St. Paul Pioneer Press tech reporter, Julio Ojeda-Zapata,
has blogged about about a problem with new Macs suddenly shutting down. He references
an article in The Inquirer, that explains:
"Apple message boards seem to be debating the cause of the latest phenomena to be seen on their reassuringly expensive machines.
It seems that the new MacBooks have a habit of randomly shutting down and no-one can work out why."
This sounds very similar to a problem I'm experiencing with my new MacBook Pro. My symptoms:
1. The battery meter inaccurately reports the time left on the battery.
2. The batter doesn't hold a charge.
3. The computer shuts down without notice when the battery is depleted.
This is especially problematic on the MacBook Pro due to the magnetic power cord connection, which has a tendency to disconnect with minimal jostling.
I put together a short video demonstrating the problem I'm experiencing. This was shot on a
Treo 700p, so please excuse the marginal quality:
The article in The Inquirer references
a post on AppleDefects.com listing effected batteries. It turns out my MacBook Pro's battery
qualifies for the recall. It would have been nice of Apple to mention the recall status of the computer's battery at the time of purchase. I'd like to mention that my MacBook Pro did come off the return rack at a local Apple Store, which leads me to wonder whether someone previously returned the computer due to the battery problem. Why would Apple let mine out of the store with a known defect (AppleDefect.com's report is from July 30th, and I purchased my Mac on the 8th of August) is hard to understand.
So, be sure to check the serial number on your MacBook Pro's battery so you can avoid the pain of a random shut down.
