powerbook 0% charge problem

barrysfarm · Nov 1, 2005

I'm having a really weird problem with my powerbook (titanium 1ghz). Last night when I was using it it was working like it normally does. I usually get about an hour and a half out of a charge and about half the time I keep it plugged into the adapter. When I opened it this morning, it wasn't asleep like normal, but actually powered down. I turned it on.

Thats when I noticed that the battery was at 0% and wasn't going up. I left the computer on and went to my first class and when I came back a couple hours later it was still at 0%. Thinking that maybe the meter was broken I unplugged the power from the computer and it instantly went into sleep mode and a couple seconds later it powered down. The light on the power adapter is green and not amber and the lights on the battery indicate that it's out of juice.

I've tried reseting the PMU twice and nothing happened except resetting my clock.

Is my battery broke? It seems weird that it would be working fine one day and be broken the next.

Any suggestions?

mklos · Nov 1, 2005

Sounds like the battery is kaput! Batteries can really go at anytime.... The one in my 500 MHz G3 iBook worked fine for about 3 years and then all of a sudden it will get down to like 67% and then immediately go to 0% and it will go to sleep until I plug in my power adapter...

barrysfarm · Nov 1, 2005

when my battery was working it did jump from 40% to 0% requiring the power adapter to be plugged in. I've lived with that since 3 months after I bought the powerbook.

What it's doing now is different. The battery is not charing at all. System Profiler is telling me that the power supply is plugged in, there is a battery present and it's got 0% charged, but it says it's not charging. If I had access to a second battery I'd try that to see if it's my battery or the computer itself, but unfortunately I don't.

Here's a screenshot of what coconut battery says:

notice it says that the charger is connected, but the battery isn't charging.
Weird stuff.

Eniregnat · Nov 1, 2005

You almost made 500 cycles !!!- I am at 298 on one battery and 45 on my secondary battery. 500 cycles is reasonable. Even with all the batteries smart features, it will still degrade with time. I was guessing that I had only another 100 or so cycles on my primary battery, but it looks like I was way off. There are a couple of possibilities. If the battery is not charging properly the circuitry on the battery will not allow it to charge. Perhaps there is oxide on some of the contacts, try loading and unloading the battery a few times. If the battery is hot, really hot, it shuldn't charge either. If you find a good aftermarket battery, please post a link.

Also if you could post a link to Coconut. It like that it distills the information. I usualy go to the hardware profile.

You are definitely a road warrior!

generik · Nov 1, 2005

Erm, just curious, suppose I leave my machine plugged in all the time, will it be considered 1 cycle (even after 10 years?)

matticus008 · Nov 2, 2005

generik said:
Erm, just curious, suppose I leave my machine plugged in all the time, will it be considered 1 cycle (even after 10 years?)

Yep, but as soon as you unplug it, there goes your battery.

stevep · Nov 3, 2005

barrysfarm said:
Here's a screenshot of what coconut battery says:
(see above for barrysfarm's image)

notice it says that the charger is connected, but the battery isn't charging.
Weird stuff.

Mine's nothing like as good - 11 months old and down to 74% capacity. And new batteries are > £80 in the UK.

Eniregnat · Nov 3, 2005

stevep said:
Mine's nothing like as good - 11 months old and down to 74% capacity. And new batteries are > £80 in the UK.

Coconut gives me for 291 cycles, I have 61% (2576 Ah) of an original 4200 Ah, over 19 months. Given this, the average cycle loss for me has been 5.58 Ah per complete cycle.

STEVEP that puts you at a loss of 5.75 Ah per cycle, so given just these two data points, it kind of looks like the avrage loss per cycle is between 5 and 6Ah. Stevep's battery is a 4400, not 4200 though.

katie ta achoo · Nov 3, 2005

Hmm... Oddness in the coconut battery...

I just ran it and it says my Mac is 8 months old. I got this baby on April 29, so this is 6 months and 5 days old.

I've only had 37 loadcycles in this time, because I go nowhere, but why does it think my baby is older than it is?
:confused*

Eniregnat · Nov 3, 2005

katie ta achoo said:
Hmm... Oddness in the coconut battery...

I just ran it and it says my Mac is 8 months old. I got this baby on April 29, so this is 6 months and 5 days old.

I've only had 37 loadcycles in this time, because I go nowhere, but why does it think my baby is older than it is?
:confused*

Yea, I just noticed the age problem. The battery data seems to be the same as found in the System Profiler. Post your bat stats, just for comparison. Where is the new avatar?

katie ta achoo · Nov 3, 2005

Eniregnat said:
Yea, I just noticed the age problem. The battery data seems to be the same as found in the System Profiler. Post your bat stats, just for comparison. Where is the new avatar?

shiggidy shiggidy schwaaa!
(translated: here it is! I have provided a screen shot for you fine people!)

/thanks, imageshack!
//your widget is still b0rk3d.
///I'm so LEET.

Eniregnat · Nov 3, 2005

Kati- The sun glasses are quite fetching.

With just 37 cycles, you have lost an average of 1.97 Ah per cycle.

I am beginning to think that this demands a thread of it's own. A battery metrics thread... Humm, perhaps tomorrow.

My second battery has 47 cycles, was a 4400 Ah battery, has a maximum capacity of 4120, so I have lost an avrage of 5.96 Ah per cycle.

[EDIT] Below, OutThere looses an avrage of 6.42 Ah per cycle.

OutThere · Nov 3, 2005

Ugh...I've been mean to my wee iBook...and now it's payback time

The age is exactly right.

btw, Katie--the term 'borked' originated from a man who went to my school...back in the day.

munkle · Nov 3, 2005

katie ta achoo said:
Hmm... Oddness in the coconut battery...

I just ran it and it says my Mac is 8 months old. I got this baby on April 29, so this is 6 months and 5 days old.

I've only had 37 loadcycles in this time, because I go nowhere, but why does it think my baby is older than it is?
:confused*

Perhaps that's when your Mac was "born", rather than when you received it...?

munkle · Nov 3, 2005

And to anybody complaining about their battery:

Eniregnat · Nov 3, 2005

munkle said:
And to anybody complaining about their battery:

See what smokeing does to your life Munke. (15.30 Ah lost per cycle!!!)

munkle · Nov 3, 2005

Eniregnat said:
See what smokeing does to your life Munke. (15.30 Ah lost per cycle!!!)

It's a leaf! I'm all about being herbal!

Eniregnat · Nov 3, 2005

munkle said:
It's a leaf! I'm all about being herbal!

I just noticed that. Oops. (I browse and type with the screen inverted.) Well, I can't explain it, although just because it's herbal, it dosn't make it safe. Hemlock is herbal- and looks a whole lot like fennal. Damn this tea...

Demon Hunter · Nov 3, 2005

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful... guess I'm doing things right? I usually use the A/C.

stevep · Nov 4, 2005

Eniregnat said:
Coconut gives me for 291 cycles, I have 61% (2576 Ah) of an original 4200 Ah, over 19 months. Given this, the average cycle loss for me has been 5.58 Ah per complete cycle.

Quite a wide variation in loss/cycle so far in this thread - (you did actually mean to say mAh not Ah didn't you Eniregnat?

)
Looking at Barrysfarm's Coconut report, I'm almost tempted to suggest that maybe not all the pins are connected - Charger connected=yes, Battery is charging=no. ???

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