Coconut battery? It helps figure this stuff out!

Comment by debbieT on June 24th, 2008
Thanks Debbie,

I just downloaded coconut battery … its interesting i wonder how it calculates its data. Its showing better battery life/performance than does the Apple System Profiler. This particular battery is about 13 months old. with 270 Cycles. The apple tech considers that to be high …. but their useful battery life cycle life is 300. I noticed that others have relatively low cycle counts…. since my laptop is plugged in 99% of the time I now wonder … What Constitutes a “Cycle Count” and How Can i reduce the number of cycle counts? One guy told me to keep it plugged in all the time .. Im not sure how much more I could keep it plugged in!

Comment by Steve S. on June 24th, 2008
Wow, that is strange. Coconut battery gives me a lower cycle count too. But I did check it immediately after I received my new battery, and I think it started at one. I am pretty sure I had more than 5 cycles, which is what Coconut says for me. But I don’t know if I have had as high as 34, as what System Profiler states.

But Coconut’s current capacity matches exactly to the System Profiler.

As for keeping your laptop plugged in, that isn’t recommended. I run my battery at least a few times a week, and I run the calibration process about once a month or two.

A cycle count is (I believe) how many times the battery is used…when it gets down to a specific amount, and then is charged again…I would think that would constitute as a cycle.

But again, I am not an expert! Take what I say w/ a grain of salt!

So are you getting the new battery soon? If you do want to calibrate it, follow the instructions very carefully, making sure it rests for the appropriate amount of time before plugging it back in.

Truthfully, I don’t know if calibration helps or not. It just seems like the new style batteries don’t hold a charge like my old Powerbook battery did (and still does)

We have to expect to replace our battery again, probably w/in a year.

Comment by debbieT on June 24th, 2008
I dont mind replacing the Battery as long as it has served me well. But when the machine seems to perform so poorly on battery power and the data reported by the profiler seems to change radically I question HOW apple came up with their guidelines. I think these MBP’s tend to run hotter than the older machines … and certainly at a Higher cpu speed … that has to take its toll. Right now im looking into having a Transflective display added to my laptop. If its affordable this should allow me to work outside in the sun (or near the sun) with little or no backlight …. that should save some serious power.

I’d be interested to know what exactly the Charge cycle is. and when is one is triggered. that would be good to know.

I cant wait for some serious Leap in battery technology …. I read that apple has a patent for a LCD Screen with a built in Solar panel. … neat idea … hopefully we see laptops battery life up to 10 hours or so by the end of the decade! –we can hope!

Comment by Steve S. on June 24th, 2008
oh solar power would be fantastic. I also am hoping for better battery life. 10 hours would be awesome!!!

Thank you for visiting, Steve!

Comment by debbieT on June 24th, 2008
Amperage is the current that flows in or out of the battery (if you are recharging, it may be indicated as negative, and if you’re not using your battery it will be 0).

I seem to have nearly the same model of battery as Steve and it’s starting to behave increasingly weirdly. It has only 53 cycles. The estimated time remaining varies wildly while using the battery, and the ‘condition’ in system profiler varies between ‘good’, ‘fair’, and currently it says “Check battery”. The last time I attempted to calibrate it, after the computer went to sleep spontaneously, the light kept on pulsating for more than 22 hours. After that I pressed a button which made the computer wake (which is not supposed to happen) and it lost power after one second. I think I’m going to try to get a replacement, otherwise I’ll just keep on working with it until it dies and get a new one.

Comment by Lex on June 26th, 2008
Lex,
With only 53 Cycles on the battery you should still be in good shape. when this battery goes … it goes fast … a few days and mine fell from 2 hours usefull life to about 15 minutes (not using the time remaining clock … this is real life timing).

The first thing apple will ask you is what the mah capacity is and the mah remaining … that coupled with the cycle count is how they determine if you get a new battery or not. when they replaced mine the Capacity and the Remaining was at 1549 now because these number are the same … should mean that the battery is fully charged … but the charge indicator said it was only 70% complete. these anomalous readings is what finally convinced them to give me a free new battery. it came the very next morning.

Good Luck!

Comment by Steve S. on June 26th, 2008
Heh so once the 5 hours are done and u plug it in and the battery is still at 1 or 2 percent do u still the that the max capacity has changed or do u have to wait for it to be fully charged. email me please

Comment by dav on August 6th, 2008
Hello Dav,

If the capacity is only at 1%, then it sounds like you have problems. You need a new battery!

If the charge is at 1%, then that is normal, and will take time to charge to 100%

Good luck!

Comment by debbieT on August 6th, 2008
how do u cycle ur battery, one guy one apple.com posted that u should cycle it once a week.

Comment by dav on August 8th, 2008
Hello Dav,

I guess I calibrate about every 3 or 4 weeks, or sometimes more, if the timing is right.

Right now, my battery capacity is @ 93% (5115 mAh) which I suppose is good… I dunno. I got the new battery in April, so losing 7% isn’t that bad I suppose.

Anyway, I do notice fluctuations in capacity. I have no idea if calibration is helping or not!

Comment by debbieT on August 8th, 2008
After 10 months, my MBP battery is down to 12%/719mAh.

I’m trying to recalibrate, but may have to see about getting a new battery.

Thanks for the post and link to coconutBattery.

Comment by Jeremiah on October 1st, 2008
Thanks for your comment, Jeremiah, yeah, I would certainly contact Apple about a replacement. Since it’s only 10 mos old, I would think it would still be under the one year warranty.

But don’t wait too long, once the year is up, it’s not covered (I think)

Comment by debbie T on October 2nd, 2008
This morning after sitting plugged-in all night, coconut reported about 20% capacity, so something helped. I unplugged it to drain one more time, and i’ll try again tonight.

Comment by Jeremiah on October 2nd, 2008
20% is still pretty bad. That must be 20 minutes of run time! LOL

I was down to 76% from low nineties the other day. I calibrated last night, and now I am back up to 93%

Calibration will help, but if the battery is 10 months old, you can’t expect miracles, especially if you never calibrated until now. know what I mean?

My battery is 6 months old, and calibration really seems to be helping. We’ll see for how long! I probably jinxed myself!

Comment by debbie T on October 2nd, 2008
are you sure that your batteries are fine? i have never done this calibration with the battery but my battery is fine.

I recently installed coconut battery and my macbook is 23 months old, with 228 charge cycles. however the battery capacity is still at 100%. however, i might be getting false information from this software, lol.

Comment by phil on October 23rd, 2008
Thanks for your comment Phil.

I am linking to a screenshot of my current situation. I just calibrated last night, so my charge is low.

To compare the info displayed in Coconut, go to About This Mac>More Info>Power and look for Battery in the list of information. You can see how Coconut compares w/ my Mac info. It is off by the number of cycles. Coconut is too low.

I can’t imagine how a 2 year old battery can still be at 100%. You didn’t mention how long your battery life is. Can you still get 3-4 hours. If so, then you might have a magic battery, (and I am not being facetious) I would hang on to that battery for sure, because you are very lucky!!!

Comment by debbie T on October 24th, 2008
Just checking in again. I ended up getting my battery replaced free at my local Genius Bar.

They have a battery testing utility that runs off an iPod nano, and it reported it as bad. The System Profiler listed the condition as bad also, along with Coconut’s numerical feedback.

The new one is back up where it should be (3+ hours), and is hovering around 96% capacity the few times i’ve checked it.

Comment by Jeremiah on October 24th, 2008
Hey Jeremiah, glad to hear you got the battery replaced. It sounded like the only logical step!!

Batteries don’t last forever, unfortunately. I guess we should be ‘grateful’ (Ha!) if they last longer than a year! Sad really.

Good luck w/ the new one!

Comment by debbie T on October 24th, 2008
i just check on the screen shot of what you left, i noticed that your current capacity is lower than the original capacity. but when i checked mine it shows:

current capacity: 5169
original capacity: 5020

bearing in mind, i have a macbook and not a macbook pro. as i would assume the macbook pro would use more battery power than a macbook.
honest truth, when it come to battery life, i was using neo office and running i-tunes last night which lasted for about 5 and a half hours after a full charge. one question i wanted to ask is that does having more ram within your system increase battery life?

regards, phil

Comment by phil on October 26th, 2008
I think more RAM will rather reduce battery life because there could be more electronics to feed. Even then it’s possible that newer and larger capacity RAM chips are more efficient. If there’s any effect, it’s probably negligible anyway. I didn’t notice any effect on my battery when I maxed out my old MacBook Pro from 2GB to 3GB, but then again, its battery is one of those quirky Sony ones whose capacity fluctuates wildly…

Comment by Lex on October 26th, 2008
Hello again, Phil. So you are saying your battery is almost 2 years old and still gets a 5 hour charge?? Wow, that is excellent. I don’t know if the Macbooks are that much better, but to have it last that long at 2 years is certainly an accomplishment. awesome!

I think Lex might be right about more ram taking more battery, but I agree that it’s not much difference either way.

I remember my battery (when first calibrated) brought my numbers up higher than the original capacity. Then eventually, it gets lower.

I really can’t explain why yours is doing so well after all this time!! I hope you didn’t jinx yourself by talking about it!!! LOL

Oh and I get about 2-3 hours, but I work w/ processors and LCD full blast. I run everything like I would if it were plugged in.

Comment by debbie T on October 26th, 2008
I have a MacBook Pro that I got 2 years ago (to the month, as I just discovered, I just installed Coconut and saw my age count is 24 months), and only now have looked at anything regarding my battery capacity. I thought that my battery life was down at least a little bit, but when I installed CoconutBattery, it told me that my capacity is 2312 mAh, or 42% of the original 5500 (its readings correspond with System Profiler).

I have never actually “calibrated” the battery, though I do generally try to leave it unplugged when off, and let it run down then charge up when in use as opposed to leaving it sustained at 100% because I heard it was better to do. coconutBattery also says I have 500 Battery-loadcycles. I noticed in a comment above someone had 34 after a year… Is having a large number bad? I Thought leaving the comp. plugged in (which presumably reduces cycle count) was bad for battery life.

Does this sound reasonable? Or is the measurement wrong? Or is it just my bad luck? Or did I do something wrong with my computer (I’ve never calibrated the battery, though in general I try not to leave it plugged in, and let it run down to ~15% then charge it, etc.).

Sorry if this all turned out a bit rambly, I’m typing it in a hurry.

Comment by Brian on November 9th, 2008
I’m now wondering if there’s something else wrong with my hardware. I’ve dropped 1% capacity every week since i got my replacement battery. I’m now down to 93% after one month, and i’ve calibrated it at least twice.

Comment by Jeremiah on November 9th, 2008
Hello Brian,
thanks for commenting!

I don’t think 42% is unreasonable, considering the age. But you might have received more life if you calibrated regularly.

But I think you are absolutely correct in your thinking that leaving the laptop plugged in all the time isn’t good for the battery, it’s always good to use it.

I just found this article over at apple as to what they consider a cycle:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1519

500 cycles does sound like a lot, but then the number might be off; Coconut is way low on my count. Right now, it says “5″ cycles, but on my About this Mac count, it states 93. Did you check the actual count on your About this Mac? See my comment #29 for instructions and a screenshot link.

It does say (on linked Apple article) that “A properly maintained Apple notebook battery is designed to retain up to 80 percent of its original capacity after 300 full charge and discharge cycles.”

So, that means after 500 cycles, it should be at hmm, maybe 60% - it might be hard to exactly pinpoint the correct calculation, because I am sure the higher the amount of cycles, I bet the capacity is lost faster.

But Brian, it is never too late to start calibrating. Follow the instructions carefully, and maybe after a few calibrations you might gain a few percentage points.

I gain and lose capacity constantly. It seems like directly after a battery use (and/or calibration), my % goes down some, but then suddenly I gain days later.

Right now I am at 90%, and I was down to 83% a month ago.

Don’t expect miracles, but you might gain a little bit. It’s worth a try!

Good luck, and come back and let us know if calibration helps out in your situation!

Comment by debbie T on November 9th, 2008
Hey Jeremiah

It looks like we just posted at the same time!

I have noticed capacity fluctuates a lot. Keep checking. I lose % and then I gain a few days/weeks later.

Keep an eye on it, there is definitely a possibility that there is something else wrong, but then it might be normal.

Comment by debbie T on November 9th, 2008
500 cycles is a whole lot, but as the others point out, Coconut may be reporting an inaccurate number. But if you use your battery all the time, it’s perfectly possible. Of course your battery wears out when using it intensively. It will also lose capacity when leaving it plugged in all the time. There is some optimum between those two, by only doing a full discharge once a week or so. Using such a strategy, the battery of my 4-year old iBook still had 75% capacity when I sold it. The same story doesn’t hold with the battery from my MBP though…

Especially with those batteries from 2 years ago which had many problems, 42% seems reasonable after 500 cycles. I’m the guy with the low cycle count (now it’s at 60) and my battery currently has 55% health, and the capacity fluctuates wildly (it has been at 45% and a few days ago it was 75%). I plan to use it until it’s really dead, and then I’ll get a shiny new one

Comment by Lex on November 10th, 2008
Well I have a new update on my replacement battery (4/2008)

It was losing quite a bit of capacity in December. On 12/1, it had 89% capacity. By 12/21, it was down to 63%

It was at that time, that my MBP died, and I sent it to be repaired (Nvdia graphics card problem which resulted in a new logic board)

When it came back from Applecare, I was shocked (and pleased) to see that the capacity was back up to 88%. I thought that maybe I somehow got a replacement battery instead….well, that was shortlived.

By yesterday (Jan 27) it was down to 50% (2794 mAh) so I called Applecare.

They think my problematic logic board/graphics card might have weakened the battery. I don’t care what the reason was, I am just happy to get a new battery!

yay!

So, my 2nd replacement battery is being shipped!

Comment by debbie T on January 28th, 2009
Do you think 90% is “normal?” My replacement from October 2008 dropped down to around 90% within just a few weeks and hasn’t gone higher since. Kinda sucks to loose 10% capacity right off the bat.

Comment by Jeremiah on January 28th, 2009
Hi Jeremiah!

I am looking back at my saved data, and I got my battery early 4/2008, and by 8/05/2009 it was 91%. It shot back up to 95% but then immediately dropped to 88%

It kind of fluctuated up and down for Sept through November, but didn’t go lower than 70% until mid December. That is when I had major issues and it just kept losing capacity.

I don’t think 90% is that bad for 3 months of usage. If you calibrate, you might gain some of it back. Again, like I said, it fluctuates a lot.

Just keep an eye on it.

Comment by debbie T on January 28th, 2009

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MacBook Pro Battery Calibration

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