hi all. not a mac newbie but a pb newbie. just bought a refurb 12" 1.33ghz pb with superdrive from apple. should be here in a couple days. my question is should i buy an extra battery now since the original will eventually lose its charge?
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should i get an extra battery?
- Thread starter emangali
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Wait until you get the powerbook and install capacity meter. It will give you the status of your battery and you can decide then.
Batteries cost about $130.00.
The battery doesn't go bad overnight so you will have plenty of time to get a new battery if you are unhappy with the battery life.
Batteries cost about $130.00.
The battery doesn't go bad overnight so you will have plenty of time to get a new battery if you are unhappy with the battery life.
I bought a "refreshed" battery for my 12" PB at my local Apple store. I bought it because it was so cheap ($60!) but now that I have it I use it a lot! Definitely a good purchase. 
i have a 15 inch pb (1.25ghz) and it sure sucks battery - regular use for me, i get no more than 1.5 hours, 2 if i'm lucky. but i haven't bought an extra battery and have been able to use it just fine. i think the 12 inch pb's might get bettery battery life so you might be okay. a second battery is nice but there's no stand to charge it on, you have to plug it into your pb and charge it within
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/batteries/
personally i hardly ever have both my ibook batterys fully charged at one time, and i tend to only use my new one and keep my old one for long jouneys.
personally i hardly ever have both my ibook batterys fully charged at one time, and i tend to only use my new one and keep my old one for long jouneys.
Ive brought two for my ibook but I find that I only use the one.
Out of interest though, is there an easier way to swap them over without needing an entire reboot? This is perhaps the main reason why I just don't use the spare. Anyone wanna buy a used battery??
Out of interest though, is there an easier way to swap them over without needing an entire reboot? This is perhaps the main reason why I just don't use the spare. Anyone wanna buy a used battery??
My suggestion is yes. The battaries while lasting a good while if you pamper them 4-5 hours, really do detoriate. Getting two means they deteriate half as fast. So, its not the 8-9 hour charge you should want, its the 3-4 hour batteyr in a year which is the neccesity. For me my laptop which is a 1.5 Ghz PB with SD is almost never plugged in and if the battery deterioated into a 2 hour abtteyr in a year, it would render me useless as a couch potato.
I would love to see a way to charge the other battery though. I really woul dlike to have both batteries charge over night simultaneously, since I have two Power Adaptors.
I would love to see a way to charge the other battery though. I really woul dlike to have both batteries charge over night simultaneously, since I have two Power Adaptors.
Maxiseller said:Ive brought two for my ibook but I find that I only use the one.
Out of interest though, is there an easier way to swap them over without needing an entire reboot? This is perhaps the main reason why I just don't use the spare. Anyone wanna buy a used battery??
You can hot-swap them on the Powerbooks. At least I know that you can do with without turning anything off on the 15 and 17 inchers, but I'm not sure about the 12.
Really, I didn't know this. I'll have to check out Apple's site to see if you can on the 12 inch. Now that would solve a huge problem of mine.debroglie said:
