I got my mint early-2008 (more like late 2008, it's from the middle of October) 15" MacBook Pro at the end of November but had no battery. I got a battery for it yesterday. It was some cheap $20 aftermarket battery from Amazon. Checking coconutBattery I saw that the capacity was 5300 mAh out of 5600 mAh. Seemed good enough. It uses Sony cells and was made in January of 2020. While I was charging it for the first time the full charge capacity constantly shifted. First it was 5300 mAh. Then it was 5450. Then it was 5322. The final capacity after hours of charging ended up being 5322 mAh. I had the first full discharge this morning and behavior was weird. The max capacity constantly shifted. First it went up a bit, then it went down a lot, then it went up a bit, and then it just kept going down. By the time it died coconutBattery was reporting 3657 mAh as the full charge capacity, which is clearly a tad bit lower than the 5322 it was this morning. It lasted for 103 minutes in macOS Mojave, with Discord open for 35 of those minutes (accounting for 40% of the discharge) and Safari open for the rest. Will the full charge capacity reading eventually settle out? Is 1:43 an okay time for an aftermarket battery on the first cycle? I'm used to laptops lasting an hour and a half so this is fine with me, but it is slightly disappointing and concerning.
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How long should an aftermarket battery last?
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Sounds like a crap battery. I've used plenty of aftermarket batteries which behave just like a new battery from Apple. I just charge them up for the first use. Then go on using it like a normal battery without issues.
Darn. How much time are you getting on these machines with aftermarket batteries? An hour and 45 minutes is okay to me, but it'd be great to have two or even three hours.
EDIT: I checked coconutBattery after charging it up to 77% and now the max capacity is 5484 mAh. 🤦♂️
EDIT 2: About 10 minutes later and the charge is at 61% and the max capacity is at 4663 mAh. gasashaj
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Older machines tend to do worse. Just because to work the modern web. They have to work at a high CPU load. Whereas when they were new. The web was less complex and barely stressed anything.
My 2010 MBP has a three or four year old battery. It still gets about 3/4 hours on the web.
My 2006 MB has an six or more year old battery. I still get a couple hours out of it.
Try checking the capacity in System Information > Power.
I am still getting hours of battery usage form an original 2010 MacBook air battery.
i owned the MBA since then and very happy i don't need to replace the battery yet
OWC promises 3 years of healthy battery life, but at $75,
if you can get the numbers on that battery like ohms, 38watts /hour and 7.3 Volts
on a smilier one, or even an battery, if they still sell these, i think mirocentre did that would be great!
i owned the MBA since then and very happy i don't need to replace the battery yet
OWC promises 3 years of healthy battery life, but at $75,
if you can get the numbers on that battery like ohms, 38watts /hour and 7.3 Volts
on a smilier one, or even an battery, if they still sell these, i think mirocentre did that would be great!
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I really hope that someone with more electronics skill than I will eventually reverse-engineer the communication/controller protocols for these old Apple batteries so the community can make proper reliable open-source replacements for a reasonable price.
Failing that, it would be awesome if an electronics/battery engineer set up some sort of crowdfunded blog where people send them aftermarket batteries to tear apart and review, so the rest of us know what's worth the money. Without a resource like that, you're really just gambling.
Failing that, it would be awesome if an electronics/battery engineer set up some sort of crowdfunded blog where people send them aftermarket batteries to tear apart and review, so the rest of us know what's worth the money. Without a resource like that, you're really just gambling.
kinda dangerous, just opening the plastic seal can release some toxins in the air
and could be dangerous to the skin.
Well, if they're professionals I'd assume they'd know to use the appropriate protective gear
Also, speaking of reverse-engineering old MacBook batteries, it looks like someone already had the right idea! https://paper.bobylive.com/Meeting_...H_US_11_Miller_Battery_Firmware_Public_WP.pdf
Yeah, aftermarket batteries are notoriously bad. I wish there was a closed cycle recycling system set up at the very least, or better yet, a reliable refurbishment process.