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New MBA Owner

sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
Hi guys, just thought I'd create a little thread about my new(ish) MBA. Today I picked up, what I think is a newer model MBA, basically it's a store ex display model and I don't know how long it was on display for, it doesn't have a single mark on it or have any problems at all but the battery has completed 110 cycles.

I was slightly wary about buying one of these to begin with as I had a quick browse around this forum and saw lots of people talking about all of the problems they were having, problems such as light bleeding from the edges of the screen, faulty hinges, overheating and so on, even after reading all of this I still decided to buy one, after all I did get rather a good deal, anyway I am pleased to say that I haven't had any of the problems that I read about, my MBA appears to be in perfect condition and the only problem I can find is the rather weak battery life, I fully charged it to 100% earlier and it went down to 0% within about 2-3 hours, I have no idea if this is normal but it isn't much of a problem as most of the time I will be within reach of a plug socket.

Anyway that's about it, just thought I'd introduce my self to the MBA forums and talk a little bit about my new baby :)
 
halledise

halledise

macrumors 68000
May 7, 2009
1,846
623
Hamilton Island, Whitsundays, QLD Australia
sheppy1 said:
Hi guys, just thought I'd create a little thread about my new(ish) MBA. Today I picked up, what I think is a newer model MBA, basically it's a store ex display model and I don't know how long it was on display for, it doesn't have a single mark on it or have any problems at all but the battery has completed 110 cycles.

I was slightly wary about buying one of these to begin with as I had a quick browse around this forum and saw lots of people talking about all of the problems they were having, problems such as light bleeding from the edges of the screen, faulty hinges, overheating and so on, even after reading all of this I still decided to buy one, after all I did get rather a good deal, anyway I am pleased to say that I haven't had any of the problems that I read about, my MBA appears to be in perfect condition and the only problem I can find is the rather weak battery life, I fully charged it to 100% earlier and it went down to 0% within about 2-3 hours, I have no idea if this is normal but it isn't much of a problem as most of the time I will be within reach of a plug socket.

Anyway that's about it, just thought I'd introduce my self to the MBA forums and talk a little bit about my new baby :)
Click to expand...

welcome young sheppy!
you have purchased a great little Mac which performs far better than those that don't own one realise.

go to :apple: / 'about this Mac' / to see what specs you have.

as for the battery, allow the Air to run down altogether (screen saver on and 'sleep never') and allow it go to sleep then leave it overnight if possible.

wake it up in the morning by attaching power cable and pressing power button once (takes a while) then allow it to charge for at least 8 hours.
(you can use it during this time if you wish or else shut it down and allow the charging to take place.

some would disagree with me, but this is the best way to recalibrate your battery.
mine's on 400 cycle count and is still rated at 96% health by CoconutBattery
(http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27425)

all the very best! :D
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
halledise said:
welcome young sheppy!
you have purchased a great little Mac which performs far better than those that don't own one realise.

go to :apple: / 'about this Mac' / to see what specs you have.

as for the battery, allow the Air to run down altogether (screen saver on and 'sleep never') and allow it go to sleep then leave it overnight if possible.

wake it up in the morning by attaching power cable and pressing power button once (takes a while) then allow it to charge for at least 8 hours.
(you can use it during this time if you wish or else shut it down and allow the charging to take place.

some would disagree with me, but this is the best way to recalibrate your battery.
mine's on 400 cycle count and is still rated at 96% health by CoconutBattery
(http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27425)

all the very best! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warm welcome, I had a look at the specs and I have the 1.6Ghz model with a 120GB HD. I've checked my battery health with coconut battery and it's showing to have 93% health, this isn't surprising though as the laptop is stores ex display model and it's been sat there with the charger plugged in, on display for about a year now and I'm guessing that's not very good for the battery, I shall do what you have suggested though in an attempt to improve the battery life
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
HeHe, I've only owned it for a day and I already absolutely adore it, MUCH more than my old basic white Macbook which I owned a few years ago, there is just something about the Air. I am actually looking at buying the Snow Leopard upgrade later on today as I hear it drastically improves loading times and also recovers a lot of much needed HD space.

I let the battery run down to 0% and left it that way for a while, I then fully charged it to 100% which took an absolute age and now It's showing between 2 and 3 hours battery remaining, I'm guessing that's not good lol
 
halledise

halledise

macrumors 68000
May 7, 2009
1,846
623
Hamilton Island, Whitsundays, QLD Australia
at least you have a RevB with nVidia graphics onboard and a SATA drive rather than the PATA of the RevA, but geez they must've used it as a demo for a long time cos them babies were discontinued in mid-2009.

hopefully you got it fer a bargain price.

unusual with 93% health you're still only getting 3 hours max from a charge.
(a long charge time usually means battery is healthy)
I'd talk with the Apple Store where you purchased it and see what sort of a deal they can do for you to replace the battery.

10.6 should definitely improve things for you.

here are your specs:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...core-2-duo-1.6-13-nvidia-late-2008-specs.html
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
halledise said:
at least you have a RevB with nVidia graphics onboard and a SATA drive rather than the PATA of the RevA, but geez they must've used it as a demo for a long time cos them babies were discontinued in mid-2009.

hopefully you got it fer a bargain price.

unusual with 93% health you're still only getting 3 hours max from a charge.
(a long charge time usually means battery is healthy)
I'd talk with the Apple Store where you purchased it and see what sort of a deal they can do for you to replace the battery.

10.6 should definitely improve things for you.

here are your specs:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...core-2-duo-1.6-13-nvidia-late-2008-specs.html
Click to expand...

Yea I here that this model is one the better ones and I actually bought it from PC World where I work so I really doubt that there is anything that I can do except going to Apple and paying for them to replace the battery, I have just installed Snow Leopard now though so hopefully this will improve he battery life a little bit. Thanks for the spec sheet too :)

Oh and it was only actually out on display for about 3 or 4 months, the rest of the time it was in the warehouse so it has no marks or scratches on it at all and the only problem is the slightly poor battery life
 
sahni130

sahni130

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2008
672
414
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
sheppy1 said:
Yea I here that this model is one the better ones and I actually bought it from PC World where I work so I really doubt that there is anything that I can do except going to Apple and paying for them to replace the battery, I have just installed Snow Leopard now though so hopefully this will improve he battery life a little bit. Thanks for the spec sheet too :)

Oh and it was only actually out on display for about 3 or 4 months, the rest of the time it was in the warehouse so it has no marks or scratches on it at all and the only problem is the slightly poor battery life
Click to expand...

Congrats on you purchase! How much did you pay for it (if you don't mind me asking)?
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
ClassicII said:
Congrats!! was it from an apple store? I always wondered what happened to the display models.
Click to expand...

No, it was from PC World, the display models at PC World just get sold off once the new stock has run out, I don't know what they do with them at the Apple store
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone :).

I just wish that I could afford Applecare for it though because as it is an ex-display model I fear that it may develop faults a lot sooner than a new model would and at the moment it is out of warranty and I have no cover on it so I'd be pretty much done for, I'd have to shell out a fortune for Apple to fix it for me
 
gyus

gyus

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2007
36
3
About your battery - there is no need to cycle your battery like that. That is an old wives tale dating back to the days of NiMH battery packs. Li-On batteries (or their derivative) have a set amount of useful cycles (ie full charge to full discharge) and no memory effect.
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
gyus said:
About your battery - there is no need to cycle your battery like that. That is an old wives tale dating back to the days of NiMH battery packs. Li-On batteries (or their derivative) have a set amount of useful cycles (ie full charge to full discharge) and no memory effect.
Click to expand...

Right, Ok I guess there isn't much I can do about the poor battery life then...It' not that much of a problem though as I won't be taking it on long journeys or anything like that, I will mainly be using it in my lectures when I start Uni
 
bowlerman625

bowlerman625

macrumors 68020
Jun 17, 2009
2,135
11
Chicago, IL area
sheppy1 said:
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone :).

I just wish that I could afford Applecare for it though because as it is an ex-display model I fear that it may develop faults a lot sooner than a new model would and at the moment it is out of warranty and I have no cover on it so I'd be pretty much done for, I'd have to shell out a fortune for Apple to fix it for me
Click to expand...

Check ebay. I was able to get my AppleCare policy for about 1/2 the normal cost there.
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
bowlerman625 said:
Enjoy your new toy!!
Click to expand...

I shall :D i've not stopped playing with it since i got it yesterday, got everything setup the way I wanted it on Leopard and then I decided to buy Snow Leopard so I installed that a few hours ago and I've just been playing about seeing what new stuff i can find (I've owned a Mac before so I had already had a play about on Leopard), so far I'm really impressed with Snow Leopard, it's a lot faster than Leopard, I like the minor UI tweaks and updates and I love how it managed to free up about 10GB of HD space for me too :D...Oh and one more thing I love about this thing is the keyboard, it's an absolute joy to type on, I very rarely hit the wrong key and it's soooooo comfortable too
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
bowlerman625 said:
Check ebay. I was able to get my AppleCare policy for about 1/2 the normal cost there.
Click to expand...

Ooooooo really, I didn't realise you could buy it off there, I just thought it was a type of insurance that was just applied to your Macbook, how does it work if you buy it from eBay then? do you get some sort of card with a code on it that you use to register the Apple care on the laptop?
 
bowlerman625

bowlerman625

macrumors 68020
Jun 17, 2009
2,135
11
Chicago, IL area
sheppy1 said:
Ooooooo really, I didn't realise you could buy it off there, I just thought it was a type of insurance that was just applied to your Macbook, how does it work if you buy it from eBay then? do you get some sort of card with a code on it that you use to register the Apple care on the laptop?
Click to expand...

First off, you want to make sure you are dealing with a legit seller. There are a number of them out there. When I bought mine, I was sent an email containing the code I needed to use to register the policy. It was very easy and like I said, about half the cost of what Apple sells it for.
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
bowlerman625 said:
Check ebay. I was able to get my AppleCare policy for about 1/2 the normal cost there.
Click to expand...

Ok so I've had a look on eBay and it seems to be selling for 1/4 of what it retails at, I have no idea how that works...anyway, in the listing it says that you must still be within your first years warranty for you to be able to apply AppleCare to it, I don't think I'll be able to use it then will I, as my Macbook is over a year old and has been used as a display model, I even checked the warranty status on their website and it says that the 1 year warranty has expired :(
 
bowlerman625

bowlerman625

macrumors 68020
Jun 17, 2009
2,135
11
Chicago, IL area
sheppy1 said:
Ok so I've had a look on eBay and it seems to be selling for 1/4 of what it retails at, I have no idea how that works...anyway, in the listing it says that you must still be within your first years warranty for you to be able to apply AppleCare to it, I don't think I'll be able to use it then will I, as my Macbook is over a year old and has been used as a display model, I even checked the warranty status on their website and it says that the 1 year warranty has expired :(
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. You do need to be within the original one year warranty when you purchase AppleCare.
 
sheppy1

sheppy1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2008
739
1
bowlerman625 said:
Yes, you are correct. You do need to be within the original one year warranty when you purchase AppleCare.
Click to expand...

Awwwww that sucks, looks like I'm out of luck with that option then, I always thought that the 1 year warranty was always effective from the day you bought the product, is this true?
 
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