ibook battery 30% to 0%

[Dandaman]

my sister's ibook seems to have a battery issue. I just bought a new battery for her and it says that at full charge, there is about 5 hours on the battery.

after using it for a while, and gets to around 30-20%, it'll just shut off. the computer is still under apple care. would apple take care of this problem? or are we out of luck? thanks

daniel

 

[Nermal]

Have you calibrated the battery? Let it run down until the system goes to sleep, then charge it fully with no interruption.

 

[goodtimes5]

Good timing with this thread. Just last night the same thing happened to my iBook, even though it's already 1.5 years old. First time ever.

I don't know why it happened.

 

[Apple]

Use Capacity Meter to check the capacity that your battery has and to view the condition.

 

[Morn]

Same thing happens on my 900mhz G3 ibook, itll shut off at about 15%. It's very annoying. The battery has near full capacity, I've tried calibrating it, I can get the 15% if I plug it back into power and then yank it out. Took it too applecare they wanted to sell me a new battery, not worth it for 15% of the battery life.

 

[mad jew]

If calibrating does nothing then I'd try resetting the PMU but it's a pretty last-ditch attempt. I really doubt it'll help.

 

[Morn]

I already tried that. This is a known issue, listed on apples support web site. Their solution, is actually to ignore it, saying the battery is still usable. Thing is applecare doesn't cover batteries.

 

[jung_offender]

My powerbook battery does that as well, except at 87%! It is a known problem with Apple's batteries and it is not covered by your warranty (unless it is right out of the box and even then usually not).

I've been told it has something to do with cells in the battery quiting/failing.

Tough luck.

 

[TodVader]

My new iBook never charges to 100% but stops at 99%, Instead of starting a new thread on this, I might as well say it here.

As anyone experienced this before?

 

[mkrishnan]

Also, if the computer is shutting down at 30%, I guess you really can't do anything to calibrate it that you're not already doing.

 

[Laser47]

My new iBook never charges to 100% but stops at 99%, Instead of starting a new thread on this, I might as well say it here.

As anyone experienced this before?

Its completely normal, happens on my ibook too. If you go to an apple store even their ibooks and powerbooks are never at 100%. Although sometimes my meter will say 100% but then it cnahges back to 99%

 

[Morn]

If you replug it in when it shut down, and pull plug out I can get the rest of the battery life. I tried calibrating it that way. No help.
I'm just wondering, are we sure this is a problem with the battery? And no for example the power management unit. Has anyone solved this problem by buying a new battery?