Battery is getting weak!

[Wano]

My battery for my 17" PB seems to be going wack or something. It drains even when the PB is asleep, not much but a few %. Also, I get about 2hours of battery life with the screen brightness all the way up, and energy saver set to longest battery life. With the screen brightness turned down to the last dot I get about 3 hours and it used to be 3.5hours.......what can I do?
Thanks!

[Eniregnat]

This is a sort of generic power saving list for any computer.

Customize the power settings, spin the HD down after 2 minutes.
Turn screen off instead of dimming.
Allow for processor cycling.
Turn the screen brightness down as far as you can stand it.
If your running an application that uses VM/scratch disk have such features turned off, or use a PC ram card instead.
Dumb down graphics and processing speed if possible
Use small low drive headphones, like a pair of ear buds.
If you can switch to monochrome, do so.
Turn off wireless access, i.e. airport
Don’t use USB and firewire devices unless they are self-powered.
Use simpler, smaller applications that
Disable automatic saves and backups.


As far as loosing power wile off, rechargeable batteries just do that.

It sounds like you need a second battery, and I think that most people that use their laptops in public need at least on extra. I have one battery that I charge as I can, the other two I completely run down and charge up. My primary battery gets about 2.5 hours, my other batteries get 3-4 hours on a charge.

So many people practice poor electronic etiquette. I could go on for a few paragraphs about general use and misuse of cell phones, but I will refrain from doing so. I had classes in electronic etiquette when a company I worked for was bought by a Japanese consortium. I learned that plugging a laptop into a wall socket was proper if it was unobtrusive, did not interfere with the flow of traffic or create a hazard, and was not an imposition on the host establishment. Anything else was rude. If you can run on a battery, do so.

[CrackedButter]

did you calibrate your battery when you got it?

[sparkleytone]

you might need to recondition it. basically drain it completely until the computer goes to sleep, remove the battery, then plug in the adapter. yes that is the right order :)

then follow the directions here (http://docs.info.apple.com/article2.html?artnum=14449)

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by CrackedButter
did you calibrate your battery when you got it? calibration is a splendid idea, probably something to do before going through the PMU reset. that can help, of course, but running your battery to nothing and then charging it is a good idea.

i hadn't gone and reset mine in awhile a few months ago, and i ran the battery to 0% charge remaining. then it went for another 20 minutes at 0%. calibrate your battery a few times a year. when it spazzes like this, you know it's that time of the month...