I have enough trouble in my daily life without my favorite computer company hassling me. Yesterday, the battery on my MacBook died. It looked like this.
I immediately thought, “Bummer. But no worries. I have AppleCare.” I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. I called support first thing this morning and talked to a really friendly, competent guy at Apple. He walked me through resetting the PMU and the PRAM. After those procedures, the “x battery” indication disappeared. In fact, the battery appeared to be in good shape. System profiler was (and is) showing a healthy battery. But the second I unplug the power code, MacBook dies.
I was hoping that the Apple tech would be able to facilitate a battery replacement over the phone, but it turns out I have one issue that eliminates me from receiving a new battery: The “cycle count.” Mine is 533. Apparently that’s high. See, Apple considers a MacBook battery to be a “consumeable,” like most other batteries you know. Once they’re used up, they get tossed. I wasn’t happy about this initial feedback, but after we reset the PRAM and PMU and got back to what looked like a healthy battery, the issue appeared to have changed. If the battery looks good and the computer still shuts down, surely there’s another culprit?
So Apple’s sending me a box in which I can mail my MacBook to them for repair. The tech made it clear that there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll send it back without doing anything to it, if they determine a bad battery is at fault. I guess a new battery will run me about $80, but I’d rather not pay that if I don’t have to.
The moral of the story: If you’re going to rip DVDs with your laptop, do it with the power cord plugged in.