battery life

[fjs08]

Hi,

I have a 3 yr old Titanium G4 15" Powerbook. I've been noticing that my battery life has been diminishing lately, which I attributed to the lifespan of the battery. Last week I was showing the Mac to a potential "convert" when the Mac just shut down. I was "almost certain" that I had about 40% power left on the battery. When I returned home, and plugged it in, the battery life read 0% on the screen. I ordered a new battery from Mac Mall which I received yesterday. I shut the Powerbook down, plugged the new battery in. It showed one green flashing light on the bottom of the Mac at that time. I turned on the power, but did not turn on the Mac, so as to charge the battery. I left it charge for a good 12 hours. This morning, I had 99% battery life. Ran it off the battery only this morning doing nothing special other than web stuff, e-mail etc. At Panera's at 45 % battery life, again it shut down. Got home and it showed 0% battery life.

Can someone explain this. Is it the Mac? Is it the battery or should I say batteries?? Is the Mac draining the battery extra fast. I turned on the Mac this morning at 5am and ran it until about 7am when it showed the 45 % battery life and shut down. I would expect more than 2 hours from a new battery??

Any thoughts??

Thanks.
Frank

 

[Warbrain]

Check the PRAM. Could need to be reset.

If not that, then maybe your adapter isn't charging the computer like it should anymore. Or the internal wiring isn't providing the power to the battery as well but the computer still thinks it's charging to a total charge.

But PRAM first.

 

[mkrishnan]

This has been happening very recently to my iBook G4 also. It also has a battery that's getting pretty old, but a couple of times now, it's shut down around 20%. I was thinking maybe it was just an effect of an older battery being less predictable, but I suppose a PRAM reset might also be good.

Then again, in a month or so Apple should've sent me my free replacement battery....

 

[fjs08]

>>ut I suppose a PRAM reset might also be good. <<

What is PRAM and how do I reset it??

The computer is plugged into a charger at home and a different one at the office. I would hope both aren't bad. It reads 100%. But tell me more about PRAM.

Thanks.

Frank

 

[mkrishnan]

http://guides.macrumors.com/Zapping_The_PRAM