Swollen batteries affecting 17-inch MacBook Pros too?

The engorged battery photos you see above and in the gallery below were sent to us by a reader named Brian. He claims that he was watching a movie on his 17-inch MacBook Pro (core duo) when it suddenly shut off. This happened twice before, only this time with a notable difference: his battery was fit to burst. As we have all learned, swelling is typically the final stage before explosion. We've held off on publishing these bloated 17-inch MBP battery stories for a few months now due to sketchy claims, but this is about the fourth seemingly valid case we've come across which could be a sign of a worrisome trend. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that Apple had to recall batteries. So what's up, anyone else out there experiencing battery bloat on their 17-inch MBP?

Swollen batteries affecting 17-inch MacBook Pros too?

[Thanks, Brian M.]

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 4th 2008 10:32AM]

Mine just got prego today. Hope it's a boy! Yeah, the Apple store people in the Loop sound like real douches. Appointment to say, here's my battery, thanks for the freshy. Glad your crap didn't fuck up my info. What's the problem people? Can't handle an impromptu customer service issue that is obviously well known. Why didn't Apple contact their customers for a recall?? They have multiple ways to contact me. Why don't they get proactive and solve issue before they happen.--Not to mention when things don't work like they are supposed to in the first place. (diff. issue entirely, I know.) This is really unacceptable. I like some Apple products, but as always, caveat emptor!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 21st 2007 9:53PM]

had the same thing happen to me - http://www.akiro3.com/?p=75
I finally found the HK apple service centre, located on the 17th floor of a rather nondescript empty office building and they've just taken my battery at the moment. I have no idea if they're going to give me another one soon.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 22nd 2007 1:29AM]

Had the same problem... Just as everyone's already said.. went to the apple store and they gave me another... thank god it was under warranty.

heres a pic of my 17" MBP Battery....
http://adambutcherhdv.com/images/mbpbatt.png

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 21st 2007 11:30PM]

I also had the same problem, which the Apple Store fixed in a couple of days -- they had none in stock. First noticed the problem because of flakey behavior of the touchpad. The swollen batter was pushing up on the bottom of the trackpad, and making it behave oddly.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 22nd 2007 1:36AM]

I sent mine in about 3 months ago.
It looked just as bad.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 22nd 2007 12:45AM]

I had a MBP 17 inch battery replaced by the Apple Store shortly before Macworld in January. It was noticeably bulging and experiencing the premature shutdowns. Apple Service did not have an ETA for a battery through normal service channels. I bitched, saying that was screwy since they were sitting on the retail shelves and I was going to Macworld the next day!. Luckily, the manager was in a good mood and did a swap, right then and there.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 25th 2007 3:15PM]

I have had to get three batteries replaced already, in about a seven month period. So this is definitely a problem, but it's not like they won't replace the battery for you.

[IUKonstantin Posted Mar 22nd 2007 2:26AM]

I had the same problem with my 17" MBP battery. What you really have to watch out for is the decline of battery health. The laptop will shut off when it gets down to about 30 percent battery life because for some reason it still thinks that the battery is fully opperational. This probably happens because the battery has blown a cell. I think it happens because of consistent overheating which has been an issue with the MBP line. However, I wasn't too upset when this happened since Apple replaced the battery within five minutes of my visit to a retail store. I don't so much mind getting a new battery every once in a while since batteries don't hold a charge for as long after a while anyways.

[Skillz Posted Mar 22nd 2007 3:10AM]

Looks like another big problem with the building quality of an Apple product...

And even so if Sony builds the batteries, they're still a part of that final Apple product.

Let's see...

- Ipod Scratches
- Logicboard failures (on several Apple products)
- Heating issues
- Stains issues
- Battery issues

Kinda wondering when Apple is going to release a product that is 100% good to go from their initial release

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 22nd 2007 4:18AM]

I had this same problem last month. I bought my MBP in England but had the battery replaced in Australia.

I first noticed that the battery charge in the menu bar would tell me that there was 30 minutes charge left and the machine would just power off. After a couple of times I called Apple and they went through the usual rigmarole of resetting the PRAM etc.

Finally I took the battery into NEXT Byte who sent the battery to Apple. I then got Apple to send me the replacement directly, but even that was hassle.

I don't mind the bettery almost exploding. What really ticks me off is the way Apple have changed their policy to get us to take our screwed up machines into an Apple repair centre! They used to come and pick it up!

[brianbobcat Posted Mar 22nd 2007 5:23AM]

There's many threads already stating this problem, including posts regarding my swollen 17" MBP battery:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3947414#3947414
and while this thread is not dedicated to the 17" MBP battery issue, there are posts and pictures VERY similar to the ones posted in this article: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=286939

I hope they've fixed this now that I have a replacement, hopefully this battery will be fine.

-Brian

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 22nd 2007 1:22PM]

I agree that this seems like a rather pervasive problem. But what hasn't been demonstrated to my satisfaction is that the swelling is a safety issue (rather than just a product quality issue). Where is the substantiation that swelling is the precursor of explosion?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 29th 2007 7:33AM]

Yep. Happened to my 17" as well. I only noticed when the trackpad button suddenly got spongy because the battery was distorting the computer case.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 22nd 2007 6:33PM]

Happened to me. In apples defense they replaced it in minutes at the store.

[brianbobcat Posted Mar 23rd 2007 3:08AM]

Just to clarify what happened to me was very similar to Ramon (post back on March 21st, 6:35PM). I too went into my local store, the genius quickly diagnosed teh battery as needing replacement, but the store didn't have any MBP service batteries in, so they ordered one and told me 3-5 days, but that they get a lot of stuff overnight. That was a monday, on saturday I still hadn't gotten a new battery, so called Applecare. The lady I spoke to put me on hold, called the manager of my local store, and told me that right NOW there'd be a battery waiting for me at the sales desk and that all I needed to do was bring my old battery and ask for the manager. The manager simply took a retail battery, cut open the box, gave me the new battery, and put my old one in. What people aren't saying is that all that week I was running my laptop strictly off AC power since I took my battery out and left it on my desk, but over that week, the bulge grew to 4x the size and began smelling so chemically that I needed to place the battery in a ziploc bag to keep from getting sick from the smell. While I wish they had had a battery in stock, eventually the service was nice and the communication between corporate in CA and my local manager in IL was superb. I still love my computer, but this is definitely not an isolated incident.

-Brian

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 23rd 2007 9:32PM]

Mine popped out of my case about 4 weeks ago. MacBook Pro 17' May 2006 vintage.
Apple replaced it after a couple of phone calls and a visit to the Genius Bar.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 25th 2007 8:10AM]

I've had similar problems: http://www.anttikupila.com/mac/macbook-pro-battery-problems/

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 3rd 2007 10:57AM]

Yes, having this problem now....have removed the battery -- leaving it in place essentially disables my touchpad/click.

I am based in Shanghai, anyone else had this issue and resolved it (for free) in town? If so, please drop me an email at [e-mail]

Thanks,

AjS

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 3rd 2007 1:01PM]

Yup, same thing here. I was on an airplane when my 17" MacBook Pro suddenly shut off. It had plenty of juice when I left so I thought it was strange and turned it over to look at the battery - holy bloatedness! I took it into the local Apple Store where they replaced the defective unit free of charge.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 4th 2007 8:37AM]

I bought one of the first MBP's in the US and one day the trackpad was acting funny. Turned out the battery was bulging, just like in the image, and pressing the trackpad from underneath. I took it out, and after a few days in the drawer, its cover had been forced off. The middle battery component (there are three) had bulged to about twice the thickness of the others.

Being in Greece now I had lots of trouble to get the local reps (useless "rainbow computing") to replace the battery. Took them three months! Noone at Apple could be made to care, either.

This was my main problem: there is NO place where Apple can be contacted by a customer. Even having bought the machine from Apple's webstore did not assure me decent help. After a lot of nonsense, they just said the local reps should do. But if they don't?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 4th 2007 5:41PM]

Are these claims on older MBP's? or are they also on models purchased recently?

I work in R/C (radio control) car industry and we are the industry leader in development for LiPo's in R/C and we push the product to it's limits in racing. I can tell you the fact that these cells are only swelling and not bursting (technically they never explode only burst and torch) are a testiment to their quality. if you over heat cells (could be the problem as I noticed MacBooks of all levels run pretty hot) you can cause a chemical reaction within the cells that makes them fail.

If you notice a poor lifespan of a charge this is a good indication that the cells are out of balance i.e. one cell in the pack is failing. It is good to hear Mac is replacing them, but if they are replacing them with the same batch of cells then the problem will repeat. By then though many warranties will have expired then what? I am hoping Mac has improved the cells since the beginning and those of us who recently purchased MBP or had their batteries replaced are getting better cells.

On a side note to those who are concirned about Li-Po or Li-Ion cells note that NiCD or NiMh which are like the typical batteries that used to be used could also over heat and literaly explode emmiting both fire and schrapnel as they had metal cases plus the chemicals in the older batteries were much more toxic.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 9th 2007 9:27AM]

Yep. Happened to me too. Apple replaced it, but it took them a week to get a "replacement" in; had to resort to buying a new one in the meantime as a backup....which was a bit annoying. Still, not as annoying as an explosion.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 16th 2007 2:27PM]

A couple of weeks ago, my MBP 17" shut off after running from full battery for 15 min or so. At first, I thought there was an SMC problem related to recent updates to 10.4.9 and/or bootcamp 1.2 (I couldn't remember if I had tried running from battery since those updates). After a few minutes, the batter would go from 95% to 0% instantly, and the LED indicators would drop to just the first one flashing. Then I would charge it and it would go from 0% to 97% almost instantly. coconutBattery indicated that the capacity had diminished from 5500 mAh to around 5200 mAh (manufactured 11 months ago), but clearly I wasn't getting anywhere near that before the system shut down.

After multiple SMC resets, and seeing that the battery now only lasted less than a minute, I decided to carry it in for service (seems there's never a good time for this when it's your primary work computer and you have to do business travel). I went to pop the battery out, and low and behold it was now bulging *exactly* like the battery pictured at the start of this thread. Up to that point, the battery had not bulged at all.

I wasn't sure what sort of hurdles I would encounter, but I'm glad to see others haven't had trouble getting a replacement. I don't have AppleCare, but since I have already had a hard disk failure, and the fans are sounding noisy, and probably need to be replaced, and now this, it's sad to say, but not extending the warranty may be too risky.
MBP 17" 2.1 GHz CoreDuo, 2GB serial w86210k9tj1
battery serial 6n6206dmus0a

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2007 11:30PM]

Well mine went today. I'll be taking it back to the store tomorrow. It was bought about 17th May last year when I bought the 17" 2.13Ghz MBP and in that time the issues that I have noticed but have not taken back to the Store yet are the high pitched whining which happens when it is on power but can be made silent by turning off processor 2. Also my Screen is quite grainy to look at, so much so that except for the brightness the 800 Mhz 15" TiBook I am typing this on has a superiour looking panel. Then in the last 2 weeks it has unexpectedly shut down when the battery was no where near flat and almost full.

Tonight I felt a lump under it when I picked it up. Turned it off, pulled the battery and am now currently running it with no battery doing a backup to my external before it might go away for a day or few. Lets hop e the Apple shop are nice tomorrow.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 23rd 2007 10:47AM]

Same thing happened to me this morning on my 17 inch MBP Core Duo. I use an elevated base and the laptop started to elevate in a lopsided way. I lifted it up and watched the battery puff up on one side like a cake in an easy bake oven. Yikes! For reference, I didn't notice any of the standard signs of a dying battery prior to this event but I do usually plug in instead of using the battery.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 25th 2007 4:40PM]

Boy am I glad I ran into this blog. Just a minute ago I was ready to hit the "buy" button for the MBP 17". As for the warping that comes after the batteries swell, do any of you (that have new batteries) have permanent case damage? I think I'm gonna wait until this June to see if/when they come out with a better MBP.

[(Unverified) Posted May 12th 2007 9:34PM]

This JUST happened to me tonight. I'm horrified!! It was on my kitchen table when I thought something was under it or something, and almost dropped it when I saw the battery BULGING out!

Pics:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jnbyoung/IMGP2697.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jnbyoung/IMGP2696.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/jnbyoung/IMGP2695.jpg

Guess I know what I'll be doing Monday morning.

[(Unverified) Posted May 13th 2007 5:28AM]

Here's another spectacular addition to the 'Swollen Batteries' gallery. This one was quite a doozy - it happened to my MBP 17" today while I was out. It was on standby at the time, on 13th May 2007.

See images:

[(Unverified) Posted May 13th 2007 5:31AM]

Whoops, URL didn't add. Try here:

http://clients.ignitemedia.com.au/macbook_pro_battery/

[(Unverified) Posted May 16th 2007 4:45PM]

Same thing happened to me last fall. Apple sent out a replacement that arrived next day.
http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/review-applecare-service-macbook-pro-battery-issue/

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2007 11:23AM]

I had this happen just yesterday, 7/1/07. I called Mac and they immediately offered to send me a replacement at no charge. They do require that I send the old one back. I don't have a photo. But mine looks exactly like the photos Brian sent in.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 5th 2007 1:01PM]

My MBP 17" kept shutting down for no apparent reason. The day that the keyboard touch pad became unresponsive I became worried. I plugged in a mouse and the computer functioned fine. I first suspected that something might have become wedged under the pad and was about to use compressed air to try to dislodge it when I decided to turn it over, remove the battery and see if I might be able to gain access to the pad. Imagine my surprise when the pad worked fine (I could see it with the battery removed). I replaced the battery in its slot and the pad again would not work. That was when I noticed the "bloated" battery. I examined the seals and they were misshapen and separating from each other.

Called my local Apple Store, explained my problem and drove out on a Sunday afternoon. I asked before driving out there if this was a familiar problem and was told they would have to evaluate it first-hand. The "genius" at the store listened to my explanation and said my diagnosis of "bloatedness" was correct. I asked if this was a problem that has been surfacing (my boss has the same machine and I own stock in Apple) and she said there had been a few reports but it didn't seem to be that big a deal. She replaced the battery (I have AppleCare) and I was on my way.

Monday morning I told my boss what had happened and told him to beware. That was a week and a half ago and today his laptop began shutting off and the battery became bloated. He is on his way to see the "geniuses."

Since we use our machines for business (graphic design), we stand to lose valuable information and a great deal of money if something goes wrong with our laptops. Sure, we backup our files but any interruption can be costly. When does this become a "recall" issue?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 29th 2007 9:12AM]

My 17" MacBook Pro just had that problem last night. I would say there were no warning signs at all. It worked fine for me in the evening before I went to bed. My wife stayed up a little later than I did and she told me she was writing an e-mail and the computer just went black. Then in my wife's words, "something was coming out of the bottom."

I checked it out this morning and saw that it was the battery which had swollen up and was about ready to burst.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 9th 2007 11:17PM]

Just had this problem myself, now i'm paranoid about it happening again. Anyone know what is causing this? The heat or just faulty batteries?

I however have one gripe with Apple in the exchange process, they swiped my credit card for 125 bucks and told me it was for their security, in case I didn't send back the faulty one. This is the Apple Care guys telling me this. I just gave you 300+ bucks for an Apple Care Plan...isn't that security enough???