After a lifetime of Apple desktops I just got a new 15 inch Powerbook a few days ago and was so excited when it finally arrived that I neglected to think of any of the important set-up steps such as battery calibration. I have fully charged the battery three times, had it running off of battery power four mabye five times, but have never fully run the battery down to the point where the computer would go to sleep. At this point is battery calibration worth doing or have I made a $150 mistake and will soon be in need of a new battery? Any advice you have would be most appreciated.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Battery Calibration
- Thread starter trickynicky86
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Some batteries won't show a difference. Some batteries would be the same with calibration or without it. You will have to try it out. test how long your battery is running for. If it's for only like 2 hours then i think you made a boo boo. But if it goes for a solid 3+ hours then your in decent shape.
You should definitely do it. But I don't think you can particularly ruin a battery by not calibrating it....
If you do get bad performance, try running it through a couple of full charge-discharge cycles (i.e. charge it up, run it off battery only without plugging it in all the way down, so that it calibrates, and then recharge).
If you do get bad performance, try running it through a couple of full charge-discharge cycles (i.e. charge it up, run it off battery only without plugging it in all the way down, so that it calibrates, and then recharge).
The same thing happened to me. In the Powerbook manual, where it talks about calibration, it says to do it within a week. I did it exactly a week after I bought it, but I used it during that week. Am I ok??
Calibration has no effect on battery performance. It merely allows your PowerBook to better estimate how much charge is actually remaining in the battery. (Old-style NiCad and maybe NiMH batteries had a memory problem, where partial discharging and recharging would reduce the total charge they could store until you "conditioned" them by fully discharging and recharging them. Modern Lithium Ion batteries do not have this problem and do not need to be conditioned periodically. Even older Lead-Acid batteries can be permanently damaged by fully discharging them.)
KevRC4130 said:
Ahhh, in the *manual*...that's why I hadn't heard of it till six months after I got my iBook.
wide said:
Certain batteries (mostly expensive ones) have a built in monitor/indicator that can correctly measure/charge/discharge by regulating it. Your Dell probably has standard LithiumIon battery.
If you see an indicator directly on your battery, that tells you how good your battery is. I have a Compaq Evo from a while back and that has a cheap battery like most other laptops on the market that is trying to save money on parts. Apple is charging more for their product, but offers somewhat superior quality. Just like my Sony Vaio V505EX's battery starts at $300+. There is a reason why you don't need to calibrate your Dell. Dell uses cheap parts just like Compaq.