Fix swollen battery

[dumiku]

Hi, Hope everybody is doing well in this hard time,

One of the (cells/parts) of my battery is swollen and right I can afford to buy a new battery and I plan to buy a new MacBook Pro by October.

I was looking on the net for fix and I saw this post from 2011. It suggests making a hole in the swollen part to let the trapped gas escape but,
I don't feel comfortable knowing that the battery might keep emitting toxic gas while I'm using it.

Before I did some research I look at the battery and saw that each (cell/part) was individually welded to the ''battery logic board" and I was wondering if removing that one cell/part (The one swollen) is safe and if my battery will keep working until I can replace it.

IT IS AN AFTER-MARKET BATTERY

Any suggestion or fix, which route I should take, and is it safe.

Note: Can afford to buy a new battery right now maybe in like three months.

 

[Audit13]

I would not put an holes in the battery casing.

If the battery is no good, you can try removing the defective cell but this may not help because removing one of the cells may result in an incomplete battery circuit and the MacBook may not detect the battery.

If you intend to keep, give away, or resell the MacBook, it will have better value if you replace the battery now.

 

[chrfr]

Hi, Hope everybody is doing well in this hard time,

One of the (cells/parts) of my battery is swollen and right I can afford to buy a new battery and I plan to buy a new MacBook Pro by October.

I was looking on the net for fix and I saw this post from 2011. It suggests making a hole in the swollen part to let the trapped gas escape but,
I don't feel comfortable knowing that the battery might keep emitting toxic gas while I'm using it.

Before I did some research I look at the battery and saw that each (cell/part) was individually welded to the ''battery logic board" and I was wondering if removing that one cell/part (The one swollen) is safe and if my battery will keep working until I can replace it.

IT IS AN AFTER-MARKET BATTERY

Any suggestion or fix, which route I should take, and is it safe.

Note: Can afford to buy a new battery right now maybe in like three months.

Do not poke a hole in the battery! Swollen batteries are not safe, and should not be kept around. Poking anything in to the battery increases the risk of fire or explosion.

 

[dumiku]

I would not put a hole in the battery casing.

If the battery is no good, you can try removing the defective cell but this may not help because removing one of the cells may result in an incomplete battery circuit and the MacBook may not detect the battery.

If you intend to keep, give away, or resell the MacBook, it will have better value if you replace the battery now.

That's what I was thinking about removing the cell look and removing the battery altogether make it almost unusable for work.

I am gonna have to stop using it until I relace.
There is an authorized apple dealer here and the price over there for a new battery is 2 times and above the replacement price from apple. and the ones on amazon cost as much as the use one. So my only choice now based on my budget is to find a used one in good condition which I think costs almost the same price as the one on iFixit.
[automerge]1587914506[/automerge]

Do not poke a hole in the battery! Swollen batteries are not safe, and should not be kept around. Poking anything into the battery increases the risk of fire or explosion.

Thanks, I was concerned about that as I used my MacBook on my lap a lot.
[automerge]1587914579[/automerge]

Do not poke a hole in the battery! Swollen batteries are not safe, and should not be kept around. Poking anything into the battery increases the risk of fire or explosion.

Thanks, I was concerned about that as I used my MacBook on my lap a lot.

 

[mcfudge]

Hi, Hope everybody is doing well in this hard time,

One of the (cells/parts) of my battery is swollen and right I can afford to buy a new battery and I plan to buy a new MacBook Pro by October.

I was looking on the net for fix and I saw this post from 2011. It suggests making a hole in the swollen part to let the trapped gas escape but,
I don't feel comfortable knowing that the battery might keep emitting toxic gas while I'm using it.

Before I did some research I look at the battery and saw that each (cell/part) was individually welded to the ''battery logic board" and I was wondering if removing that one cell/part (The one swollen) is safe and if my battery will keep working until I can replace it.

IT IS AN AFTER-MARKET BATTERY

Any suggestion or fix, which route I should take, and is it safe.

Note: Can afford to buy a new battery right now maybe in like three months.

Hi dumiku, I have an original apple battery for my 15-inch macbook pro that failed after only 46 recharges. The battery is swollen to 2x normal thickness and will no longer fit in the compartment. Apple would not replace the battery and blamed me for the problem. So I opened the battery and discovered 6 Sanyo lipo cells in 3 groups of 2. The two failed cells were in the same group, tested 0 volts, and the other 4 cells looked normal and had normal voltage. I removed the 6 lipo cells and the charge control board and reassembled the empty battery box then inserted it into my laptop to cover the battery compartment hole while I continued testing.

I tried to revive the battery pack but was unsuccessful. This is what I did. I carefully snipped the contacts (but retained as much as possible for reuse) for all 3 battery packs and discarded the 2 failed cells. I desoldered the 4 snipped metal terminal connectors from the control board and replaced them with 6 half alligator clips for temporary testing. As mentioned above don't poke a hole in the swollen battery as that will only release the sickly sweet smell of the lipo chemistry and may ignite the battery if you create a short. (I actually went to a well ventilated area and completely unraveled the entire dead 0 volt battery, but only out of curiosity. It did not ignite). I separated one of the remaining 2-cell packs into 2 single cells allowing me to replace the 2 dead cells with one good cell. In the end I would expect the same voltage with 35% shorter battery life, but at least something is better than nothing. I charged all 4 batteries with an external lipo charger, reconnected them to the battery board, and pressed the power test button but it did not respond (5 LED indicator). I connected the charge control board to the macbook then reattached the magsafe and found the battery was not recognized (message showed battery needed replacement). I reset the SMC, flashed the NVRAM, and eventually the 5-LED indicator would only fast-flash the first LED. So no battery charging occurred, and the macbook did not get power from the charged lipos.

From Battery Firmware Hacking (Charlie Miller, July 27, 2011) I will assume that the gas gauge chip (BQ20Z80) calculated that the remaining capacity of the (modified) 4 cells is so different compared to the last good recorded value that the charge control circuitry wont allow the cells to be used now. I suspect I would have to swap in 2 more good cells then cross my fingers and repeat. Anyhow, it made for an interesting experiment but unfortunately I don't have good news for either of us. But now I do have 4 good lipos for little projects plus some interesting components to add to the parts bin for the next time I want to experiment with I2C. My macbook only works with magsafe for now.

 

[dumiku]

Hi dumiku, I have an original apple battery for my 15-inch macbook pro that failed after only 46 recharges. The battery is swollen to 2x normal thickness and will no longer fit in the compartment. Apple would not replace the battery and blamed me for the problem. So I opened the battery and discovered 6 Sanyo lipo cells in 3 groups of 2. The two failed cells were in the same group, tested 0 volts, and the other 4 cells looked normal and had normal voltage. I removed the 6 lipo cells and the charge control board and reassembled the empty battery box then inserted it into my laptop to cover the battery compartment hole while I continued testing.

I tried to revive the battery pack but was unsuccessful. This is what I did. I carefully snipped the contacts (but retained as much as possible for reuse) for all 3 battery packs and discarded the 2 failed cells. I desoldered the 4 snipped metal terminal connectors from the control board and replaced them with 6 half alligator clips for temporary testing. As mentioned above don't poke a hole in the swollen battery as that will only release the sickly sweet smell of the lipo chemistry and may ignite the battery if you create a short. (I actually went to a well ventilated area and completely unraveled the entire dead 0 volt battery, but only out of curiosity. It did not ignite). I separated one of the remaining 2-cell packs into 2 single cells allowing me to replace the 2 dead cells with one good cell. In the end I would expect the same voltage with 35% shorter battery life, but at least something is better than nothing. I charged all 4 batteries with an external lipo charger, reconnected them to the battery board, and pressed the power test button but it did not respond (5 LED indicator). I connected the charge control board to the macbook then reattached the magsafe and found the battery was not recognized (message showed battery needed replacement). I reset the SMC, flashed the NVRAM, and eventually the 5-LED indicator would only fast-flash the first LED. So no battery charging occurred, and the macbook did not get power from the charged lipos.

From Battery Firmware Hacking (Charlie Miller, July 27, 2011) I will assume that the gas gauge chip (BQ20Z80) calculated that the remaining capacity of the (modified) 4 cells is so different compared to the last good recorded value that the charge control circuitry wont allow the cells to be used now. I suspect I would have to swap in 2 more good cells then cross my fingers and repeat. Anyhow, it made for an interesting experiment but unfortunately I don't have good news for either of us. But now I do have 4 good lipos for little projects plus some interesting components to add to the parts bin for the next time I want to experiment with I2C. My macbook only works with magsafe for now.

I actually decided to buy an aftermarket battery, my MacBook Air is out of warranty, getting a battery from an apple authorized dealer over here will be way too expensive and I plan to upgrade soon nonetheless than was interesting reading but, if Apple can replace the battery why don't you get an aftermarket one or that model is no longer on the market?

 

[mcfudge]

This was my 3rd battery and with only 10.6.8 that old macbook pro has very limited use for me (even though it dual boots into Windows 7) so I won't be putting more money into it. I was much more interested in the battery rebuild experiment and checking out the charge controller circuitry. The sophistication is impressive and fun to reverse engineer. Its good to hear you got your machine running normally again.