Battery cycle count without logging on?

[Hotpants]

Hi all, first post so please be gentle with me!

My brother in law is selling his 2012 Macbook Pro, and a prospective buyer has asked a question about the battery cycle count. The Macbook has been de-registered and a fresh internet install of OS X on it. It has been installed up to the point the new user enters their apple id and password. There was no DVD with the Macbook originally.

Is there any way of checking the battery cycle count without logging on, via a temp or admin account etc. that could be removed afterwards? I do not have access to any other Macbooks.

Many thanks,

John

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum.

There is a painful way...go ahead an create an account, then look at About This Mac under  on the desktop. Then get a System Report and check under Power.

Once you have the count, reinstall OS X and don't create a user account, putting it right where it is now.

Yep, PITA.

 

[ferrarr]

Or, if you have an external drive, you can use that to install the OS to. Then set up and check battery cycle count. Another thing, which I don't know if it is possible, in Recovery, you can enter Terminal, I know you can get battery percentage, but not sure about cycle count.

 

[pm-r]

Is there any way of checking the battery cycle count without logging on,

If you've got another Mac available, just use Target Disk Mode. Or similar to what Bob suggested, just use a bootable external drive to boot from.

Use target disk mode to share files between two Mac computers
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201462

And either way, no OS X reinstall would be needed.




- Patrick
======

 

[chscag]

The best way is as suggested by Bob Ferrarr. Boot from an external hard drive that has the "coconutBattery App" installed and it will give you all you wanted to know about the battery. That app is still free for the Mac. No external drive? Then do as Jake suggested.

 

[pm-r]

The best way is as suggested by Bob Ferrarr. Boot from an external hard drive that has the "coconutBattery App" installed

BTW, the coconutBattery.app isn't really needed, even though it provides a lot of easily read info, as the battery cycle count is contained in and read from the circuitry of the battery itself.




- Patrick
======

 

[pigoo3]

Thread moved to better area. Not a "Switcher Hangout" topic.

Thanks,

- Nick

 

[Hotpants]

Thanks a million for the advice. As mentioned, I do not have access to any other Mac, and have no disk as it is an internet install.

If I did set up an apple id to log in and check, then de-register, is there any time frame that the system cannot be registered again? I seem to remember reading it was 90 days, but could be wrong. I don't particularly want to have to do that if possible. Can coconutBattery.app be installed and ran from a USB stick, as it is a small file?

Thanks again,

John

 

[ferrarr]

No, CoconutBattery, needs to be installed to a disk with an OS installed on it, but if you have a 32GB (or larger) flash/thumb/USB drive, you can use that to install an OS onto.

 

[Hotpants]

Thanks ferrarr, I suspected that may have been the case. As I don't have access to a disk then it's a non starter.

Can anyone confirm that if I register the MacBook, check the battery cycle, e-register and wipe and a fresh install, will the new user be able to register and use it straight off?

 

[ferrarr]

Yes, the new owner can register and use it, but, there is no reason for you to re-register it, if you only want to check battery cycle count. I really think the purchaser, may want to bee able to use the Mac, and check everything is good with it.

What I do, when I’m selling a computer is, I create one account, and name it owner, nothing with anything related to me goes on it, and the people looking at the computer, will be able to test all features, I let them know they can, or I can reinstall the OS to have a fresh clean machine. You may have more than one person looking at it.

Here are Apple’s Recommended steps before selling a Mac, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065.

 

[Hotpants]

Thanks again. With it being an internet install via WiFi, I do not remember it giving me the option of creating an 'owner' account. After putting in the country etc., it then lands on the apple id and password page and will not go any further. Thanks for the link, that is what I used to de-register and wipe etc.

 

[ferrarr]

There should be an option to “skip” the Apple ID and password login. It’s not necessary.

 

[Hotpants]

Ah OK thanks ferrarr, will check later. Thanks for responding.