Bloated 17-inch MacBook Pro battery -- take 2
By Thomas Ricker 
posted April 3rd 2007 8:46AM
posted April 3rd 2007 8:46AM
Note: pictures are right-left inverted since they were taken with MBP webcam.
Update: Need more evidence? Check the bloated 17-inch MBP battery pics harvested from comments: Spain and Disko and Frank and Matt W and Max K and Brandon S and Casper and Adam and Antii. Last but not least, several threads on Apple's own support forum.
The newer Apple macbook pro computers have many issues I had one that after 2 months the computer had a meltdown and fried the operating system which cost me a weeks worth of information. These computers have many problems not just one or two people in millions we are talking hundreds of issues with these new computers. Also, I have had Apple computers for 13 yrs and I have never had a operating system fail in 2 months, 5 years yes not 2 months. This is a very big issue and I work as a consultant with 4 fortune 100 corporations and I need to have a computer that I don't have to worry about. I have had 3 new 3g phones and 2 new macbook pro's and I am poised to get a third computer due to the same issues starting to occur. What part of having a warrantee is going to pay for me to install 5 hours of product back onto my computer for a 3rd time.
I would be so pissed if i bought a 2,000 dollar notbook that was kinda defective all mac's should be perfect for what they charge. You could say when a 300 dollar dell breaks that it was cheap. But with macs you pay a mac tax of up to $700 there should be better quality control.
Finally, someone gets it. Apple boasts that they have a far superior product over the PC and charges accordingly. I paid $3000.00 for my mid 2007 MacBook Pro 17. I've had to replace the Logic Board and the Bloated/Pregnant/Exploding Battery. It's amazing to me that people think an exploding battery is normal or that a battery should last only 2 years (when it's running on the power cord most of the time). I had to bitch / complain to Apple and to it's flagship store on 5th avenue to no avail (they were like vultures trying to get me to pay $129 plus tax). I tried a couple of other Apple stores and finally got someone with a brain that realized the exploding battery is a serious design or product flaw. They opened up a new box and replaced the battery immediately (Free of Charge). I hate the fact that I had to go through all this hassle after spending so much money. You don't pay for a Lexus and expect a crappy Chrysler? Maybe some people are so accepting/meek/sheepish that they just take it up the rear and pay Apple whatever they want.
My 17 inch Macbook Pro Battery has started swelling.
Oh, and it gets so hot that it burns me.
Does anyone else get the feeling that supermeerkat is the first one to consider isolated incidents on Dells to be a MAJRO problem concerning the entire line of computers, if not the entire company?
The fact is, there are about as many, if not MORE problems with Apple computers than Dells. Lots and lots of people NEVER have a single issue with their Dell computers. Not one. Just like many Apple users never have a problem with theirs. Except hte Dells are a lot less money.
You can't necessarily blame Apple for this. They don't actually make the batteries themselves, they just design the container that it's put inside. This seems like a battery manufacturer problem, but I do agree that Apple should issue a recall of some sort on these defective batteries.
I have had a C2D Macbook and I have not had any problems what so ever.
Apple does a great job with macs and some defects will be expected. No one is perfect, but apple sure is close.
The problem would appear wide spread but that is a common misconception that appears across all consumer products. Of course the forums will be filled with these types of faults. I'm not gonna contribute to a post that says "My Macbook's battery is fine and I have no cracks" I'm gonna post when I actually have a problem.
I am in no way devaluing your concerns or issues with these faults (does Apple make it's own batteries anyway?) but the sky is not falling.
I used to have a dell latitude 640 and the screen died within a year of owning it. It also overheated all the time and I had to shut it off after an hour of use. It also had alot of wifi problems under both windows and linux and was unable to get more then good even 3 feet away from the access point. I updated drivers, yadda yadda to no avail. I also noticed that any usb device while run with the ATI radeon software would blue screen but if I exited the ati software it would be fine. so I wentr with the windows driver instead. It woulds do the same thing when I would disconnect the AC power and use it off battery I would get the sop error blue screen and it would say it was the ati stuff that did it. I would not get a dell laptop ever again.
I am the proud owner of an acer aspire 1640 with 1.6Ghz centroni processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, DVD-DL drive, Intel GMA950 128MB graphics,wifi 802.11g, and dual boot ubuntu linux and winderz xp. and I have no probs with this laptop so far I got it for only 500 dollars off someone on craigslist (I love that site I have gotten and sold alot from there) I got a new battery that is more then twice the milliamps (4400mA) and I get double the runtime! approx 6.5 hrs instead of the rated 3 with the 2000mA battery.
I have 17" Macbook pro intel 1st generation, just 1yr old, battery just stopped working and is very slightly swollen, Apple have replaced it and said it was not one that was on the recall list....
Otherwise my laptop has worked fine, no over heating, fast, great screen. wifi has been a slight issue, it appears that 8011.g mode has a very poor range but in 8011.b mode is as good as any other laptop.
will be trying to persuade Apple to give me a 8011.n to replace the wifi card.
Given I refuse to use crappy windows and would miss Aperture, final cut, what other choice is there but buy the fastest laptop that will run the applications I need.
I cringe every time I read one of these - I bought a macbook back in Nov and so far no issues at all. I don't know what the percentage of issues are for apple laptops but so far I'm very happy with mine.
I just found this page from Googling for "MacBook Pro battery".
I have a 1st-generation Core Duo 17" MacBook Pro, purchased new at the end of last May - so the computer has just passed the 10 month mark, approximately. I had reason to lift up the MacBook Pro to insert a Boot Camp CD-ROM a short while ago. Ordinarily, I keep it closed up in "clamshell" mode, and it rests on top of one of those tilted aluminum USB dual-fan cooling slabs. Ordinarily the computer runs about 134-148°F when idle in this arrangement. It is placed sufficiently close to a RAID enclosure that I have to tilt it upright to get access to the DVD drive.
Imagine my shock tonight when I went to lift it up and put the Boot Camp 1.2 CD-ROM in the drive, and found my battery bulging at the seams, looking EXACTLY like the pictures in this article!!!
This phenomenon is real folks, and it's just happened to me as well ... never had anything happen like this before, and I've owned Macs (including a TiBook and a 17" AlBook) since 1993.
My 17" MacBook Pro's battery swelled up severely while left on and running overnight. With a little prodding at the local Apple Store (had to get the store manager to help me in place of rude, so-called "Genius") to get AppleCare to overnight a replacement. Working fine ever since. They and AppleCare said (at the time) it was the first 17" battery they'd ever heard of to do this. Happened on 3/7/07.
All you guys have just scared the hell out of me. My wife just got me a 17" macbookpro. I have been a pc user all my life, lusting after the macs. Now when i finally get it, i find myself making the critical error of reading this. Screwed? I hope as hell not.
This morning I got into work and found my 17" MacBook Pro battery swollen identical to that in the photograph. It is a similar story to comments posted--after leaving powered on all night I came in to find it bloated. Yet, I typically always leave the MacBook running so this happened after about 1 year of use. I will be investigating replacement.....
Yeah ... I got one to ... happened during charge during the day ... MacBook Pro 17 inch ... model number is A1189.
Bought the laptop in May 2006 just over a year I guess ... Curious to what Apple will do about this ...
i don't understand why, but macintoshes FROM THE VERY BEGINNING always have had power/overheating problems; they're always trying to get away with not having a fan when they need them. I've had mac laptops that I had to get rid of just because the heat made my hands very uncomfortable. Sleek visual design wins out over sound conservative engineering at apple every time.
Actually the MacBook Pros do have fans in them. The vents are under the screen.
I noticed in the last couple of days that my laptop would shut off without warning when it was unplugged. Today I noticed it was wobbling on the table so I turned it over and discovered that I too have a bloated battery!
I am a graphic designer and use this computer for work on a daily basis. I have no time for this nonsense!!! Earlier this year my hard drive crashed and had to be replaced with no reason given and now this. I love my 17" MacBook Pro but this is crazy!
How can I upload my battery pics?
I noticed in the last couple of days that my laptop would shut off without warning when it was unplugged. Today I noticed it was wobbling on the table so I turned it over and discovered that I too have a bloated battery!
I am a graphic designer and use this computer for work on a daily basis. I have no time for this nonsense!!! Earlier this year my hard drive crashed and had to be replaced with no reason given and now this. I love my 17" MacBook Pro but this is crazy!
How can I upload my battery pics?
Mine did this too. No worries though. Just call Apple and tell them what happened. My Macbook Pro is about 6 mos. past the warranty date and they were more than happy to send me a new battery in less than 16 hours. This isn't a problem people. I experienced no downtime, and my new battery was in hand before lunch. Peace jiggas.