I recently purchased a new macbook a couple of months ago and I still have a question about the battery. I have read other forums about how you should take care of your battery to make it last the longest. I fully charge it to 100 percent and then drain it to about 5 to 10 percent and then fully recharge it again. Is this the right way to charge it to get a better lifespan out of my battery? Also I downloaded the coconut program and it says I have done 14 load cycles and have had it for 2 months. Is that a lot of cycles, or average? Also I am at 93 percent current battery capacity. Does that change when it is charged or does that stay solid? Thanks for your guys help and input!
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Battery question on new macbook
- Thread starter Hairmy
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Iirc the officially recommended way is to charge it to 100%, then wait 2 hours, run it on battery until it goes to sleep (almost totally depleting the battery, way less than 10% capacity left), wait 5 hours, then charge it up again. This should be done every 2 months or every month if you don't use it frequently.
Official advice is also not to leave it plugged in all the time and not to completely run your battery down either. On Apple's site they describe the ideal user as a commuter who uses battery on the train, then recharges at the office.
Having done all the above and feeling like a nuclear power plant operator keeping track of everything, the battery on my unibody macbook lasted 13 months and went through 142 charge cycles before giving up (still charging 100% but the capacity went to about 30% of nominal over 2 days and it lasted 40 minutes) which is a disgrace imho and I'm not the only one to whom it happened. 14 cycles over 2 months are not a lot imho.
Official advice is also not to leave it plugged in all the time and not to completely run your battery down either. On Apple's site they describe the ideal user as a commuter who uses battery on the train, then recharges at the office.
Having done all the above and feeling like a nuclear power plant operator keeping track of everything, the battery on my unibody macbook lasted 13 months and went through 142 charge cycles before giving up (still charging 100% but the capacity went to about 30% of nominal over 2 days and it lasted 40 minutes) which is a disgrace imho and I'm not the only one to whom it happened. 14 cycles over 2 months are not a lot imho.
I should read the Apple page carefully. It's not very well worded, but I think it says "if you leave your laptop plugged in all the time, run it down once a month". That's their definition of "occasionally"
It doesn't say don't leave it plugged in all the time IIRC.
Anyway the best advice is to just use your battery. Don't worry about it. The Mac's charger is smart enough to look after your battery very well. Eg
- it stops charging it when it's full. There is no "trickle" charge. So there is no practical difference between unplugging it from the wall and just letting the charger do its thing
- if you only discharge it a few % it won't start charging again until it drops below 95%.
- it carefully manages the charge current to maximise life.
Calibration is more about making the on screen display more accurate, and getting the most juice out of the battery. It is not about maximising the longevity of the battery (Again, read the apple site). I never calibrate my batteries, I'm not that interested in a super-accurate display. And calibration does add "cycles" to your battery, ie it wears it out.
Just use it. It's fine. My totally ignored Macbook battery is 3 years old, 400 cycles, 95% health. It's been plugged into the wall for >20 hours a day for the last 3 years.
It doesn't say don't leave it plugged in all the time IIRC.
Anyway the best advice is to just use your battery. Don't worry about it. The Mac's charger is smart enough to look after your battery very well. Eg
- it stops charging it when it's full. There is no "trickle" charge. So there is no practical difference between unplugging it from the wall and just letting the charger do its thing
- if you only discharge it a few % it won't start charging again until it drops below 95%.
- it carefully manages the charge current to maximise life.
Calibration is more about making the on screen display more accurate, and getting the most juice out of the battery. It is not about maximising the longevity of the battery (Again, read the apple site). I never calibrate my batteries, I'm not that interested in a super-accurate display. And calibration does add "cycles" to your battery, ie it wears it out.
Just use it. It's fine. My totally ignored Macbook battery is 3 years old, 400 cycles, 95% health. It's been plugged into the wall for >20 hours a day for the last 3 years.
im at 9 load cycles in 9 days. seems like my battery is always dying on my macbook and i only surf the net. not sure if its something im doing or what?
its a new white unibody mac.
its a new white unibody mac.
Depends on how it is set up. Screen brightness, bluetooth, and Flash video all will drain the battery faster then having the brightness down, bluetooth off, and not watching flash videos.
Running full tilt, brightness etc, expect 3.5 hours, take some of the well documented advice, and you will double the time. I have gotten 8 hours out of mine.
screen brightness is set to a little below half(6 notches), bluetooth is off, only use that stuff when its plugged up, no flash video, and i usually look at a site let it sit and the screen goes black in 2 min. but i do have wifi on. and what do you mean full tilt?