I have a MacBook from about 8/07 (I don't know whether that counts as mid- or late-2007) running 10.5.7. I've never had problems with the battery estimates.
This weekend I went out of town, leaving it asleep on battery power, and when I got back it'd gone into safe sleep and turned off. So this SHOULD have meant it wouldn't turn back on until I plugged power in, because it didn't have enough power to sustain being on (hence it shutting off). But it did turn on still on battery power, and instead of giving me a time estimate for remaining life, it never changed from "Calculating..." I used it for about 20-30 minutes (with no battery warning) when suddenly it just turned off. Not safe sleep, the RAM didn't save to the HD, just off (so when I connected the power and turned it back on, it didn't resume, it started fresh).
I noticed that it said it reached basically full charge very quickly (I don't remember exactly how long, probably about 1-2 hours, while using it) but then stayed at "Finishing Charge..." for a really long time until it was ACTUALLY fully charged. I've used it on the battery since then and it's still doing the same thing while charging.
The estimates for battery life seem to be COMPLETELY off. And very suddenly. Is this just a case of needing to calibrate? I would think that would be a more gradual thing. But anyway, if I do need to calibrate, is that just a matter of charging it fully then discharging it fully? Does that mean even after it goes into safe sleep when the battery is too low, I have to continue to let it run down until it's dead (which actually takes a long time)? Although, I guess if the estimates are off, it might never force itself into safe sleep in the first place.
This weekend I went out of town, leaving it asleep on battery power, and when I got back it'd gone into safe sleep and turned off. So this SHOULD have meant it wouldn't turn back on until I plugged power in, because it didn't have enough power to sustain being on (hence it shutting off). But it did turn on still on battery power, and instead of giving me a time estimate for remaining life, it never changed from "Calculating..." I used it for about 20-30 minutes (with no battery warning) when suddenly it just turned off. Not safe sleep, the RAM didn't save to the HD, just off (so when I connected the power and turned it back on, it didn't resume, it started fresh).
I noticed that it said it reached basically full charge very quickly (I don't remember exactly how long, probably about 1-2 hours, while using it) but then stayed at "Finishing Charge..." for a really long time until it was ACTUALLY fully charged. I've used it on the battery since then and it's still doing the same thing while charging.
The estimates for battery life seem to be COMPLETELY off. And very suddenly. Is this just a case of needing to calibrate? I would think that would be a more gradual thing. But anyway, if I do need to calibrate, is that just a matter of charging it fully then discharging it fully? Does that mean even after it goes into safe sleep when the battery is too low, I have to continue to let it run down until it's dead (which actually takes a long time)? Although, I guess if the estimates are off, it might never force itself into safe sleep in the first place.