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10.2.4 draining notebook batteries.

Taft

Taft

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 31, 2002
1,319
0
Chicago
Be careful with the latest OS X update (10.2.4).

This story over at MacFixIt indicates that the update is causing dramatically reduced battery life in many notebook Macs. In many cases reverting to OS 9 or 10.2.3 has no positive effect as the batteries are permenantly damaged. In many cases the batteries will need to be replaced.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=2003030709383014

This could get ugly!

Taft
 
(jsut checked)
Still going to 100%, i'm lucky!
In fact i jsut saw the longest ever estimated batt time (i've been keeping my screen brightness down, 5:05!!!!!!
But yes, this could get REAL ugly.
 
I haven't done much with my TiBook since getting the iMac...

but I thought since wiping it out and putting fresh OS's on it along with full updates that it was running better...
 
My TiBook has been running just fine since the update as well. I guess we are the lucky few. Phew! :D

I wonder if he people getting a battery replacement are going to have the same problems with the new batteries. I wonder what could even cause this. A problem with the power management system?? This is weird.

Taft
 
So...I just got a PowerBook (and spare battery) and upgraded almost immediately to 10.2.4 (I had heard it was a bit buggy - but THIS?). Anyway, I haven't really been using this computer for too long and was wondering what to look for to tell if I've been bitten by the "battery bug". My batteries seem to still reach the 100% mark when recharging, but I obviously have no good baseline to gauge whether the cycle time has been diminished.

What I *did* do upon learning of this issue was to do a Clean Install with the "Preserve Users and Network Settings" (an option which reminded me of IBM's AIX) to revert to 10.2.1. I then reset the video RAM and the Power Management Unit, and then performed the Combo Update to get back to 10.2.2. Any ideas from the more knowledgeable crowd out there as to whether this would get rid of whatever this problem is?
 
Re: 10.2.4 draining notebook batteries.

Originally posted by Taft
This story over at MacFixIt indicates that the update is causing dramatically reduced battery life in many notebook Macs. In many cases reverting to OS 9 or 10.2.3 has no positive effect as the batteries are permenantly damaged. In many cases the batteries will need to be replaced.
Taft
Click to expand...

-Taft

I've heard the same thing. I'm watching it, but so far, I haven't noticed any issues.

BTW- bring your baby to the meetup, maybe we can link. :D
 
My Powerbook's battery is gone

My powerbook is a casuality, i am just getting 30 mts of battery life now . I have a 550 Mhz Rev B tibook.
 
happened to me. Except my battery when completely in the dumper. Wouldn't hold a charge at all. Called apple and with a bit of persuasion got them to replace it dispite being out of warranty
 
just checked my battery, it says 2:46 and that was fully charged. i checked with "longest battery life and it said 2:50 its going on its second year. is this average or did i get the bug?
 
Yeah, I definitely was getting an hour more before 10.2.4 on my iBook. Now I get a little over 2 hours if I'm lucky. I really hope this didn't kill my battery.
 
I think I'm hit!

My battery is getting less time now. And when it gets to around 20%, it will jump right to 0% and go to sleep. Damn!

Taft
 
Damn, so that is what is happening. I already was busy with the dreaded "almost empty message at 50%+" of 10.2.3 so that's why I didn't really looked on the numbers. I also get far less then before.

Powerbook 550MHz rev B. I still get to 100% though, but it says less than 2 hours remaning, and that used to be more than 4. They better solve this fast with a software update.
 
Funny, ny times seem to alright still. Maybe 10.2.4 is better at calculating the estimated remaining time?

Also, this problem may not be as bad as people think. Remember people with problems complain a lot...and people without problems don't usually say as much.

Also, some of the battery life changes could have happened for reasons not releated to 10.2.4 but people are noticing it now due to the people complaining.
 
mine's gone too

This is really too bad. Actually, I just thought that my battery in my iBook was going bad after about a year of use. But it seems awfully fishy that it went from easily getting over two hours on a charge before installing 10.2.4 to getting less than half an hour shortly after.

And it's getting worse. When I first unplug the cable, it shows 100%, but after about a minute it's down to 98% and has calculated the time remaining to be 25 minutes. (And it usually gets way less than that.)

Too bad...

It seems strange that software could damage the battery? Any ideas on how to fix this? Is apple liable?
 
This is rediculous! With a full battery charge and the energy saver set to "maximum battery life," i have 2:18 of battery life! I couldn't get to the mac fixit page, does anyone know the exact details about this bug? I have a DVI 667 tibook, and I think I'm going to call up apple and see if they'll send me a new battery.
 
Hmm...definately changed mine too--at full chage it used to say 3 -4 hours ..now it says 2:30. I wonder if it just is more of an accurate reading....althogh I did notice that after leaving my iBook sleep for about 1 day it died.Kinda funny but i rememebr being able to leave it sleep for at least 3 days...

Im not likin this much...
 
I have been running 10.2.4 since it was released on my TiBook. I haven't noticed any change in my battery life. (Althought I have seen my memory usage drop to half of what it was using. :)) I have a Nov. 2002 TiBook. Mabey it is only affecting older models?
 
Does anyone know Apple's official position on this issue?? Cant find anything on thier website. Is this just a perception thing or is it really a problem??

Ugh...I've had less problems so far with my Compaq Presario 1200 (when compared to my iBook )and everyone knows what a POS they are......
 
Does anyone know Apple's official position on this issue??
Click to expand...

I tried to take my *12* day old battery back to the local Apple store, where the "Mac Genius" or whatever they're called pored over some online material that he wouldn't let me see and then insightfully proclaimed that "Apple is aware of the problem and is investigating it."

He told me that since the battery was outside the 10 day return window, I would have to go through AppleCare to get it remedied. Sux.

Oh, and I felt really confident in his genius abilities when he maintained that you couldn't revert to a previous OS release level without formatting your disk. He just gave me a blank stare when I explained that I had done so with the "Archive and Install" option...
 
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