My 1.83GHz MacBook Pro bears its fourth battery from March 2009 (the first three were duds). Although the battery icon in the menu bar says rather alarmingly, “Replace Soon” I will try to nurse this battery to year-end. It’ll be painful but I’ll can hang for quite awhile.
I have blogged about batteries many times in my old and current blogs. They are temperamental beasts but I must say things have quietened down considerably – no more videos of batteries catching fire or news of mass failures and replacement programmes.
In fact, I’ve forgotten to do maintenance! I checked with coconut battery and saw this:

Bleah!
I should be calibrating my Mac Book Pro battery every few months so after I’m back from my department retreat, I will do just that. If you are using your laptop pretty much like a desktop and its always plugged in, then it is suggested you calibrate every month!
From the Apple Knowledge Database (instructions unchanged since 2006):
- Fully charge the battery until:
- the power adapter plug’s LED changes to green AND
- the menu bar meter indicates a full charge.
- Maintain for at least two hours, this fully charged state.
- Keep the adapter plugged in.
- You may use your computer.
- Disconnect the power adapter and run off battery power.
- You may use the computer.
- A low battery warning dialog eventually appears.
- Close all applications.
- Let the mac go to sleep on its own.
- Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for at least five hours.
- Connect the power adapter until the battery is fully charged again.
I hear the new MacBooks have 10 hour long lasting, built-in batteries – the thing to ask is for how long?