Sunday, April 29, 2007

Apple fixes suicidal batteries?

I wonder if this is related to the peculiar phenomenon of perfectly healthy MacBook batteries abruptly showing the "Dead X" icon, possibly in association with use of Parallels ...
Apple releases MacBook battery update | Reg Hardware

Apple is recommending an update be installed on all MacBook and MacBook Pro computers and extra batteries purchased between February 2006 and April 2007...

...According to Apple, there are factors causing performance issues in the batteries which do not present a safety risk....

After you've installed the update, if your battery still has the following symptoms, contact Apple for a free replacement:

* Battery is not recognized causing an "X" to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
* Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
* Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
* Battery pack is visibly deformed [Reporter's note: Somehow I doubt a software update will fix this guy.]

Apple is also extending the repair coverage program for MacBook and MacBook Pro systems batteries with Intel Core Duo processors for up to two years from the date of purchase.
The warrantee extension suggests that some behavior was prematurely aging batteries.

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