Battery expanded and burst open-Replaced. What caused this?
Hello,
I have an early 2008 MacBook Pro. It still had the original battery in it which a few months ago started expanding. At first I thought it wasn't a big deal but later on it started getting much bigger until the actual casing of the battery popped open. Unfortunately it was installed so slightly pressed into my case where it seems the keyboard slightly raised up.
I went to OWC's website and purchased a new battery for this laptop. It's in there now and seems to be working fine. The keyboard seems to be okay also and my laptop is working perfectly normal.
My question is what caused it? Was it some type of defect or just an old battery? I actually have 3 images that were taken of this battery. The concern I have mostly is will it happen again? I don't want to damage my laptop. Is it possible fan related? I think I can hear the fan running but it doesn't seem to be very loud so I thought maybe one fan (if there's more than one) went out or maybe it's not running as fast as it should. Would this be a fan issue or something else that needs to be fixed? I have thought of making a Genius Bar appointment to have Apple check it out but of course if it's nothing wrong with it I'd rather avoid the appointment since it's a long drive to my nearest Genius Bar.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Comments
It's an internal failure of the battery ... not a common failure mode (at least not to that extent) but also not exactly rare.
It would require a lengthy (by forum standards) dissertation on chemistry to really explain it, but the short version is:
It's a "normal" age related failure, but expansion to that degree is rare. It's not likely to happen to that extent again, but battery failure can be expected after several years (hard to be precise, because it depends on how the battery is used.)
How do you prevent this from happening again?
How do you prevent this from happening again?
Nothing's 100% ... but...
Don't leave the charger plugged in ALL the time, and don't let the battery sit near zero-charge for extended periods.
As the battery ages, internal components can deteriorate... can release some gas in the process... during use of the battery, and especially during charging, heat can build up, the gas expands, in rare cases enough to overcome the structural integrity of the casing.