Sad Battery

Last week my 17-inch MacBook Pro (late 2006 model) came back from “the shop” after getting its left fan replaced.

On Friday, I was sitting in a meeting not paying attention to the MBP when I noticed that it had gone to sleep — or so I thought.

In fact, the machine had lost power due to an unhappy battery that was showing the early signs of central obesity. Things were quite literally going pear shaped for this battery.

The left side of the battery was sporting a modest bulge, slightly lifting its aluminum skin from the surrounding battery housing. Nothing as dramatic as other similar batteries I’ve seen on Flickr that appeared to be powered by Jiffy Pop, but nonetheless my battery was far from normal.

AppleCare

I called AppleCare, and explained the condition of my battery. The nice AppleCare rep apologized, instructed me to not use the battery lest I risk life and limb, and said that a new battery would be sent to me by courier.

Alas, I’m flying to San Francisco tomorrow from my home in the Great White North.

I ask if I could just stroll into the downtown San Francisco Apple Store and receive a replacement battery.

Unfortunately, I was told, the Apple Store wouldn’t have a replacement battery in stock.

Plan B was to have the new battery couriered to my San Francisco hotel, and the AppleCare rep took down the address of the hotel before putting me on hold for a moment while she got authorization.

A moment later I was handed off to another AppleCare rep who also apologized for the state of my battery, and then said that I would be able to pick up the new battery tomorrow at the Apple Store after all.

And so, tomorrow I will have my first appointment ever at a Genius Bar. My flight lands at 2:45pm, and at 4pm I have an appointment at the Apple Store to trade my sad battery with a new one.

Assuming this all works out as planned, this will be yet another experience reinforcing the value of having AppleCare coverage.

Wish me luck.