Always buy the Applecare: Round 2

Swollen MacBook Pro Battery

You might remember my earlier post about the importance of getting the extended Applecare, so let me just say again that I won’t buy a Apple portable without it. Ever. I bring this up because after working on my mother-in-law’s computer all day to recover info from her crashed hard drive, I pick up Winona and notice that she is feeling a little odd. I wanted to relax and kick back so i decided to jump on my laptop to watch a episode of the Daily Show that I downloaded from Bit… err, I mean iTunes. I flip Winona over and see that her battery case is bulging out from her usually slim figure. It looked like she was pregnant. I knew that is was nothing that I had done since I have never dropped her and, while I love her deeply, I do draw the line at consummating a relationship with a 17in MacBook Pro. This left me quite shaken as what had caused this violation to Winona.

I ran down stairs in a panic. Ski and the kids were quick to deny that they had touched by baby. This was an understandable reaction considering the quite deranged look that I surmise was on my face. However, they all seemed very sincere in their responses about not messing with Winona. Still I needed answers, and if none of us were responsible, it had to be someone or something that caused this deformation. I did a quick Google search and found out that like the burning Magsafe power cord, that I wasn’t alone when it came to this bulging battery issue. The tech blog Engadget has tons of stories from other MacBook Pro users with the same experience.

It seems that the batteries in some models of the Macbook Pro have been swelling up and creating all types of weird problems. So far Apple has not issued a recall. It appears that they are quietly replacing the affected batteries as they are reported. Since most of the people that need replacement batteries still have Applecare in effect on their systems, it remains to be seen how Apple will deal with this seemingly defective battery issue for their customers without Applecare. Hopefully I won’t have to find out since Winona sill has 2 years left on her extended coverage. It is the weekend and nearly everything is closed in Oslo so I guess I’ll really find out on Monday morning when I go to the Apple Premium reseller, Humac. I’ma keep my fingers crossed.