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What could suddenly kill a brand new battery?

Got this baby used but in pristine condition, well cared for, back in Feb. Trust the seller to be honest that he had no trouble with it. When I got it it was fine, but after about 3 days, left for abot 30 mins, when I came back computer had shut down and wouldn't turn on til I plugged it in. Battery condition had went from "normal" to "service battery" just like that. Bought a new one, manufactured last Nov., so almost brand new. It's been working fine for 2 or 3 months, no issues. Thought it was just the old battery was shot. Until today - came home from work, woke it up from sleep, battery said 88% but jumped to 3% in a few seconds, and now says service battery. I did calibrate it when I got it. It has 34 cycles right now but coconut says it's at 56.7% capacity. I just put it to sleep 2 days ago at 100% and when I woke it up 8 hours later it was still at 99% charge! What in the world could cause this? Old MagSafe? (it's original) Or maybe the SMC or Logic board? Apple CS was stumped too, I called them. Idk what to do, I guess maybe I'm just $@$* out of luck on this guy. It's gonna be a long time before I can afford to buy another one, smh. I'll post the coconut screenshot. Running El Capitan 10.11.6. Also This has an upgraded SSD.

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It might simply be a faulty battery.. there's no way to tell unless you have a good one, but since everything else seems to be working fine your description points me in that direction. Faulty new batteries are not that uncommon unfortunately, especially when they are cheap chinese aftermarket replacements.

For my experience plugged or unplugged makes no difference whatsoever since you remember to unplug it every now and then.

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It's not aftermarket it's genuine oem. But ok, so you're saying that if the original battery that was fine for however many years went bad suddenly, like not over the course of even a week, but like instantly, and then a brand new, less than 6 month old battery, 2 months in use, died suddenly in the same way, you think it's more likely that these are just two faulty batteries in a row (one with a fault that remained hidden for a long time, and then another that popped fast) than that there is an electrical problem or short or something like this that is overloading them to such a degree that it is damaging them? I'm not being a smart ass, I'm asking you honestly. The latter just seems way more likely to me, but I'm not an expert on these things by any means. Thanks for the input

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I'm going to try a new battery and magsafe in any case so I guess I'll be testing your theory by proxy either way. Three faulty batteries in a row I would think would quite unlikely!

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Your first original battery was pretty old and could potentially die any time, not a surprise. I'm using a similar one as test battery and it does all sorts of weird things..would never install it as a reliable battery.

As for the new one you just purchased, where does it come from..an Apple center ?

Power surges hardly cause simptoms as yours, they rather ruin the magsafe, the magsafe board or the charging IC on the logic board.

If any of these are broken, they just cause consistent malfunctions rather than battery unexpected depletion.

Just my two cents, trying only to supply potentially useful infos, no crystal ball available ;)

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Many times if you get a new battery only charge it when it is very low and DON'T leave it plugged in all the time. That will ruin the battery cycles. Hope this works for you in the future.

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Yes, I know that, and I definitely never leave it plugged in and always run it down to the red. But even if I didn't, it's not going to completely waste a battery in less than two months time lol. My first macbook, out of ignorance, I left it plugged in all the time, and still the battery lasted me 5 years and over 800 cycles! Did you look a the coconut screenshot? This one has 34 cycles, and again that is in two months, I use it almost every day. Something very abnormal about this. Battery was manufactured less than 6 months ago. Thanks for your input!

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ColinC will be eternally grateful.
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