I upgraded my MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard last week. After the successful install, I noticed my battery meter wouldn’t read out properly. Instead, I was getting a “Service Battery” error.
I clicked the error, and it brought me to an OS X help document. It explained that continued use wouldn’t harm my computer, but that my battery wasn’t functioning properly.
So, I called Apple Support. After unsuccessful dealings with a poorly trained tier-one support tech, I was escalated to someone that understood the problem. He asked me to send my system information through System Profiler, and then he had be reset my SMC. None of that worked, so he scheduled an appointment for me at my local Apple Store.
The Apple employee (AKA “Genius”) booted my laptop off of a USB thumb drive, and then ran a test on the battery. Large red text that read “BAD BATTERY” flashed across the screen, and he then swapped out my old battery with a new one. Because I opted for AppleCare when I bought my laptop, I just signed a receipt, and went on my way. I didn’t pay a dime.
My laptop is the last model made before the unibody MacBook Pros shipped. This means that I lucked out, and my battery is easily swappable. If you’ve had an experience with a bad battery in a unibody Mac, please leave a comment about your experience. I’m dying to know the details about that.
All in all, I had a fairly pleasant experience with Apple Support. Let’s just pray I don’t have to talk to them for a long, long time.
Photo Credit: moria
