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Comment by andrei_says_ | Hacker News Reader

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andrei_says_

Literally last week I had a conversation with Apple about a swollen laptop battery.

They said it’s not a fire hazard but I should replace it and not use the laptop.

And, refused to replace it because it was in a “vintage” laptop.

Carefully crafted language.

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That is why I run my "vintage" MacBook pro without a battery (first unibody, with swappable battery), always plugged in. It works for me as it stays stationary at home. If I need to unplug for any reason, I close the lid and macOS saves everything, then unplug, replug later, and nothing is lost.

Wow, I love that. Still, there must be some small coin-sized battery on the motherboard that's saving state, which will have to be replaced at some point?

No, it's hibernating; state is saved to the hard drive.

Problematic if you have a magsafe connector in combination with kids or pets running around though. Or just if you trip over the cable yourself. In my unfortunate experience :P

OK, machine turns off, rather than smashing on the floor (dog knocks it off, kid chasing dog puts foot through the screen)

I still haven't grokked the decision to abandon magsafe.

You should have sat down at one of their tables and plugged it in. :)

Second time my 2012 13" MBP battery swelled up. Glad on the older model you can at least replace parts yourself.

I think my problem might be that I treat my laptops more like desktops and keep them plugged in 24/7 and hardly ever run them off batteries. Last battery only had 2 cycles on it.

I want to get into vlogging at some point, so might at some point upgrade to a 15 inch with a GPU. I love Apple's software but disappointed the newer hardware isn't user serviceable anymore.

6 months ago is 'vintage' to them. How old was the laptop?

Actually "vintage" has a specific meaning and is at least 5 years after the product is no longer manufactured. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624.

It’s old. I think 2011.

Just replaced the battery with one from ifixit

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