ATTENTION, Battery Life Info POLL.

[cmx08]

For those of you who have march 2004 macaddict issue, go to page 64 BATTERY LIFE article.

For the rest, open Terminal and type

ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

This command will show the capacity of the battery and it's Amperage

Max Battery Capacity are:
5000 iBook G4
4700 PB 12
4600 PB 15
5800 PB 17

My 7 weeks iBook G4 12" shows 4574, that's 8% lose

[me_94501]

How about G3 iBook? My G3 900 is at 4070.

[mkrishnan]

Is 5000 for the iBook G4 14"?

My 12" pretty new iBook shows 4352/4400 (current/capacity) while fully charged, running off AC.

[RBMaraman]

My 2.5 year-old iBook G3 500 is 3744.

I get about 4 hours out of my battery with airport off, and about 3.5 hours with airport on. Fabulous for a 2.5 year-old battery used nearly everyday.

[spiffie]

Pretty neat.

My 12" PB rev.A is 3767.

[csubear]

Ibook G3 900 14": 3128
I can get about 3 hours

[Heart Break Kid]

my 17" Rev A capacity is 5061 - but for using it everyday for atleast 4 hours a day, I'm not complaining

[whocares]

iBook G3 800 12' - 13 months old:
3872

[Cypher3]

Hey everyone,

This is my first post here, as I just got my firts Mac. An iBook G4 800 which I love. One thing though, I check my battery capacity and its at 4144. Now ive only had my iBook for 5 days. What should I do?

Thanks,

Cypher

[Powerbook G5]

My 15" PowerBook shows 3944 and I get about 3 1/2-4 hours normally.

[Toeknee]

Yeah my PB i got 3944 as well as usually get 3 hours from it (due to the bumped up RAM prob).

[g808]

17" PowerBook here:
"Capacity"=5144,"Amperage"=1200

I usually get about 3.5 hours while regularly using it.

[cmx08]

it saids that the max is 5000, but macaddict didn't say what % we will lose right out from Apple.

the values i posted are the max, in other words, apples prediction.

no one reachs that point.

I spent 4 hrs running my 12 ibook with airport ext at full speed non stop, and it still show 4574 all the way, the Amp was the only thing that change.

I believe that the value you got will be decrease no matter what you do.

You might what to tell apple about your battery. I think that a 10-15% loss from apple should be acceptable.


but again, if you still get at least 75% of the estimated battery life, they will not do a thing. even if ur capacity is only 70% when u got it at first

[Powerbook G5]

Either way, I get darn near 4 hours most of the time and that's pretty much square with what Apple estimates battery life to be, even if the capacity is lower than what MacAddict says it should be. I have never had battery life issues so it seems normal to me.

[applefan]

My 12" PB rev.A is 3882. I'm disappointed.

[actripxl]

Anyone know how I can extend my battery life? I've turned off airport and bluetooth but I only get about 2 1/2 on my PB 15. Is that normal or did I just get a bad battery?

[gotohamish]

My Ti 500 - is.. er...

"Capacity"=446,"Amperage"=1200"

I thought it was bad recently - any ideas?

h

[crees!]

Originally posted by Cypher3
Hey everyone,

This is my first post here, as I just got my firts Mac. An iBook G4 800 which I love. One thing though, I check my battery capacity and its at 4144. Now ive only had my iBook for 5 days. What should I do?

Thanks,

Cypher

Run it down on battery power till it goes to sleep then plug the AC back in and fully charge it.. this should calibrate your battery. Don't make a habit of it though.

[crees!]

Originally posted by actripxl
Anyone know how I can extend my battery life? I've turned off airport and bluetooth but I only get about 2 1/2 on my PB 15. Is that normal or did I just get a bad battery?

Don't forget to bring down the brightness of the display. If you're inbetween 2 1/2 and 3 hours you're fine. On my 15" Al PB I have bluetooth off, airport on, and brightness down to 1 notch am I'm getting 2:42. Remember it also depends on what you're doing. You'll last longer if you're just surfing the web and checking emails than playing a game or working in Photoshop.

[virividox]

"Capacity"=4357,"Amperage"=1200,

[Applespider]

Capacity 4239 Amperage 1200

Airport on, Bluetooth off
...and since it's only a week old, newly calibrated last night.

[Mord]

cpasity=4760

on a two year old ibook 600 cd :)

I usually get 5-5 1/2 hours 3 when playing games
(like mohaa)

[OutThere]

Oh poopies. iBook G4 1ghz: 3979. *calibrates battery*.

[Achtung_U2]

Ti Powerbook 667 15"

capacity=2297 amp=1099

yikes! what gives here???

Thanks for showing me this. But, it matches my real world use..... This powerbook generally only goes for about 1 hour, 40 minutes on either battery.... its been this bad since new!

i am gonna start running it with dimmed screen as some have suggested and see how that goes.

Thanks much, Mark ~

[crees!]

Capacity"=3944"
Amperage"=1200"
Current"=3941"
Voltage"=12500"

[snofseth]

If the aperage is low does that mean you should get a new battery on my powerbook 12 it is like 4200 cap and 1600 amp that seems bad to me is it, and while doing this does it matterr if it is pluged in or not?

[javabear90]

({"Capacity"=5906,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=5825,"Voltage"=12465,"Flags"=1090519045})

wtf is up with dat. I have a 17" PB and 98% battery

Is this normal

[cmx08]

the capacity is refer to the max energy it can store.

the amp, for physics we all know.
The strength of a current of electricity carried by a conductor.

what i do with iPod and iBook are:

1-iPod, use it until it drains
2-then try several times to turn it on(knowing it will not play) in order to keep the HD running
3-switch is always ON (and u'll heard a noise in the HD)
4-until it the noise is over, I recharge it
5-takes 2:30 hr

this is once a month
usually i do 1 to 3 and it takes 3 hrs to charge

I get 6:30 hrs to 7hrs everyday on the walk


iBook battery:

1-use it until it goes to sleep
2-the i plug the AC and remove the batt right away.
3-and when i go to sleep,
3a-I let it go to sleep with the battery only until the light is off (normally 3 nights)
3b- i turn it off and charger it

3a also once a month,

2/5 i charge it while using.

[cmx08]

does not affect the capacity,

u'r lucky then. it might last longer

[MongoTheGeek]

Originally posted by crees!
Run it down on battery power till it goes to sleep then plug the AC back in and fully charge it.. this should calibrate your battery. Don't make a habit of it though.

Li-ion batteries don't like it. NiCads's on the other hand love it. 3yr old TiBook lloking at 2294 here.

2.5-3 hours

[MongoTheGeek]

Originally posted by javabear90
({"Capacity"=5906,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=5825,"Voltage"=12465,"Flags"=1090519045})

wtf is up with dat. I have a 17" PB and 98% battery

Is this normal

the 98% seems right. Current is current level of charge. 58/59~98%

Not sure of the units on any of these. I imagine that they are equivalent so that if you divide capacity by amperage you get a rough sense of battery life.

[ecche]

iBook 500 Dual USB (2001)

capacity 2919 amperage 1200

My second battery already! The first one only lasted about a year before it gave me a mere 40 min of plain surfing (screen dimmed and all). I have had the second one for about 18 months now and again it is down to 1 h 30 min (from approx. 2 h 30 min). Well, it's certainly an improvement over the first one.

Let's face it: Apple has a weak spot here. My 10 Gig iPod will also need a "heart transplant" soon.

[wordmunger]

Ti400: 2646. But I'm on my second battery--it's about a year old now.

[Earendil]

Originally posted by cmx08
For those of you who have march 2004 macaddict issue, go to page 64 BATTERY LIFE article.

Max Battery Capacity are:
5000 iBook G4
4700 PB 12
4600 PB 15
5800 PB 17


Can you tell me which PB 15" that is? I have the newer Aluminun (FW800) 15" and I know they have a different Battery Encloure (I don't know about the internals). I've been using the battery no more then 10 hours a week starting in Nov, and I'm showing
"IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=3769,"Amperage"=1200,

that's a far cry from the 4600 you have listed. At this rate it won't last a year :(

Tyler
Earendil

[raytube]

Hi.
This was interesting to read, I've only been getting about 1 hour on my TiBook 550's battery. I was getting 2 hours and then all of a sudden it dropped to an hour.
When I check mine out I get 'Capacity=1198, Amperage=1040". It's over 2 years old and has gotten a lot of use so I'm not complaining really as I've had my money's worth really. I'm not sure why it might have just dropped like that though recently, maybe it's just on it's way out. Those figures dont look good!

Rick

[Cypher3]

I just calibrated my battery. My capacity went from 4144 to 4545!!! I wonder if i should try it again to see if i can get it higher.

[7on]

4180

[Bunzi2k4]

on my 12" pb, i have Capacity"=3125,"Amperage"=1200 ... i get up to 3 hours on a single charge... what gives?... the meter says 1:50... great......

[nickysfuture]

My 2 year old 14" iBook 600 scores a whopping 673. It goes for about 45 minutes if I'm using airport and have the screen at full brightness. I miss when it could go for five hours. Maybe it's time to buy a new battery...
If you want your laptop to avoid mine's fate, I usually left it plugged in whenever possible (and overnight all time time), but would sometimes let the battery drain enough that it turned itself off. I also accidentally knocked it off my desk while it was running so that it landed face-first onto a concrete floor and broke its hard drive, and then took it apart myself to put in a replacement. So don't do that.

[Rower_CPU]

1GHz, 15" TiBook:
Capacity=3987, Amperage=451

Time for a re-calibration...

[sandman42]

My 1.5 year old 12" iBook 600, on AC and fully charged, only shows:

Capacity: 2445 Current: 1200

I get less than 2 hours out of it, and always have. I've always suspected I had a bum battery. Do people really get as much as 5 hours, as Apple claims?!? How can there be so much variation in batteries?

With the AC unplugged, I get the following:

"IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=2445,"Amperage"=1011,"Current"=2347,"Voltage"=11874,"Flags"=4})

Can anybody decode all those numbers? What are 'Flags'?

[Horrortaxi]

700mhz iBook, 1 year old--but battery is 1 week old (AppleCare didn't send the original battery back after service so I got a replacement).

Capacity"=4729,"Amperage"=1194.

I get over 4 hours, with AirPort on and the brightness on the display turned up. Other power management is stock battery setup.

[cmx08]

I must say that i was wrong about the capacity.
Today I just did the montly drain and after full charging I got 4608 opp. to 4578 at first.

I noticed that lot of ppl say they never reach the 100% mark when charging.

I always reach the 100% every time I charge and it drops to 99% after 30 to 60 minutes. if the AC stays plug.

I also notice lot of ppl saying about calibrating, how do you do that?

The scores given by MacAddict are the latest books. Therefore, ibook G3 and Tibook values are unknown for me.

However, I do believe that the ibooks share the same battery. and the Ti's battery is superior since Apple said that:
Ti : 61-watt-hour lithium ion battery that provides up to 5 hours
and Al :46-watt-hour lithium ion battery that provides up to 4.5 hours

therefore, Ti generates 5 watts/hr more than Al

I noticed that my ibook g4 12 used the first 20% in 55min. and this is with airport and lot of activity monitoring apps on.

[cmx08]

i noticed that droppin capitals in this command it's ok. so u can just enter:

ioreg -l | grep -i iobattery

which is way faster.

notice that checking every minute, changes nothing butthe Amp. so don't wast ur time.

[Cypher3]

I have a question that is kind of related to battery life so Im going to go ahead and post it in here instead of making a new topic. If I up my RAM from 256 to 640 on my iBook, that would mean I wouldnt be using as much virtual memory, so it wouldnt have to access the HD as often. So then I would save more battery power correct?


Thanks,
Cypher

[MongoTheGeek]

Originally posted by sandman42
My 1.5 year old 12" iBook 600, on AC and fully charged, only shows:

Capacity: 2445 Current: 1200

I get less than 2 hours out of it, and always have. I've always suspected I had a bum battery. Do people really get as much as 5 hours, as Apple claims?!? How can there be so much variation in batteries?

With the AC unplugged, I get the following:

"IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=2445,"Amperage"=1011,"Current"=2347,"Voltage"=11874,"Flags"=4})

Can anybody decode all those numbers? What are 'Flags'?

Once or twice I almost got 6 hours but that was running a dim screen etc.

Watching a DVD its about 2.

[blueflame]

({"Capacity"=4575,"Amperage"=1200



this is from a 1 year old 17pb

is this normal, or is somehting wrong?
thanks andreas

[Earendil]

Originally posted by Cypher3
I have a question that is kind of related to battery life so Im going to go ahead and post it in here instead of making a new topic. If I up my RAM from 256 to 640 on my iBook, that would mean I wouldnt be using as much virtual memory, so it wouldnt have to access the HD as often. So then I would save more battery power correct?
Thanks,
Cypher

In Theory...Yes.
In Practice... ?

Apple lists the screen brightness and HD spin up as the big power mongers (aside from apps that use intensive CPU and 3D card use). So I would suspect that more RAM, causing less HD use, would help. Now, how much power RAM uses compared to HD? I dunno.
Somehow I doubt that you'll save much more then a few minutes though, if that. If you were to save more than that, I would think RAM manufacturers would start claiming this in their attempts to sell RAM :D

[Cypher3]

Thanks Earendil. Unfortunately I wont be able to tell because by the time I have the extra money to buy the 512 stick from crucial my battery life will have already gone down from everyday use. Anyway, as I posted above that when i re-calibrated my battery the capacity went from 4144 to 4545, do you guys think its worth it to try and re-calibrate it again and see if i can get any higher?

Cypher

[duchaint]

:mad:

Voltage=16729 (YIKES!!!)

Got a PB Ti 667 15", 2Yr. Battery has been bad since a year. Colleagues here with the same machine bought at the same time also lost most of their capacity. This is ennoying, and makes the battery almost useless, especially when we want to use the airport. Seems like this is an issue with these models. Anybody wants to comment? Feedback would be appreciated. Solutions: even better.

[jtown]

My 12" 800Mhz G3 ibook says

Voltage = 10698
Flags = 4
Amperage = 1084
Capacity = 4149
Current = 773

It's been off the charger since Sunday evening and used for a few mail checks and surfing. Been sleeping the rest of the time. Says I've got 45 minutes or so left.

[zyuzin4]

iBook 700mhz 4120/4120 fully charged

EDIT: In the time since writing this message (less than 20 minutes), I uplugged the AC and the battery ran out on me. Even though it had been saying 4:00 life remaining. Since my battery capacity isn't low I wonder what the problem is. This has been happening since before I got this back from the Logic Board Replacement Program. Which replaced my top case, and hard drive for free also =)

[bluetrepidation]

Lithium ion batteries are a new technology. Most people aren’t familiar with how to maintain these batteries. We are all to used to hearing about "memory" and what have you. So here are some links to some FACTS on how this technology compares to others out there and how to maintain your battery.

Power to weight ratio compared to other technologies. (http://www.ewh.ieee.org/cmte/PES-SBC/Downloads/sWM04_LithiumBatTech-Saft.pdf) (page 8)

The true story on lithium Ion lifecycle. (http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm)

I hope this helps other laptop owners. Apple is using the best of the best as it stands in battery technology.

A.J.

[fBaran]

12" G4 iBook, two weeks old, capacity 4400.

[zyuzin4]

Brand New iBook 12 battery just installed to replace crappy one. Capacity 4400 came to me with 2300 already in it.

[tpjunkie]

1.5 year old dvi 667 tibook reports a capacity of 3071, and with the screen dimmed to halfway I can get around 3 hours with airport turned off.

[zyuzin4]

Brand New iBook 12 battery just installed to replace crappy one. Capacity 4400 came to me with 2300 already in it.

3 months later has a reported capacity of 4333

[Bunzi2k4]

on my 12" pb, i have Capacity"=3125,"Amperage"=1200 ... i get up to 3 hours on a single charge... what gives?... the meter says 1:50... great......

after a few months, very little has changed... it now says Capacity"=3156,"Amperage"=1200... not much of a difference.

[couchpotatoe]

Man, My battery capacity is 2763 :( and Amperage 990. i frequently let the battery run all the way down, maybe it has started to hurt instead of help.
Oh well.

[michaelrjohnson]

Wow... another long gone resurrected thread.

As it stands, my 2 week old 12" PB shows a 1% decline (4328/4700). At this rate, my battery will be at 0/4700 in just 3.8 years, and 50% capacity in just under 2 years from now. That saddens me. Hopefully the decrease stays at a current level and doesn't accelerate over time.

[Counterfit]

| | | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=2950,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=2950,"Voltage"=12449,"Flags"=1090519045})


Damn, and this 15" isn't even a year old! It was at about 3.5k (capacity) just before Apple released that battery update, and it was at max right after, but now it's just under 3k! :( Not good. Last time I drained the battery was at Macworld...

[QCassidy352]

4672 on my 12" rev. B powerbook. Because apple just replaced my old battery with a brand new one :) (old one was shorting out at 30%)

I get about 4 hours with airport on, BT off, and apps like safari, mail, word, etc. I'm very happy with that.

[mkrishnan]

As it stands, my 2 week old 12" PB shows a 1% decline (4328/4700). At this rate, my battery will be at 0/4700 in just 3.8 years, and 50% capacity in just under 2 years from now. That saddens me. Hopefully the decrease stays at a current level and doesn't accelerate over time.

My iBook G4/800 went the *other way*. :confused: When this thread started it was at capacity 4400. Now 4460. Hehe. Extrapolating three years in the future, I should be able to power my car directly from my iBook battery. ;) But it'll probably be a munition by then so I won't be able to travel overseas with it anymore. :(

I wonder how linear the decay is, like you're saying, Michael. I think it'll probably plateau. But if you actually use your battery much over 3 years, I would be surprised if it had much more than twenty minutes of life left at the end of the third year....

[Megaquad]

1.33 GHz 15" PowerBook:
"Capacity"=4507,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=4502,

[Finiksa]

I just checked my iBook G3/700MHz

"Capacity"=3219,"Amperage"=1200

Yet I still get over 5 hr out of the battery.