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A few days ago, I went on vacation and unplugged power cable from my MacBook Pro 13' early 2011 and then I got back home, the battery was not detected by OS and didn't charge. I then understood that I had automatic startup configured and the laptop did power ON next morning then I was not at home. The battery was discharged completely.

I tried to restart, to power down and unplug power cable, I also tried to did SMC reset, but that didn't work.

What's the most reliable way to check the health status of the battery? - I want to replace it, but I want to be completely sure that this is the battery, and not something else.

Battery is about 3 years old and about 250 cycles.

The battery icon is the same as below:

enter image description here

UPD1:

enter image description here

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I did run AHT and it returns the following error code:

4xxx/1/40000000: "Battery"

I plan to perform extended testing as well later today to see if any other errors appear, but it looks like the culprit of the issue is battery.

enter image description here

The battery Condition now is Replace Now.

The status changed after I unplugged power cable for a couple of days and then I plugged the cable and the laptop started, the battery status changed to Replace Now.

I will shortly check it with another battery and perhaps replace the old one.

UPD2:

I've tested my MacBook with similar working battery and it did detected the battery and worked fine and this is the good news. On the other hand I now need to have the battery replaced.

UPD: Eventually, I now have replaced battery and it all looks OK.

The laptop is running smoothly either connected to AC power or on battery.

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6
  • So it is not working now at all, you can not start the computer?
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:09
  • I do can start it and it works, but only from power source and what is strange, when I try to install any update - it asks to connect power cable, BUT it is already.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:12
  • 1
    Without battery working Mac will throttle down to 1/2 the CPU power. Try starting in safe mode -hold shift during booting.
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:19
  • How do you know it is not charging ?
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:29
  • 1
    @Buscar웃: yes, that's right. I did notice some performance decrease and it is really noticable.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:38

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
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All the information you get from fancy 3d party is already in your system (that is where they get it from anyway).

Open your About This Mac, more info, system report and find Power:

It will tell you all about your battery.

It looks like this on my system:

Battery charging

Normally the Battery will keep a small reserve charge to be able to report its status to the computer. In your case somehow it was sucked dry completely :)

The good news is it is the battery, since your SMC is working and everything else is working based on the message "Replace battery". That same message was probably run all the time during your vacation, till the battery was exhausted to the level were the battery build in chip did not have enough power to talk to your OS. As for what caused that drain? did you leave your computer in a sleep mode ?

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12
  • The battery is absent in Power section of system info.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:39
  • WOW, now we have a problem, your system does not see it, so it must be the SMC.
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:40
  • How long should I hold buttons to reset SMC? I've been thinking to detach battery and then re-attach to check.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:47
  • That is a good idea, do it, clearly your system does not respond to battery, even if it is completely drained it should see it. Well, we know your charger is working that is good.
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:49
  • Ok, I will do that later today, I'll get back with the results.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:51
1

Looks like your battery is dead, go get a new one.

Depending on where you live you need to get a new one from Apple or you might find cheaper batteries from a 3rd party vendor.

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0
0

there are several apps you can download that show the battery health. I use stat pro from bjango it isn't free anymore but it has a 14 day trial which should be long enough to check your battery.

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Hold ⌥ and click on the battery icon in the menu bar. This shows up a new menu entry labled Condition.

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12
  • Haven't tried that yet. I will try this in the evening, since I do not have laptop with me.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 11:39
  • Condition appears to be normal, but this is strange. It says power source - battery and at the same time - no Batteries available.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 6:19
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    If no battery is available eventhough it is installed there is a hardware defect. If you're lucky it's the chip on the battery, if not it's the SMC or some PCB wiring. A defect of the wiring is unlikely if you did not open the computer. The battery chip is included in the battery package and would be changed by replacing the battery. A broken SMC would require a replacement of the mainboard.
    – bot47
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 6:39
  • Nope, I didn't open it yet. I will try to remove battery and see if the laptop start without it.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 7:12
  • Yes, the laptop works Ok w/o battery, seems like SMC is OK.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 6:23
0

Take Coconut Battery.

It's free and will show the health of your battery:

enter image description here

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3
  • The app. crashes before showing any info.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 6:21
  • What version did you download and which version of OS X are you running?
    – Rob
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 6:35
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    OS X Maverick with latest updates is installed.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 7:10
-1

The MacBook battery doesn’t last long if you use it continuously. You should have a close look at its serviceability and its status to not find dead when you need it the most. I had the same problem with me, I was searching on google and I found a really amazing guide about How to check battery health on MacBook You can see here.

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1
  • This answer has less information than the question itself. You are also just linking to an article and not explaining the steps. Also the statement doesnt last long heavily depends on what you are doing and not necessarily how often/continuosly you use the MacBook. He already did check his battery status. No offense, but did you completely read the question?
    – X_841
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 16:51

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