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my MacBook Air's battery is dead

anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?
 

V1LÆM

Gold Member
go to an apple store?

i just checked the price and here it is £129 for a new battery for a 2017 macbook air. that's actually quite reasonable and much lower than i expected. go to apple and they will replace the battery the right way or even give you a replacement laptop or if you're really lucky a newer model....
 
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gundalf

Member
anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?

Please replace the battery, the Macbook Air is a damn fine machine 😗👌
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?

Watch videos on the replacement and decide if its within your capabilities. You should replace the battery either way, as portability is the main reason to have a laptop.

You could always trade-in and get a new one or switch to something like an iMac or Mac Mini.
 

belmarduk

Member
anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?

It happens... not that difficult to do, you just need the right screwdriver.

You can get the battery from eBay for about $60.
 

Tams

Member
anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?

Yes, batteries do that.

You could buy a third party battery and replace it yourself. You'll need a repair kit from iFixit or somewhere.

Or pay out the arse and get a repair shop to replace it.

Or go to an Apple store and really pay out the arse for a 'genius' to replace the battery. It'll all be 'above board' with Apple that way though, if you care about that.

Or be a good little consumer and buy a whole new machine.
 

LordCBH

Member
anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?

Is it a retina model or one of the older ones? If it’s an older one just grab a battery from iFixIt. 10 screws on the bottom case (p5) and 5 on the battery (T5). Takes about 5 minutes.
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Air-13-Inch-Late-2010-2017-Battery/IF188-113?o=2 - $79.99 for Battery + tools.


For the retina, it’s a mix of screws and stretch release adhesive and needs to be serial number paired with the board.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Phew, it’s the same model as mine so I’m glad there’s easy, relatively cheap replacements.
Mine’s still going quite well, though. 7 years in the battery has about halved its duration, meaning it can still go 5-6 hours on a charge. It will behave strangely when it’s down to 20% or less though - when it wakes up from sleep the screen goes dark and the machine must be woken up by holding down the power button for a few seconds.
 

Blade2.0

Member
anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?
if you're gonna junk it, send it to me instead.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, the laptop has been otherwise great so I’ll likely repair it myself
go to an apple store?

i just checked the price and here it is £129 for a new battery for a 2017 macbook air. that's actually quite reasonable and much lower than i expected. go to apple and they will replace the battery the right way or even give you a replacement laptop or if you're really lucky a newer model....
Won’t they charge me out the ass? Laptop is def outside of warranty given it’s like 5 years old
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Going to an apple store is like going to a dealership for an oil change. Just pop in a new one yourself
It's actually cheaper for me to go to the dealership for an oil change than doing it myself. They change the oil and filter and rotate the tires for $60. I can't buy 8.5 quarts of full synthetic motor oil and a new filter for that much.

That said, it is pretty easy to do. So is changing the battery in a MacBook Air. I'd recommend the iFixit kit that comes with new replacement rubber feet.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Anyone know of a good repair kit for this Mac?

rrnowvltk5v91.jpg
 

Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
I think I paid $200 for a battery and replacement for my computer a couple years ago. £129 for a battery and Apple Tax seems more than reasonable, especially if Apple includes replacement.

Edit: I meant to quote @nightmare-slain , not sure what happened
 
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Rest

All these years later I still chuckle at what a fucking moron that guy is.
anyone have this happen? laptop is about 5 years old. not sure whether it is worth buying a battery and replacing it myself or just getting rid of the laptop.

it's fine as long as I'm plugged in. it's become pretty annoying tho.

is it hard to replace a battery for a computer like this?
You need to get that repaired or replaced ASAP. If your battery isn't working at all there's a good chance it's bulged and is waiting for any excuse to explode. This can severely injure you if you're near it when it happens, and and can easily start a fire in any case.
 

V1LÆM

Gold Member
I think I paid $200 for a battery and replacement for my computer a couple years ago. £129 for a battery and Apple Tax seems more than reasonable, especially if Apple includes replacement.

Edit: I meant to quote @nightmare-slain , not sure what happened
also if you go through Apple you'll get a 90 day warranty.

i'd definitely be going to Apple rather ran trying to fix it myself.

You need to get that repaired or replaced ASAP. If your battery isn't working at all there's a good chance it's bulged and is waiting for any excuse to explode. This can severely injure you if you're near it when it happens, and and can easily start a fire in any case.
good advice but if it's bulged i think OP would know especially on a MacBook Air. the keyboard/trackpad would be having issues if the battery was about to turn into a party balloon. batteries can completely die without bulging. it actually happened to me on my old macbook like 10 years ago. battery was perfectly fine in terms of physical appearance but it was completely dead.
 
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daveonezero

Banned
This is normal. Lithium ion batteries only have a 1000 cycles or so.

I just ordered a battery for my 2018 Retina Air. Its battery is below the 80% threshold health.

I’ll let ya know. Battery was $70 bucks on Amazon. I usually go with an IFixit but I have all the tools and have some issues with their non business practices.

If you don’t have the tools I’d go with ifixit and get the whole kit. For your model.
 
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daveonezero

Banned
Update. I just did this swap. It sucks.

Take it to the Apple Store. The ifixit guide is insane and you have to take spare a lot of things to swap the battery.

The battery I got used a pretty big shortcut but it is risky.

My laptop isn’t detecting the battery or the battery is DOA. I’ll be troubleshooting it and getting an exchange through Amazon if it is DOA.

I thought it would be a pretty easy swap. Adhesive always sucks th del with but that isn’t the issues on this thing.

If you have patience and the kit then it may be worth it for you to do but it is a lot of dissasembley.
 
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