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MacBook Pro Core Duo Shut Down itself (running on battery)

A

applekid

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 3, 2003
2,097
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I use my MacBook Pro away from the power adapter to do some web surfing and other small tasks. Coconut Battery reports it has a 50% capacity now, so I can understand short battery life. However, it shut downs completely randomly, nothing to do with battery capacity. Like just now, my MacBook Pro was on for about 10 minutes, then it turns off. I checked the battery lights and only one was off. Other times, it shuts down when the battery is at about 50%, with 2 or 3 lights still lit.

Help?

How long's the warranty on the battery? I think my MacBook Pro is just a month over of being a year old, so I guess I'm out of luck for getting a new free battery...
 
There is a battery recall due to poor battery performance for early MBPs within a certain serial number range. Definitely contact Applecare about your issues.

The first MBPs were released early 2006, so that much of a drop in capacity within a short amount of time is highly suspect, along with the random shutdowns. That tells us that the actual capacity is even less than the reported capacity.

How many charge cycles does Coconut Battery report?
 
My battery isn't part of the recall. I checked it just now again to make sure, and mine is the right model number, but not the right serial number.

CoconutBattery reports I'm at 102 loadcycles.

Even though the laptop shuts down, the battery still has a charge so I can turn it back on and run it like usual. So, the battery is not completely discharged when it shuts down.
 
Unfortunately, it looks like you might have to buy a new battery. But it might be worth the time to talk to Applecare about the problem. Never hurts to try.
 
I've got good and bad news for you.

The good:
Your battery is probably not the problem.

The bad:
You have the random shutdown syndrome. This was prominent in early MacBooks but cropped up in some MacBook Pro Core Duos as well (mine included).

If you're still under warranty, call up AppleCare. If you're not, it's a simple fix if you know how to open up the entire system (you move a piece of tape from below a wire on the heat pipe to between the wire and the heat pipe, hence insulating it from the extreme heat pipe temps).

Mine got progressively worse as I went along.


Anyway, test to see if it randomly shuts down while plugged in. If it does you have RSS. If it doesn't, you've got a battery problem.
 
^^ Did you have the same issue -- random shutdowns while running off the battery only? Do you remember which wire was the culprit?
 
aquajet said:
^^ Did you have the same issue -- random shutdowns while running off the battery only? Do you remember which wire was the culprit?
Click to expand...

My situation was random shutdowns whether on battery or on A/C power.

There's only one wire taped down to the heat pipe. It's connected to a heat sensor.
 
I leave my MBP on for hours everyday running on the AC adapter. Not a single problem. It's only happening when it's running on battery alone.

I'm skeptical about the random shutdown syndrome hypothesis.
 
Hey, my MBP Core Duo just started doing the same thing today, right now.
Running off battery it just shuts down. Running off AC, it's fine.

At first, it took a while for it to shut down when running on battery power. Now, however, it shuts down within a few seconds.

Arg, when it rains it pours--it just got off the phone with Apple Care regarding my iPhone AC charger. Hmmm... I've been charging my iPhone using my MBP, which causes it to stay on all night? Hmmm....
 
I had the same problem, had you removed the battery recently. Take the battery out and and put it back again. Why?, I don't know !!!

Remember to calibrate your battery regularly
 
It started working again on its own. :confused: I did what you suggested, anyway, for good luck.

I hadn't removed my battery recently. The battery was not loose or anything.

Hmmm... This is strangely reminiscent of another problem I was having: The AC adapter for my iPhone was not working. A solution I found in another thread was to remove the corner piece of the adapter (these are just like Apple's laptop adapters where that is a separate piece that slides out). This worked, to my surprise.

Maybe it's the heat and humidity we've had lately? Anyway, all is working now... and the humidity is down...
 
I got the same issue

My macBook pro started doing the same thing about a moth or two ago. it must have started after one of the up dates. Apple support says that it is not the battery. They made me run through some voodoo hot-key sequences but to no avail I will be call to find out what else it could be next week. I do know that my computer did not have this problem when I first got it. Any other guesses?
 
applekid said:
I use my MacBook Pro away from the power adapter to do some web surfing and other small tasks. Coconut Battery reports it has a 50% capacity now, so I can understand short battery life. However, it shut downs completely randomly, nothing to do with battery capacity. Like just now, my MacBook Pro was on for about 10 minutes, then it turns off. I checked the battery lights and only one was off. Other times, it shuts down when the battery is at about 50%, with 2 or 3 lights still lit.

Help?

How long's the warranty on the battery? I think my MacBook Pro is just a month over of being a year old, so I guess I'm out of luck for getting a new free battery...
Click to expand...

I had the same exact problem with my MBP. Mine would get to around 85% and shut off, and this was with a battery I recieved after the battery recall exchange program. I contacted AppleCare and told them what the problem was and they sent a new battery my way. I never had another issue with the MBP shutting off on it's own.
 
My MBP would shut down around 25%. Under OSX, battery life would suddenly jump from around 28% to 0% and shut down, or reach 22% and shut down, or make the jump somewhere around 50% to 20% and then sleep without warning a few minutes later.

I called AppleCare and they sent me a new battery and a return box, which I sent the battery back to them. Problem hasn't happened since but I've used the MBP mainly on AC these days.
 
I've had that happen, too, a while back. I had the battery replaced under a recall. This seemed a little different to me in that it happened when the mac was running at ~85% and never acted like it was out of battery power. It also wasn't like the battery was disconncted because the mac would run for a few seconds. Anyway, it's stopped now, so I'll worry about it if it reappears.
 
Just started too

About 2 weeks ago I noticed mine doing this. My battery indicates I have anywhere from 95-100% fully charged. I take out the power cord, and within about 5 minutes, it will shut down.
What I did notice last night was, that if I don't run anything (just let it sit there), it stayed powered up all night long. Infact the next morning I checked it and it was still at 91%.
But as soon as I started running some apps (safari) it shut down within a few minutes, even though the battery power showed 91%.
I've tried pulling the battery out, so my next step is to attempt to slowly drain the battery to see if that does anything.
(Battery diagnositcs shows 77 cycles - what ever that means )
 
Mine started doing the same thing again: Battery fully charged. Shuts down withing a few seconds of pulling the power cord. Can't start on battery power. Removing and replacing the battery cause no improvement.

I called AppleCare and they are sending me a new battery.
The guy had me:
* Do a "hard reset": Remove battery and power cord. Hold down the power button for six seconds.
* Reset the PRAM (hold down Cmd-Opt-P-R at startup until you hear the chime a second time.
* Look in System Profiler, under the Power category. He had be read back the either the Full Charge Capacity (it's 3872) or the Remaining Capacity (=3814)--I can't remember which now--and the Cycle Count (=110).
I'm guessing that if my cycle count was too high they would have made me pay for the new battery. I had had my battery replaced already though the recall.

Anyway, too much detail. What I meant to say was: Call AppleCare if you have this problem--they might simply replace your battery for free.
 
Mine did the same thing and it was the "expanding battery" issue. If you have that, it shouldn't matter if you're under warranty or if your battery is part of the recall. They'll probably send you a new one because they don't want any exploding battery lawsuits.
 
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