Power Problem with MBP

Hey all, I have just experienced what seems to be a major problem with my beloved MBP. When I unplug my MBP from the charger, it shuts down after about a half second without warning. At first I thought it was a fluke so I attempted to start it back up without the charger as the battery was full but it did the same thing. It would power on for a second then shut down. Its not an overheat issue, as the whole thing is cool to the touch. I then plugged it in to the charger and it powered up. BUT...

The moment I unplug it the MBP shuts down! Not cool at all. I ordered my MBP from Apple's website, but can I just take it in to the Apple store nearby to have them take a look at it? Or do I have to call up Apple? I'd like to choose the route that gets me back to using my MBP the quickest...

This is truly a bad, bad day for me.

 

You can go to any Apple Store or any Apple Certified repair center. I found the repair center for me was closer. On Apples site, enter in your serial number in the "Check my warranty" or w/e and it'll tell you how long you have left, and give you a bunch of options to repair your MBP. There's one where you can enter in your zip and it'll tell you the address and number of a repair place.

Or you could book an appointment with a Genius at an apple store, which might take days.

 

I just used the warranty checker utility on Apple's website and it said that my warranty will last until August 6, 2008. I'll try taking my MBP to the Apple store on the weekend.

In the meantime, is there some tips or tricks I can try on my own to resolve this?

 

hmmm, i feel for you... even if it's a mac.
not being able to use it off the charger is nothing to laugh at.

 

Wild guess here but I would run the apple hardware test utility from Disk 1 while it's powered from the adapter. There is a basic diagnostic tool and one that's extensive but that one takes an hour or more to complete.

 

I'll give that a whirl tomorrow, err, in 6 hours when I wake up from this horrible nightmare. Thanks for the suggestion. Is there a battery test included with that hardware test utility?

 

Well it's made to find hardware problems, so it's gotta check everything, which I think includes the battery. Run the advanced test though, which is more thorough, although it will take about an hour.

Hopefully it is the battery, because that's an easy fix.

 

Or maybe it would be better if it is not.. and is something more serious. That way you have a better chance of getting the newly upgraded MBPs as a replacement!!!!

 

Its strange... this morning when I tried again to start it without the charger plugged in the MBP started normally. I'll have to run that diagnostic utility off of the installation DVD to see if it picks up something. I have until August before the warranty runs out, but most likely I'll be getting Apple Care to extend it.

 

Remember to hold the D (not C) key during startup to initiate the utility, if you have an intel mac.

 

That would be awesome ... but I don't see that happening. It looks like some simple problem with the battery just needing to be replaced.

By the way, iStatPro is reporting that the battery's health is at 87% after about 67 charge cycles. To me, I don't think its the battery itself but more the power management on the logic board or something. Here's to hoping the Apple Store will fix it then and there.

Edit: This is just an aside, but IF the Apple store did offer to replace it with a brand new MBP with the Penryn's, I'd ask to see if I could switch to the MacBook (black version) with Apple Care and Final Cut Express to bring the cost close to that of a base MBP. Think they'd go for it?

 

Worth a shot

 

Here's an update to the Apple Store's diagnostics on my MBP's mysterious power problem: nothing's wrong.

I'm puzzled, as even now I can't reproduce the problem I had earlier in the week. Guess it was a fluke.

On the other hand I got a good chance to evaluate the Apple Store's genius bar, as they offered to perform diagnostic testing on it anyway, even since they couldn't reproduce the problem.

 

Hmmm well maybe sometimes these things can just fix themselves. For instance, the trackpad on our inspiron was going nuts (keep your finger in one place and the cursor would just start flickering all over the screen). Right when I'm about to call Dell, I turn it on just in case they asked me to do something with the PC, and wouldn't you know it, the trackpad seemed perfectly normal and has been ever since!