I don't know why I only get 20 minutes of battery life on my 17" AlBook. All I was doing was burning a DVD while backing up with carbon copy cloner to a firewire powered portable hard drive, charging my ipod, playing iTunes with the visualizer on large in the background, while running some photoshop filters on 5 GB files and doing some net surfing over airport and syncing my palm pilot and watching a divx movie in a small window. While I know it's bad to have screen brightness all the way up and processor at highest setting, I figure I made up for that by taking out the RAM and putting in a 128MB chip to save the power of having to access all that RAM. Maybe part of the problem is that I also had Norton utilities & AltiVec Fractal Demo running in Classic in the background. I hope this updates lets me do all that and gives me 42 hours of power instead of 20 minutes.
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Battery Update in Software Update.
- Thread starter ComputerWizard
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15" 1.25Ghz here
before this update i had a 3:12 battery life, thats with the screen dimmed to 1 bar and the processor turned doen and with BT + Airport turned off.
mAH was 3428 but it only charged to 3427, this mAH had come down from 3600 mAH.
no after performing the update i have 81% on my battery charged, this WAS reporting as being fully charged before the update.
Also now my mAH is 4200.
I cannot wait to find out the new battery life.
I had calibrated this battery last week and the update must of taken this into account...maybe I dunno i'm guessing here.
before this update i had a 3:12 battery life, thats with the screen dimmed to 1 bar and the processor turned doen and with BT + Airport turned off.
mAH was 3428 but it only charged to 3427, this mAH had come down from 3600 mAH.
no after performing the update i have 81% on my battery charged, this WAS reporting as being fully charged before the update.
Also now my mAH is 4200.
I cannot wait to find out the new battery life.
I had calibrated this battery last week and the update must of taken this into account...maybe I dunno i'm guessing here.
I don't understand why so many people have problems with absurdly low battery time on their PBs and iBooks. What I really don't understand is the group-think need to slam Apple instead of complaining when you buy your machine. If I had those results with my iBook I would have had it checked out within a couple days of purchase.
Do your part to get it fixed or don't complain. (I know this is unusually harsh and doesn't apply to all cases - use your discretion to determine if you think I'm talking about you. Out of the box battery problems without consulting Apple or demanding a fix is an example of those on the "no-right-to-bash" list.)
My iBook usually lasts four to five hours or more when I squeeze the settings for juice.
Dan
Do your part to get it fixed or don't complain. (I know this is unusually harsh and doesn't apply to all cases - use your discretion to determine if you think I'm talking about you. Out of the box battery problems without consulting Apple or demanding a fix is an example of those on the "no-right-to-bash" list.)
My iBook usually lasts four to five hours or more when I squeeze the settings for juice.
Dan
Just finished speaking to AppleCare. My battery life dropped from 3:30 to 1:30 after the update. They tell me to
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
- reset the power manager
And if that doesn't work, recalibrate the battery.
To recalibrate the battery though is a bit dangerous if you don't have a backup. If you don't plug the power in in time, your directory may be hosed the next time you boot up. To recalibrate the battery:
1. Let the battery drain until the screen goes dark with Energy saver turned off.
2. Immediately plug in the power and let it recharge overnight.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
- reset the power manager
And if that doesn't work, recalibrate the battery.
To recalibrate the battery though is a bit dangerous if you don't have a backup. If you don't plug the power in in time, your directory may be hosed the next time you boot up. To recalibrate the battery:
1. Let the battery drain until the screen goes dark with Energy saver turned off.
2. Immediately plug in the power and let it recharge overnight.
What about the new 3rd party batteries?
I have one of the new higher amp OWC batteries for my Tibook 800. It lasts longer, definitely, than Apple's original.
But what will this new update to to it? Will it flummox the chip or will the battery be able to deal with it?
I have one of the new higher amp OWC batteries for my Tibook 800. It lasts longer, definitely, than Apple's original.
But what will this new update to to it? Will it flummox the chip or will the battery be able to deal with it?
I just got my powerbook back from repair. The main reason was to have the white spots repaired. I also complained about the battery and had it replace, it was only holding about 2.4 ah. The new one holds 4.4. I just did the batter update and am in the middle of calibrating the battery. While doing this, I burned a DVD, watch about 40 minutes of a dvd I copied to my hard drive. Surfed the net, the whole time I had my airport card on. So far, I have gotten about 2+ hours. Clearly it is calibrating, since it was stuck on six minutes for about 15 minutes. And, then it jumped to 2:08. Now it is about at :13.
Anyway, I would definetely calibrate your batteries before coming to a conclusion about this update. It also should not be too risky. Just run it down while having the adapter ready to plug in. Even if it does go to sleep for a while, it should not cause any problems.
Anyway, I would definetely calibrate your batteries before coming to a conclusion about this update. It also should not be too risky. Just run it down while having the adapter ready to plug in. Even if it does go to sleep for a while, it should not cause any problems.
Re: What about the new 3rd party batteries?
Neither, the update doesn't apply to you. I'll update myself in a bit, then see what comes up...Originally posted by matznentosh
I have one of the new higher amp OWC batteries for my Tibook 800. It lasts longer, definitely, than Apple's original.
But what will this new update to to it? Will it flummox the chip or will the battery be able to deal with it?
What I did was install the update while plugged in, let it go full. After that I unplugged it and it gave me 2:40. I wasn't worried, installed the 10.3.2 update, restarted that, now on still on my way to re-calibration but I'm at 87% and my meter reads 4:10 left. Don't rely on the battery meter to tell you how long you have to go. Right now it's changing from 3:50 to 4:05, back and forth. I wouldn't worry too much just because it gave you wacky numbers. Most battery timers have to learn how fast your system sucks juice. BTW I'm on an iBook G4 12"
Installed and works better now
I have a G4PB 1.25ghz w/FW800. My battery life stunk since day one with this thing. Generally I never get even 2 hrs, even with minimal powerdraw. This was beginning to make me actually complain about my laptop. I installed the update and after a VERY long restart, it said I needed to charge for 4 hours!!!
I put the laptop to sleep for about 15 minutes and when I opened it back up it had a full charge. Now I am running it on battery and it is telling me 3 hours remaining. This is VERY MUCH BETTER than it was before by at least an hour. To any PB users with the new laptops, this IS A MUST HAVE!!!
Enjoy.
N
I have a G4PB 1.25ghz w/FW800. My battery life stunk since day one with this thing. Generally I never get even 2 hrs, even with minimal powerdraw. This was beginning to make me actually complain about my laptop. I installed the update and after a VERY long restart, it said I needed to charge for 4 hours!!!
I put the laptop to sleep for about 15 minutes and when I opened it back up it had a full charge. Now I am running it on battery and it is telling me 3 hours remaining. This is VERY MUCH BETTER than it was before by at least an hour. To any PB users with the new laptops, this IS A MUST HAVE!!!
Enjoy.
N
Yeah, I noticed that with my Late 2001 iBook 600 after doing a full discharge and PMU reset. But the menu bar meter has been stuck at "Calculating... until full" for quite awhile and X-Charge claims a 100% charged, with its orange Dock icon orange instead of green. The battery capacity is still what it was before installing Apple's battery update and recharging. I might have to go through another iteration of this later, letting the battery charge overnight while I'm not using the system. I'd be glad to get 2.5-3 hours from this battery again, which was possible earlier this year after recalibration but it's gone downhill fast the last couple months.
Too bad we TiBook users can't get this update. But then again I'm already getting 3hrs and 45 mins normally out of my PB thats already just over a yr old used everyday. The most I've gotten has been 3hrs and 54 mins. I guess I could get more if I turn the screen down and kill my modem and external mouse. Then I would probably be able to do 4 hr or just over that.
Nobody should be posting or comparing times unless they have actually timed it with a CLOCK before and after the update. How much time do you REALLY get?
The number in the menu bar is just an estimate, affected greatly by moment-to-moment changes in use, and by calibration. The estimate given at first will often turn out to be wrong based on your actual usage of the machine. That's normal, as long as you get your warning when the juice is low.
Now, it's interesting to know how often that estimate tends, over time and many charges, to be close to the actual life. But compared to actual battery life... it's trivial.
In other words, looking at the number in the meter just after the update is pretty meaningless. See what happens in the real world instead.
The number in the menu bar is just an estimate, affected greatly by moment-to-moment changes in use, and by calibration. The estimate given at first will often turn out to be wrong based on your actual usage of the machine. That's normal, as long as you get your warning when the juice is low.
Now, it's interesting to know how often that estimate tends, over time and many charges, to be close to the actual life. But compared to actual battery life... it's trivial.
In other words, looking at the number in the meter just after the update is pretty meaningless. See what happens in the real world instead.
That's what he meant. It doesn't shut down, but goes to sleep to protect the contents of the RAM. You'd better be near power though, because the internal reserve lasts three minutes at most, but I'm not sure about the reserve held in the main battery. I think I've read 15-20 minutes for that.
What about my second battery?
Does anyone know, as a matter of fact, if the update actually affects the battery? This I wonder because I have two batteries for my 15" PowerBook 1.25GHz.
Does anyone know, as a matter of fact, if the update actually affects the battery? This I wonder because I have two batteries for my 15" PowerBook 1.25GHz.
According to the documentation that came with the SWU, the second battery will automatically be updated once you pop it in.
Re: What about my second battery?
The artcle states that when each battery is put in the laptop that it will be updated, so, yes.
The artcle states that when each battery is put in the laptop that it will be updated, so, yes.