Bloated 17-inch MacBook Pro battery, part 4

This swollen, bloated MacBook Pro battery comes to us courtesy of Engadget reader Brade, whose ridiculously broken cell continued expanding even days after it was pulled from his system. Silver-lining: Apple was cool about replacing the thing. So let it be known: battery safety comes before productivity, so make sure your unit isn't one of the recalled batteries, and for God's sake, if you're seeing the swell, take it out and quarantine that thing immediately. (See also part 3, part 2, the original, and the recall.)

Gallery: Bloated 17-inch MacBook Pro battery, part 4

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[Jim @ Apr 30th 2007 2:49PM]

Is this still news? Four expanding batteries (out of several hundred thousand) is a pain for four people, but surely that kind of "warning" sign is a give-away. Wonder if the new battery management software for MacBooks has anything to do with this?

[Leonard Nimrod @ Apr 30th 2007 4:06PM]

Apple sold 1.6M machine this past quarter (January 1st — March 31st). I believe reading that 1M were notebooks. Apple has sold around 5—6M notebooks in the last year.

Even if it the problem was widespread, the problem would still lie with Sony as they are still making pretty much everyone's batteries.

[NiGhTmArE @ Apr 30th 2007 3:06PM]

Hey, at least it doesn't explode!

[Leonard Nimrod @ Apr 30th 2007 4:22PM]

Apple switched to Lithium Polymer Ion (Li-Poly) batteries when they switched to Intel. While Li-Ion are very dense and encased in a metal case and can explode if defective, Li-Poly are saturated in a less dense gel and are subject to swelling when defective. As I recall, Sony started really pushing Li-Poly batteries after last year's major recall.

[Joseph @ Apr 30th 2007 4:14PM]

it is obviously some how sony's fault. give me a few days and i will explain why.

[lotech @ Apr 30th 2007 4:14PM]

So based on the previous comments - can we please move on!
I'm even one of those people with a swollen battery and even I'm over seeing Engadget somehow treat this as a continuing and developing story. Enough.

[ray @ Apr 30th 2007 4:28PM]

mmmm, they have admitted there is a problem:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6606727.stm

[bruth-am @ Apr 30th 2007 4:49PM]

is this news....everyone knows macbooks=trash

[EEP @ Apr 30th 2007 10:39PM]

Pretty sight... I love seeing Mac fanboys stupidly defending their mothersuperior while holding back a tear.

[Jim @ May 1st 2007 9:27AM]

I have a MBP (Core Duo, 17") and just last week, the charging functionality on it seemed to go to pot. The indicator in the upper right of the screen would slowly *climb* in time the longer the thing was plugged in. When running on battery it would run till the batter was down to about 80% (as evidenced by the 5 leds by the tester button on the back) and the machine would simply shut off.

I took it back to the Apple Store (was within 21 days of the warranty expiring!) and demo'd the problem to the guy at the Genius Bar and he promptly took out a new battery and handed it to me. When we popped the old one out of the system, sure enough, it was just *starting* to bulge in the middle.

I had heard only a couple instances of this happening on places like Engadget, so as I handed him the bulging battery I made the comment, "Here's one of the lab, so they can figure out what's going on with these." He shook his head and said, "We've got lots of 'em. Don't need any more."

So it's probably more widespread than is being reported.

[Jim @ May 1st 2007 9:34AM]

BTW, one other thing that was evidence of the problem:

When charging the defective battery, and the battery *should have* been at full charge, the charge indicator on the power plug simply alternated green(charged)-orange(charging)-green-orange...etc.etc. And the display in the upper right would show all of these wacky time-left-to-charge times, alternating between, for instance, 3:21-4:02-4:12-3:55-4:20-3:36...etc...etc and they would alternate in time with the indicator on the power plug.

That was my first clue that something was nutty...Well...after the machine just shut itself off of course. :-)

[bruth-am @ May 1st 2007 4:07PM]

I-pods exploding/macs melting........could become the chorus to a pop hit.

[Aaron MCCaffery @ May 14th 2007 12:14AM]

Hey guys,

Check this out - happened to me yesterday. My freaking goodness!
http://clients.ignitemedia.com.au/macbook_pro_battery/

How fast can you say 'battery recall'?

Apple are covering this flaw, but make sure you get a case number from them directly before talking to an authorised reseller about getting it fixed. That way if any time is spent on the machine they will charge Apple, not you.

[Mica @ May 23rd 2007 2:26PM]

Yeah funny thing, I had this same problem with my 17" and I called Apple and they WOULDNT replace it for me, since I'm 5 days over my 1 year standard warranty and since I have a 17" and not a 15" (if I had a 15, they would have replaced it). Then more research, and another call (still no), then more research later pointed me to this page:

http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/

which clearly states that, "For MacBook and MacBook Pro systems with Intel Core Duo processors, this program extends repair coverage on the battery for up to two years from the date of purchase of the computer."

So I called them yet AGAIN, and pointed this out to them and only then did they finally admit to me that I was in fact still covered because this was their own faulty product.

Terrible, terrible, terrrrrrible customer service (during my first call, the operator was shocked to hear that the 15" inches batteries [which had the recall of course] were having issues), but after enough complaining and me showing them their own press release they finally agreed to replace it.