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i get brilliant battery on mine... but that might be beacuse my first battery would only charge to about 40% and would go down in 30 minutes or so... my new charges to 99% (never 100%) and lasts a good three hours.
 
heh figures

Anytime the battery in my late 2002 ibook 800 starts acting wonky they come out with some sort of update. The other day I swear to god it said I had 7 hours left. Usually I have about 5.
 
I've always wondered how exactly these work. Do they somehow make your laptop use less energy, or do they make your battery be able to store more juice? If they effect the battery, how?

Also, I've never owned a laptop, but am more and more wanting one. Got to the point where I copmmletely filled out an order for a powerbook, but I'm still probably going to wait until I go to grad school. I'm wondering if these battery times, 2 hours, 4 hours, are normal. Maybe it's just because I'm inexperienced, but that seems horrible.
 
Re: Re: Battery is gone!

Originally posted by dho
That 0% probobly refers to something like 0.1...% that needs to be charged after the update was done and the extra capacity discovered. Give it a minute or two and you should be ok. Otherwise, goodluck :)

Nope. Powerbook just put itself to sleep. And I didn't bring my charger because, well, it was fully charged! Will just wait until I get home, I guess.
 
Apple gave me a bum battery to begin with. I have never gotten over 1:30, and now it's down to about 45 minutes tops.

I called them up, and some lying representative told me that the 4 hour benchmark they give you is for when the computer's asleep. I was so pissed that anyone at apple would say that that i just hung up. He said i was doing well if i was getting 45 minutes with the computer on and running. I couldn't ******** believe it.
 
Originally posted by Ja Di ksw
I've always wondered how exactly these work. Do they somehow make your laptop use less energy, or do they make your battery be able to store more juice?

Don't quote me on this, but I think the update affects the battery. It must affect some chip in the battery or something. If it affected the laptop using power, I think it would have been included in an OS update (10.3.x). Also, this update is good for Jaguar and Panther, so it's independant of the OS, making me think it affects the battery.

That and the update says "Note: Once the Battery Update software has been installed, each battery you install in your PowerBook or iBook will be updated automatically."

So it's updating the battery, but not really making it store more juice, just making it communicate with the computer better.
 
not impressed

I am in the library studying when I see on MR that there is the battery update. I was at 2 hours and 17 min when I installed it. I restarted and it says 1:47...... booooooooooooooooooooo


any suggestions for best battery life from people who have spent time to find out?
 
Well, heres a interesting fact.

12" PB DVI, 100% battery and my charger was showing green (charged yah). Installed and rebooted....just as it got into OSX i unplugged it and moved downstairs....to see my battery indicator showing 78%...

Maybe they've realised they can get more out of the Al batteries.
 
I got two batteries with my Al-Book 15" 1.25, and they're both due a charge now, so it'll be interesting to see how different it is. I can't really say I've had much of a problem so far - nothing like 4.5 hours as quoted, but more like just under 3, and isn't really affected by what I'm running / doing, remarkably.

Both batteries seem the same in terms of charging time / charge life and I'm glad about that.


This is my first Mac after almost 7 years of PC. Had a lot of problems with charging batteries in a PC laptop, so it's great to have something reliable from a manufacturer that are interested in their customers' views, and update stuff whenever needed. I'm very happy with it! Consider me switched!
 
Originally posted by plandu
Apple gave me a bum battery to begin with. I have never gotten over 1:30, and now it's down to about 45 minutes tops.

I called them up, and some lying representative told me that the 4 hour benchmark they give you is for when the computer's asleep. I was so pissed that anyone at apple would say that that i just hung up. He said i was doing well if i was getting 45 minutes with the computer on and running. I couldn't ******** believe it.

45 mins is abnormally short. Call apple back.
 
thats odd...

on a PB 12" rev a, i started with (from cold start>running update>restart, about 3 minutes) 2:02 left with 88% charge. after the update it listed initially 1:32 left, but now has climbed as high as 3:25 (i've done nothing except launch mail, energy saver {longest bat. life setting, low processor use} and wake up the screen about 3 times.)

It's up to 3:48 now, and i think the longest run i've ever gotten out of the battery was about 4 hours.

Looks like it leveled off, 3:41 with 86% charge. mind you, i've always thought the time left was more of a guestimate than a real countdown timer.
 
Originally posted by Wombatronic
45 mins is abnormally short. Call apple back.

I've left my pb asleep for 24 hours before and still had about 50% charge, so thats just wrong. call apple and complain. they should send you a new battery...provided its still under warrenty.
 
Re: not impressed

Originally posted by bobbyp80521
I am in the library studying when I see on MR that there is the battery update. I was at 2 hours and 17 min when I installed it. I restarted and it says 1:47...... booooooooooooooooooooo


any suggestions for best battery life from people who have spent time to find out?

You restarted the computer, that takes battery too, and a heck of a lot of hard drive spinning at that too.
 
Just chatting with a friend of mine. He has a 15" AlBook. He had a nearly full battery, ran the update and restarted. As soon as it started up, it went to sleep, he had to plug it in to wake it up. The update completely drained his battery, it said 2%. Just asked him to check the LED's on the battery, indicator is only flashing one light, and hes upto 14% now.

Glad I'm using a TiBook :)
 
conspiracy theory

i'm certain the low battery capacity has to do with systems that have MS Office installed in it...


...I'm kidding. I just thought I would get my daily allowance of MS bashing in.:p
 
the PB fell asleep, upon awakening, it was reading 6:05 left (Yay!)...then fell to 2:21 (boo.) Looks like its going to settle again at about 3:30 or so at 80%.

One thing i noticed, when i shut it down Monday night, it was at full charge. wasn't turned on until today (and after the update..about 5 minutes of on time) it read 88%. I'm wondering if the batteries haven't been charging up fully, and thats why the update was released.

either that or my battery has leached out 10% of its power in about 36 hours.
 
something interesting just happened.

i ran the update, rebooted.

i had a full battery before

after reboot: 77%

so i was happy (OH MY GOD< MORE BATTERY LIFE>>>> HURRAYYY)

then, after charging for 15 minutes, it suddenly popped to 100%......

but now,

old time: 2:12
new time: 3:12

That's an hour's gain.

i just want to say the following:

10.2.7(1:45 hours) -> 10.2.8 (2:12 hours) -> panther updated ( 3:12 hours)
 
Originally posted by coumerelli
listen to you guys....:eek: :rolleyes: 3 hours and still ticking....2+ hours, FOUR hours!!!! I have the 15" powerbook firewire 800 and am lucky to get an hour 45! :( I REALLY hope that this improves the life of my battery....will let you know later....
Yes I'm the same, lucky if I can get even near 2 hours under normal use - nothing fancy ... it's hard to believe others with the same machine could be getting over 3 hours!
 
Re: WOW!!!

Originally posted by jaredbbauer
Wow!! I am using a revA powerbook 12' and this little update just took me from an average of 1 hour and 45 minutes to a full three and a half hours! THANK YOU APPLE!

I hope it fixes mine, mine only lasts for an hour, or an hour and a half. Only time will tell...
 
what happened to me and my 17" 1.33GHz PB

My PB was plugged in, fully charged green light was on, either 99% or 100% not sure, installed the update and restarted the light on the charger turned amber, and the battery was charging said it had 1:11 or something till fully charge, and it was on 88%!

what I think is the batteries don't charge to the fullest, and this update allows them to use their maximum capacity. I'm not an expert though.

THANKS
MaT
 
re: not impressed

I wrote a lil while ago thta I had restarted with the new update with around 99% battery and 2:17 min left on it. after the reboot it had 1:47 left. Now I am sitting about 10-15 min later with 63% battery and 2:11 min remaining (however it is ticking off a min every 30 seconds) who knows wtf is goin on. I have yet to be impressed with any batterylife in a powerbook. While it is i'm sure a huge accomplishment to get it to 2 hours, if Jobs wants the market to move to notebooks like he has said, that number needs to be boosted up to around 6-10 hours... will it ever happen? yes. soon? doubt it.....:(
 
to the people who are getting low battery times

try re-calibrating your batteries, if that doesn't improve anything check your energy saver pref, try letting the HD spin down, maybe the CPU isn't set on Auto?

hope this helps
MaT
 
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