Great news for MacBook and MacBook Pro owners who have had battery troubles,Apple has extended the warranty for an additional year beyond the date of purchase for problematic batteries. Problematic batteries include many issues we have reported on before, such as Battery with an X through it and the infamous bulging.

This program extends repair coverage on the battery for up to two years from the date of purchase of the computer for Intel Core Duo-based MacBook and MacBook Pro computers

Here’s Apple’s methods of identifying if your battery could be problematic and if it deserves a call to Apple:

Identifying an affected battery

Affected batteries will have one or more of the following symptoms:

* Battery is not recognized causing an “X” to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
* Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
* Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
* Battery pack is visibly deformed.

Note: If your MacBook or MacBook Pro battery does not have any of the symptoms noted above, your battery does not need to be replaced.

If you have a bad battery, contact Apple!

More information from Apple

A report of MacBook Pro swollen batteries has appeared on the website HardMac, with the user claiming that 3/4 of the MacBook’s owned have had the swollen battery problem:

I am the system administrator of a research lab and I have been facing the “swelling battery” issue. among 4 MacBook Pro 17″ Core Duo ordered, three of them had swelling battery, and should be replaced.
The first sign of the problem that will lead latter on to the swelling syndrome is the random shunt-down of the notebook when running on battery. sometimes, it can also be identified by a lower reactivity of the trackpad, due to the pressure of the swelling battery.

If these batteries are defective, will there ever be a recall?

Endgadget reports on yet another bulging battery from a MacBook Pro 17″. Referencing the above picture:

After a few weeks of slight bloating, this is what he discovered this morning following an overnight charge. Think it’s an isolated issue do you? Then perhaps you missed the “me too” comment revolt in our original posting a few weeks back. Now, what say you Apple, time for an exchange? After all, just like your 15-inch MBP batteries, it’s safe to say that these also do not meet your “high standards for battery performance.” Or do they?

If one thinks it is an isolated case, the comments on Engadget’s blog would show otherwise, with at least nine other readers coming forward with pictures and their own stories of bulging batteries. Will there be a recall?

Update: Even more reports are coming in of swelling batteries. Here are some more links: EndlessElevation, MacInTalk Forums