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splashtech

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2007
151
0
Does anyone else have any idea why (or experience on their own MB/P) the battery item in the menu bar sit at "Calculating" for ages when the battery is nearly charged or fully charged. It normally shows the time left on battery power, or the time left to charge. The screenshot attached shows what I'm talking about. Is this normal?
 

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Er... about 2 months, but not heavily used. The actual battery life seems fine, and iStat seems to think its 100% healthy. Is this not normal behaviour?
 

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I have the same issue. I bought my MacBook (gen one..I think) in may 06, and I used it for about a month, and until recently It was hardly used often. But now I'm noticing "Calculating" and I get about 3 hours or battery life (best performance)
So I guess it's normal?
 
I'm getting this problem too. I have a battery with 27 cycles, 96% health and 95% charged
 
Mine does this too, and my battery is about 2 months old. It will sit on 99% and calculating... in the menu bar for ever, even though iStat says 100% charged. Maybe a leopard problem with calculating battery charge time? Anybody having this problem on tiger?
 
Mine does this too, and my battery is about 2 months old. It will sit on 99% and calculating... in the menu bar for ever, even though iStat says 100% charged. Maybe a leopard problem with calculating battery charge time? Anybody having this problem on tiger?

I had the same problem in Tiger, Leopard hasn't changed it.

I don't see it as a problem, more of a bug. I'd estimate we're still getting the same amount of battery life, just that we're not informed about it for a while :rolleyes:
 
usually happens with 95% charge I find. Unplug it, use it a bit so it goes below 95%. Replug. Done and done.
 
Just thought I'd confirm I had the issue before Leopard was out on Tiger too. I agree with the comment that it is not so much a problem, just a bug or "issue" It doesnt really cause an actual problem. :)

usually happens with 95% charge I find. Unplug it, use it a bit so it goes below 95%. Replug. Done and done.
Maybe it depends on the health of the battery - how much charge it'll take...?
 
maybe. 95 is the threshold where the charger would begin recharging to 100. It probably confuses itself somehow with the health of the battery. Probably the battery's chip reporting the wrong charge, etc etc, and the charger not knowing what to do.

Therefore, un plug it, drain it to 94% at least (to bump it past the threshold, so the adapter knows for sure to charge). Plug it in, and all is well.

(I had/have this issue with my gen 2 MBP with tiger. Its not the OS's fault.)
 
I've had my MBP since last May, and this seems pretty typical and consistent behaviour to me. The calculator is very quick to report earlier in the charging process, but when the battery is getting very close to being fully charged, it seems to 'hang' for ages.

I just assumed that when the battery gets close to 100% it becomes difficult to give a time becuase the last few fractions of a percent take longer (potential difference and all).

Anyway, my battery still seems to be in perfect health and lasts as long as ever on a full charge, so I dont worry about it.
 
Ya, I usually get this after a full charge. I just unplug it for a moment til it calculates how much time I have left til empty then plug it in.
 
tiger same problem

Mine does this too, and my battery is about 2 months old. It will sit on 99% and calculating... in the menu bar for ever, even though iStat says 100% charged. Maybe a leopard problem with calculating battery charge time? Anybody having this problem on tiger?

I've got a macbook with tiger and it does exactly the same thing, gets to 99% charge then stays on calculating. However, isat pro tells me that it is 100% charged. Very confused :confused: despite this, the battery seems fine and lasts as long as it did when I bought it. Not much help to you, but at least you're not alone
 
Whilst using my MBP (late 2008) on its battery, it would just sit there calculating the time left for ages. This was at various percentages, 90% all the way down to 10%.

Annoying.
 
I dunno what you guys are talking about. My macbook has 565 cycles on it, 100% health, and 4 hrs 44 minutes on a full charge (full brightness, bluetooth and wifi). I'm pretty happy =D.
 
I dunno what you guys are talking about. My macbook has 565 cycles on it, 100% health, and 4 hrs 44 minutes on a full charge (full brightness, bluetooth and wifi). I'm pretty happy =D.
Proof? sorry but I don't believe you. or are you just being sarcastic? lol
 
MBP 2.4/200/4 2nd battery showing faults

hi everyone :)

mine's on it's second battery, both of them lasted almost 1 year. first one had over 250 cycles on it and was showing really low health, second one i've been much more easy on, only 55 cycles or so, and down to 28% health .. apple's sending me a third battery now, so hopefully this one will be better.

symptoms have included:

- calculating (for ever at the top of a charge)
- finishing charge (for ever at the top of a charge)
- power adapter LED goes out with machine plugged in (usually times when it should be providing minimal amounts of power, a dis - reconnect usually gets the light to come back on orange)

anyone had similar problems ??

i did mention to the apple support guy on the phone that i suspected more than just the battery, perhaps the whole machine?? and he said that as i had more than another year left on applecare, there was still time to remedy the issue and enough time later to pursue a replacement machine if that turns out to be the problem ..

apple rocks :)
 
Mine has started doing the "Calculating..." thing that a few of you have mentioned. My battery is at 30% charge right now, and it has been calculating since it was at least at 50% charge. I've restarted without it fixing it either.
 
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