Professional repair options

Sometimes you need a bit of trained TLC.

What can I do if my MacBook’s battery is giving up the ghost?

It’s obvious when your MacBook’s battery starts to struggle: it runs down faster, then might charge erratically. These symptoms can have other causes, so try resetting the SMC.

To check the battery, Opt–click the Apple menu and go to System Information > Power. Compare the cycle count to bit.ly/ apple-battcycnote, which lists the design life for each model. If it’s well under its limit, suspect something else is up; but if you’ve eliminated other problems and the battery is failing early, Apple will normally replace it free, in line with your consumer rights. If the battery is at the end of its natural life, it’ll cost a few hundred dollars to swap it out: see support.apple.com/ en-au/mac/repair/service. Other repair outlets might do it cheaper, or you can attempt the job yourself: try eshop. macsales.com for parts and iFixit.com for instructions on how to go about it.