For a while now Mrs. MacCraic’s MacBook has had an icon indicating that the battery needs to be serviced. The issue seemed to be that it was not getting the optimal battery time for a machine of its age and load cycles. This was not particularly and issue as it was mainly used plugged in at a desk.

However last week the power adapter went on this machine. Now it became a bit more of and issue but we were still getting almost two hours use before it would need a change. To charge it we would use the charger of another MacBook in the house. Not an ideal solution but in these hard times we have to budget for the purchase of a new power adapter.

Well yesterday when yours truly was using the MacBook to rip one of my DVDs (a project to be the topic of another post) it began shutting down within a few minutes of use. I could have just plugged it into the adapter of the other MacBook but I decided it was time to get to the root of this problem.

Check the Energy Saver Settings

I decided to that my first port of call should be to check that the energy saver settings had not been changed. To check the energy settings you must go into System Preferences and go to the Energy Saver option.

Steps in Changing the Energy Saver Settings

• Click lock to make changes

You will need to open the lock to make changes. You will require the administrator password for this.

• Battery tab

Select the battery option. In here you can set the default time of inactivity before your computer goes to sleep and for your display to go to sleep. My own preference is 3 mins to display sleep and 5 minutes to computer sleep. Your preferences may differ.

• Other options

There are a few other options here to help save on power. Firstly you can select to put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible, dim the display when on battery, reduce the brightness before going to sleep or restart after your computer freezes.

I discovered that the settings in here had not been changed and were in line with my preferences.

Time to do some online searching. I found an article over at apple.com about resetting the System Management controller (SMC)

Reset the SMC

Apple Knowledge Base article (HT3964) Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) deals with how to reset the System Management Controller. This depends on the type of Mac you have. Below I will describe how to do this for an Intel based MacBook with an removable battery.

Steps in resetting the SMC

• Turn off MacBook
• Disconnect from power source
• Remove Battery
• Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
• Reconnect the battery
• Reconnect to power and turn on
• For other Macs see the link here Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Problem solved

This solved the problem. The service battery icon disappeared. The battery life is now gone out to almost 5 hours. The only problem that now remains is that I need to get a replacement power adapter for this Mac rather than sharing it with anther Mac in the house. I already have two additional MacBook Pro adapters in the house, however these cannot be used with a MacBook for the reasons below.

Power Adapter

Before I finalize this post i wanted to address the importance of using the correct power adapter with the correct Mac. The MacBook has a 65w adapter whereas the MacBook Pro has an 85w adapter. This means that the MacBook Pro adapter is too powerful for a MacBook. Using it could damage the battery in the MacBook. I don’t believe the same is true of using the MacBook adapter in a MacBook Pro but I’m sure our readers will correct me on that if I am wrong. Suffice to say be aware that you use the correct power adapter with the correct Mac.

I hope this is of help to some of you who are having battery issues. For further reading see the following article on Apple.com Apple – Batteries – Notebooks

Bookmark It

Hide Sites