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Macbook battery?

A

alaner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 6, 2009
5
0
I just got my first Macbook!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D

Im SUPER happy to embrace OS X and leave Windows to bite the dust. While most of everything has been running smoothly, I've recently been running to a couple of problems. I seem to have noticed that my battery gets empty super fast. Upon checking the macrumors forums advice, I calibrated my battery with no changes in my user experience. I went into the system profiler and checked my power properties.

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3683
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4139
Health Information:
Cycle count: 34
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 246
Voltage (mV): 12295

What do all these mean? Is my battery still okay? The Macbook claims up to 5 hours, but I havent even gotten to 4, even with just Word running. :confused::confused:

All advice and help will be appreciated! Long live MacRumors!!!1
 
alaner said:
I just got my first Macbook!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D

Im SUPER happy to embrace OS X and leave Windows to bite the dust. While most of everything has been running smoothly, I've recently been running to a couple of problems. I seem to have noticed that my battery gets empty super fast. Upon checking the macrumors forums advice, I calibrated my battery with no changes in my user experience. I went into the system profiler and checked my power properties.

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3683
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4139
Health Information:
Cycle count: 34
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 246
Voltage (mV): 12295

What do all these mean? Is my battery still okay? The Macbook claims up to 5 hours, but I havent even gotten to 4, even with just Word running. :confused::confused:

All advice and help will be appreciated! Long live MacRumors!!!1
Click to expand...

Well, your Mac does not think that the battery has a problem (health: good), but have you tried charging it all the way to 100%?
 
Your battery is more than fine, it has still its original capacity (Full charge capacity (mAh): 4139 - and you've already used 456mAh in the current session) and running a Unibody MacBook (I presume) for 5 hours will not happen, even if Apple states it as a fact. And running Word might be CPU intensive (I don't know anymore, as I have used iWork since the abysmal arrival of Office 2008).

So when you get 3-4 hours out of it, then you don't have to worry.
 
When using your MacBook, there's a couple things Apple recommends to maximize your battery life.

Do you use Bluetooth? If you don't, turn it off. You can do this by going into System Preferences > Bluetooth, and uncheck the box for "On". This can drastically help out.

Another thing: try not to keep your brightness all the way up. Turning it down to about half-way can also help meet the five hours that Apple indicates.

Finally, if you keep experiencing problems, look back at your System Profiler to see if the condition ever changes to "Check Battery". If it does, and if your Cycle Count is under 300, then Apple may replace the battery for you, as it may be defective.

But otherwise, just try the above. Oh, and welcome to the Mac. :)
 
Thanks for all the help! Will definitely try to keep my battery in check!!!

Im in the progress of charging it to full capacity. Funny thing is that I left it at full last night. I just removed the AC cord and placed my computer to sleep. Does sleeping use battery capcity?:D
 
alaner said:
Thanks for all the help! Will definitely try to keep my battery in check!!!

Im in the progress of charging it to full capacity. Funny thing is that I left it at full last night. I just removed the AC cord and placed my computer to sleep. Does sleeping use battery capcity?:D
Click to expand...

As the above poster said, yes.

The battery has to power the RAM, which holds all the currently running applications and associated data, so that when you wake it up, it's still there, almost instantly.
 
alaner said:
So much that it requires mo to charge for an hour to go back to full?
Click to expand...

The battery in the MB charges quickly at the beginning, then slows down as it approaches full. They can be quite slow for that last 15-20%.
 
alaner said:
So much that it requires mo to charge for an hour to go back to full?
Click to expand...

Yes, it uses in perfect condition of course 1-2% per hour when sleeping.
On some MBs it uses 3-5% per hour.

And as taking so much time to charge the battery when it is not that full, another poster (it escapes me who) once had a good image for that.

Filling an empty glass with water will be fast until you reached the last quarter, where you have to pure water in slower and slower, so that no water skips out of the glass. It's the same with batteries, the fuller they are the slower the charge.

You can also have a look at islayer.com for iStat Pro, a widget which shows you the current battery capacity and health
 
spinnerlys said:
Yes, it uses in perfect condition of course 1-2% per hour when sleeping.
On some MBs it uses 3-5% per hour.

And as taking so much time to charge the battery when it is not that full, another poster (it escapes me who) once had a good image for that.

Filling an empty glass with water will be fast until you reached the last quarter, where you have to pure water in slower and slower, so that no water skips out of the glass. It's the same with batteries, the fuller they are the slower the charge.

You can also have a look at islayer.com for iStat Pro, a widget which shows you the current battery capacity and health
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for that great analogy!!! I hope that I can keep my battery healthy. If not, will Apple Care cover it? I got the 3 year warranty just in case! :D
 
spinnerlys said:
Your battery is more than fine, it has still its original capacity (Full charge capacity (mAh): 4139 - and you've already used 456mAh in the current session) and running a Unibody MacBook (I presume) for 5 hours will not happen, even if Apple states it as a fact. And running Word might be CPU intensive (I don't know anymore, as I have used iWork since the abysmal arrival of Office 2008).

So when you get 3-4 hours out of it, then you don't have to worry.
Click to expand...

How come they get away with it? Didn't anybody tried to sue Apple for false advertising?
That's what happened here in Europe with the iPhone, they have a message that the connection speed might not be as quick as it seems to be in the ad.
 
spinnerlys said:
Apple will give you a replacement battery, if the battery has less than 80% health (80% of its original capacity) with less than 300 cycles.
Click to expand...
oh wow! how generous! i'll try to keep that in mind. I think that false advertising has been a downfall of the consumeristic world. There's nothing we can do.....:D
 
opinioncircle said:
How come they get away with it? Didn't anybody tried to sue Apple for false advertising?
That's what happened here in Europe with the iPhone, they have a message that the connection speed might not be as quick as it seems to be in the ad.
Click to expand...

They have stated the things you have to do to achieve those 5 hours on their website in small print. As those are more than ideal circumstances and usage patterns, not a lot of people will achieve that usage of time out of one charge.

They advertise the MBP battery (less mAh than the older white MB) with up to 4 hours, and I'm glad when I can get two and half out of them.
 
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