In which versions of macOS does the "Service Battery" message appear?

[EugW]

I was on Catalina with my 2009 MacBook Pro (5,5), and my battery indicator was saying "Service Battery". Given that the battery is the original one from 2009, I'm not surprised. However, I backed down to High Sierra and the message no longer appears. System Information says the battery condition is "Normal".

It would be good to know in which version of macOS this Service Battery message shows up in case I want to buy an older Intel Mac.

BTW, I'll note that it only has 328 cycles despite being over 12 years old, because I kept it charged up most of the time. Often it was sitting on a desk plugged in. And then in the last few years it just wasn't used much since I had another 12" MacBook. In contrast, the 2017 MacBook Air I just bought has over 460 cycles and has much longer battery life.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Well, I have seen the "Service Battery" message while running an OS older than Mojave. I can't remember for sure whether it was Sierra, High Sierra, or El Capitan, but it was definitely one of the three.

So it definitely wasn't added in Mojave or Catalina, but they may have changed the sensitivity.

 

[Amethyst1]

I think I remember my MacBookPro8,1 displaying it in Snow Leopard and later versions, but I checked it just now (same battery) and it's not displaying in Snow Leopard, Mavericks, High Sierra or Mojave. Weird.

 

[EugW]

Ah ok, thx. Weird.

Now that you mention it, I think I may have seen it in High Sierra years ago but I just assumed that my memory was not correct. Anyhow, even after a couple of reboots, I’m definitely not seeing it now.

 

[MBAir2010]

My MacBook air 2010 Mojave does not indicate that the battery needs servicing.
but that is today when the  stores are closed.
when they open, that will change!
i don't think Mountain lion has this feature tho.

 

[B S Magnet]

The “condition” information on the battery menubar pull-down appears in Snow Leopard 10.6.8 when one holds down “Opt”:

(The reason you’re seeing two different battery indicators here is I use the battery indicator from iStat Menus on my setup, as seen in blue on the right.)

The feature likely appeared in this more contemporary form from 10.6.0, as the early 10.6 betas still show the more basic information specific to Leopard (i.e., pull-down options for “better performance”, “more energy savings”, “normal”, etc., appearing the same irrespective whether one holds down the “Opt” key).

I should add that in Snow Leopard, if the battery needs to be serviced, this condition info — “Service Battery” — appears with the golden warning triangle even if one doesn’t hold down “Opt”.

 

[TheShortTimer]

I should add that in Snow Leopard, if the battery needs to be serviced, this condition info — “Service Battery” — appears with the golden warning triangle even if one doesn’t hold down “Opt”.

It does!

The battery on my 2006 MBP has long since failed and for ages I saw "Service Battery" whenever I checked the status in Snow Leopard and more recently it's "Replace Now."

Here's Battery Conditions in Mac Help within Snow Leopard:

 

[Amethyst1]

There are three determinate states a battery can be in: these being Normal, Replace and It's gonna explode!

 

[MBAir2010]

There are three determinate states a battery can be in: these being Normal, Replace and It's gonna explode!

KA-bom!

 

[Madhatter32]

There are three determinate states a battery can be in: these being Normal, Replace and It's gonna explode!

So true. I remember when certain MBPs were banned by the airlines. I was traveling at the time. 😮
😮😮

 

[TheShortTimer]

There are three determinate states a battery can be in: these being Normal, Replace and It's gonna explode!

Here's one that I found before the third scenario could ensue.

 

[EugW]

Here's one that I found before the third scenario could ensue.

It's interesting that 3 of them are blowing up, not just one.

BTW, I remember back in the MacBook4,1 days when I bought a new battery, I was wondering why it wouldn't fit. It turned out it was already swelling, right out of the box brand new. It's too bad so many third party batteries are utter crap. That's why I haven't bothered changing my 12 year-old MacBook Pro battery. My experience with third party batteries has not been good. Not only did I have that swollen battery out of the box, I've had a number of other MacBook and iBook batteries that would only work reasonably OK for a few months before behaving erratically and then dying.

 

[TheShortTimer]

It's interesting that 3 of them are blowing up, not just one.

BTW, I remember back in the MacBook4,1 days when I bought a new battery, I was wondering why it wouldn't fit. It turned out it was already swelling, right out of the box brand new. It's too bad so many third party batteries are utter crap.

Out of curiosity which brand was that?

That's why I haven't bothered changing my 12 year-old MacBook Pro battery.

I need to replace mine because the performance has degraded to 1Ghz due to its demise.

My experience with third party batteries has not been good. Not only did I have that swollen battery out of the box, I've had a number of other MacBook and iBook batteries that would only work reasonably OK for a few months before behaving erratically and then dying.

I've had similarly dismal experiences with batteries - the OEM replacement within my 2011 MBP is already at "Service Battery" after less than two years and I'm still annoyed at how quickly the factory issue battery in my 2012 MBP developed problems. I think that it lost efficiency after four years.

Unfortunately I can't remember the URL (nor can I find it within the browser history on my daily driver) but I recall reading a blog that warned Apple laptop users not to bother purchasing batteries from companies who claim that their products offer higher capacities because consumers have complained that these claims have turned out to be empty talk and they experienced failures after only a year.

 

[EugW]

Out of curiosity which brand was that?

According to my Amazon records from 2018, it was an Egoway A1185 battery for the A1181 MacBook.

 

[EugW]

I need to replace mine because the performance has degraded to 1Ghz due to its demise.

When it does this, is the 1 GHz speed documented, and if so, where does it show that?

 

[TheShortTimer]

When it does this, is the 1 GHz speed documented, and if so, where does it show that?

About this Mac will still report the original CPU speed. In the case of my 2006 MBP and few of my A1181's with dead batteries, I didn't realise till other MR members brought it to my attention.

There's been quite a few references to this in forum discussions, here's a recent reminder that I need to sort this out for some of my machines:

That's a big problem. MacBooks downclock to 1 GHz if there's no battery.

This thread contains some information on MacBook CPU throttling in the event of a failing/failed battery.

 

[MBAir2010]

Here's one that I found before the third scenario could ensue.

same exact thing happened to my spare MacBook air 2010 this April
the humidity and enclosed area encased in an unventilated room did that.

luckily the logic bard, trackpad and casing was fine.
i should sell that macbook soon, i never use that anymore.

 

[TheShortTimer]

same exact thing happened to my spare MacBook air 2010 this April
the humidity and enclosed area encased in an unventilated room did that.

luckily the logic bard, trackpad and casing was fine.
i should sell that macbook soon, i never use that anymore.

There's an entire post in which I discuss the process of restoring this machine to full working order and the battery had caused a variety of issues which were a surprise to me - from delays in cold/warm boots, to erratic reboots and failures to resume from sleep.

I was also lucky that my MBA was unscathed and now it works great.

 

[MBAir2010]

There's an entire post in which I discuss the process of restoring this machine to full working order and the battery had caused a variety of issues which were a surprise to me - from delays in cold/warm boots, to erratic reboots and failures to resume from sleep.

I was also lucky that my MBA was unscathed and now it works great.

thanks!
im looking into 2012 MacBook and mini from there and OWC.
as far as getting an upper case. display for the spare 2010, an entire MacBook air is cheaper!

 

[TheShortTimer]

thanks!
im looking into 2012 MacBook and mini from there and OWC.
as far as getting an upper case. display for the spare 2010, an entire MacBook ai tis cheaper!

Yes, pick up several dead machines in good condition and use them to refurbish/replace the casing and other exterior components on your existing machine. This is something that I've learned from service engineers and it's a worthwhile insurance policy anyway in case you later run into problems and require parts and then discover that the prices have soared. During a lull in the UK lockdowns, I encountered someone who was selling a couple of iBooks for peanuts and I regret not buying them for the keyboards alone.

 

[Amethyst1]

When it does this, is the 1 GHz speed documented, and if so, where does it show that?

For Core (2) Duo machines, my test is running Geekbench 2 — if the score is less than 2,000 (which is roughly what a 1.4 GHz 2010 11” MBA pulls off iirc), it’s definitely downclocking.

For Sandy Bridge and newer machines, Intel Power Gadget might show the current speed on macOS but I’ve not looked at it yet.

 

[EugW]

Interesting, I just checked another old machine - a MacBook5,1 - and this one isn't showing the Service Battery message either now, but has in the past. This is also a machine that was also on Catalina that I've since put a fresh install of (patched) High Sierra on. I bought this one used many years ago, so I don't know if it's the original battery, but I suspect it is the original battery because it's a legit Apple battery and it has 755 cycles on it. We definitely haven't put too many cycles on it ourselves because much of the time it was just sitting on the counter plugged in, and we've only had it a few years. It was my wife's kitchen recipe machine, which was replaced by a MacBook Air 2017 this Xmas.

Also besides the change in OS, I've also been paying more attention to the charging status, keeping the charge usually between about 40% and 90%. I guess these two factors were enough to put the batteries back into "Normal" status, at least for now. This is actually slightly concerning, because it makes it harder to navigate the used market, if you can sometimes reverse that message simply by changing the OS and doing some judicious charging.

Then again, for both these machines, while the battery life sucks, I guess the good news is that they are running at full speed and don't exhibit random battery-related shutdowns or erratic battery percentage reporting. Perhaps as long as the behaviour is OK, it can be considered Normal, even if the battery life is quite short.

For Core (2) Duo machines, my test is running Geekbench 2 — if the score is less than 2,000 (which is roughly what a 1.4 GHz 2010 11” MBA pulls off iirc), it’s definitely downclocking.

For Sandy Bridge and newer machines, Intel Power Gadget might show the current speed on macOS but I’ve not looked at it yet.

Primate Labs doesn't provide Geekbench 2 downloads anymore, so I just ran Geekbench 5 (although Geekbench 4 is still available).

330 / 601 - MacBookPro5,5
297 / 541 - MacBook5,1

I just wanted to make sure the MacBook5,1 wasn't downclocked. I didn't think it was, but nonetheless it does feel significantly slower than the MacBook5,5. Both machines feel slow, but the MacBook is noticeably worse. I didn't think the difference between 2.26 GHz and 2.0 GHz would be that noticeable, but it is. I guess when you're at these borderline usable speeds for modern browsers, every little bit counts.

 

[Amethyst1]

Primate Labs doesn't provide Geekbench 2 downloads anymore,

I opened the link and clicked Download just now and it loaded 2.4.3 just fine…?

 

[EugW]

I opened the link and clicked Download just now and it loaded 2.4.3 just fine…?

Weird. It wouldn't load for me, and I tried several times. Anyways, no matter, as Geekbench 5 works fine on any machine with 10.13.5 or later, and it makes it easier for me to compare to recent machines as I think in Geekbench 5 terms now anyway.

 

[aurora72]

That Service Battery message definitely appears on Mountain Lion:

The battery is according to iStat %76 healthy and in reality it is healthy as well:

On Mojave that message takes over the time Remaining. See
Service Battery appears instead of the time Remaining on MacBook Uni/Late 09
Is it ever possible to remove that annoying message?