Macbook Battery care

jamsco said:

Ive just ordered myself my first macbook after my Sony laptop has finally given up! One of the major problems i had was its extremly poor battery life (15 mins max).

I would be very grateful for any advice on how to get the most out of the battery in terms of battery life and what i should expect to get out of it from a full charge.

If there are already threads/forums for this could someone point me in the right direction, im a bit new to all this!!

Many thanks.

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Out of the box I am getting almost 5 hours of battery.

Use the normal procedures let it run out every once in a while, and of course dim the screen turn off bluetooth so on if you want longer life.

Follow Apples guidance on calibrating your battery and you'll be in fine shape. Try a search here and you will get all the info you need on charging and calibrating your battery. I just did this Sat night and all went fine.

Of course your actual usage time will depend on many variables, like screen brightness, wireless enabled etc.... Hope that helps ya out and enjor your new macbook!

When you first get it charge fully, then do a full discharge

Step 1:

herman238 said:

When you first get it charge fully, then do a full discharge

Click to expand...

Step 2: ?????

Step 3: Profit.



So there's a little more to it than the above recommendation.

I've had my MacBook since November 7th, 2007. I currently have over 6 hours of battery life when I unplug my power source. Obviously, that amount of time will depend on what I do with my MacBook. iStat Pro tells me that I've cycled my battery 16 times since I got my MacBook.

Here's what I do: I'd say that 2/3 of the time my MacBook is plugged in, and that's how I use it while I'm at home. I only use it unplugged if I want to use it in bed or in the kitchen or if I go out to a coffee shop to do some work.

Once every ~2 weeks I make sure to use my MacBook unplugged and allow the battery to drain to <10%. Sometimes not even that low. I then plug it back in and allow it to fully charge. (I then record the current battery capacity using coconutBattery)

I always keep the screen at it's brightest and the volume near the loudest, even when on battery power. If I'm at a coffee shop, I'm using wifi and iTunes.

I'm not saying that my method is the best or the standard recommended method, but it works for me, and my battery is doing great.

Hope that helps.....