Chosen Solution
My 2012 MBP developed a battery bulge but in this case, I was extremely lucky that it wasn’t severe enough to hinder the replacement process and I was able to get it out as if nothing happened. In addition to timing, I also had an extra used battery I was able to rescue and get back into the game as if nothing happened. Since I kind of lucked out and was able to replace the battery in an emergency (albeit with a used one) since I caught the trackpad bulge, do I need to reset the SMC of the Mac as well? The long term plan now is to buy a new battery, especially since I put a 839 cycle pack in - but it’s better then a broken trackpad and a fire for now.
The issue is not so much of resetting SMC is making sure the set points are set which is why we need to calibrate the battery. So lets say yo don’t calibrate the battery over time SMC will slowly learn the limits. So then this gets into expectations! The customer (user) doesn’t want to be caught with a system that puts its self into sleep mode prematurely as well as complain the system is still broken. Which is why you should do it.
