Macbook as desktop help

[Mercury7]

I purchased a new blackbook last month and almost immediately afterwards I came upon a great deal on a 12" powerbook that was mint and so now it is my portable machine that I use to take on the road.

So what happened next is I moved my mac mini back to the bedroom to hook up to a hdtv monitor and I hooked up my blackbook to an external monitor and am running it in clamshell mode as my main computer.

My main question is if I should take the battery out and save it for when I start using it as a laptop again or should I leave it in and just let it keep trickle charging as needed?

Any other pros or cons doing this? I really like it as a desktop ....it is quiet and fast, and it works great with my diamond pro 2070b crt monitor.

[mackindergarten]

Hi,

definitely get the battery out if you use it as desktop replacement. Your Macbook will charge the battery just a bit as soon as it drops below 95% (I believe) to keep the charge at 100%.

So you would waste charging cycles if you keep it connected.


Hope this is helpful.
/Rupert

[Mercury7]

Thanks, But will the battery be ruined by just sitting in a drawer also? That was what my concern was....anyway I appreciate it....and btw to anyone considering a mac mini......this blackbook although I know cost more, when you compare the specs it really starts seeming like the way to go...it was 13 something with the rebate and came with 2.4ghz duo core, 2 gigs of memory and a 250 hd all standard. I guess we will just have to see what they do with the mini after the update...whenever it comes.

[airjuggernaut]

DO NOT take the battery out.

Apple made all their portables reduce their CPU speeds by half when a battery is not present.
If you have a 2.0ghz for example, it will be cut down to 1.0ghz.

There's some reason behind why apple did this, but i can't quite remember why.

[mackindergarten]

DO NOT take the battery out.

Apple made all their portables reduce their CPU speeds by half when a battery is not present.
If you have a 2.0ghz for example, it will be cut down to 1.0ghz.

There's some reason behind why apple did this, but i can't quite remember why.

This seems really odd, do you have any more information on that?

[logana]

Yes - definitely true - in fact it reduces the speed to 1 GHz whatever the processor speed.

Apparently because the charger cannot provide enough amps when required.

Have been using a MacBook in clamshell mode for about a year now - works perfectly with the battery connected. PowerBooks are different and Apple used to advise removing them...

Current advise is to use the battery once a month as a laptop and recharge.. but as soon as you run on battery power you can't use an external monitor.....

[Mercury7]

wow....glad I came in to ask first....yall rock!

[jstanks]

If you take the battery make sure that the battery is fully empty. A quick way to do that is to open everything and play music and then just let it go until it is dead.

[dmw007]

On my 2.2GHz MacBook Pro (recently sold so that I could upgrade to my Mac Pro), that I used to use in clamshell mode hooked up to a 24" Dell LCD I left the battery in and no harm was done. Battery life did not seem to degrade at all. :)

[Cabbit]

if you are taking the battery out it lasts longer at 50% charge

[randyf]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305336

MacBook and MacBook Pro: Mac reduces processor speed when battery is removed while operating from an A/C adaptor