Apple issues MacBook battery alert

Stan Beer
Monday, 30 April 2007 15:04

IT Industry - Strategy

MacBook and MacBook Pro owners should not get alarmed because your battery won't overheat and explode. However, if you want the battery to charge properly or in some cases your computer to recognize it at all, you may need a software update.

According to an alert on the Apple website, some batteries for the company's new notebook range may have performance issues. Specifically, MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks bought between February 2006 and April 2007 may need to run battery update software. Apparently, running this software will improve battery performance.

Like all major notebook manufacturers, Apple's portable computers use high performance lithium ion batteries. In August last year, Apple like Dell, Lenovo and other first tier vendors using Sony batteries, was forced into a massive worldwide recall of 1.8 million batteries suspected of suffering a manufacturing defect that could cause the batteries to short, overheat and explode into flames in a process called thermal runaway.

While there is no suggestion that the current battery issue at Apple has anything to do with overheating, the vendor does issue a request for owners to return notebooks with batteries to authorised Apple shops if, among other things, the "battery pack is visibly deformed." How a battery could come to be visibly deformed is left unsaid.

In an effort to keep good faith with customers, Apple has extended the battery warranty on notebooks with Core Duo processors to up to two years from the date of purchase. More details are available on the Apple site.