For a while now I’ve been a little disappointed with the performance of the battery in my 15″ Mac Book Pro.  I bought the laptop in January 2007 (just under a year ago) and have been more than happy with it ever since… apart from the battery.

I first started getting problems at the end of the summer when the battery health dropped to about 65%.  With only around 230 cycles on it.  At the time I took it back to the shop I bought it from and had it tested.  This was shortly after Apple announced a battery recall program for batteries sold from February 2006 through May 2006.  Unfortunately my purchase date put my battery out of this range.

In October 2007, however, Apple extended the recall for laptops sold up until April 2007.  At the time my battery fell outside of the requirements for getting a replacement battery.  However, in the last could of days the battery health has suddenly dropped from 60% to a measly 14%.  Also, the charge time has reduced to 20 minutes (I don’t think that’s right somehow) or the time to charge has been “Calculating” for up to an hour.  As soon as I remove the power cable the computer just dies.

With a few weeks left on my warranty I thought I’d give it a shot and called Apple support line.  Five minutes later they have agreed to replace the battery and have taken my details (including my credit card incase I decide to not return the dud battery).   The replacement should be here in 5 days and then I have another 10 days to get the replacement back to Apple.