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PowerBook batteries?

N

nottorp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 12, 2014
638
924
Romania
I need a new battery. Originals aren't available any more, NewerTech NuPower isn't available any more. (Note: Europe).
There are a few different brands that I haven't heard of available though. Anyone can recommend one? Ideally recommend as in "I'm using XXX and it hasn't blown up on me yet" :)
 
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I was lucky enough to find the Newertech batteries for both my 12" Powerbook ( eBay UK ) and 15" ( macnificos.es ).

Macnificos (Barcelona Spain) only has the 17" Newertech in stock anymore.
 
nottorp said:
It's a 15" and the original battery is A1148. Random amazon links:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PowerSmart...&qid=1489579559&sr=8-1&keywords=a1148+battery
https://www.amazon.co.uk/GOLDEN-Rep...&qid=1489579559&sr=8-3&keywords=a1148+battery
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Replacemen...&qid=1489579559&sr=8-2&keywords=a1148+battery

They're available, I just don't know which i can trust. It's a Li-ion battery after all, and if it's made on the cheap it's risky. Also, possible compatibility problems...
Click to expand...

How about from Duracell? Great brand, 1 year warranty: http://www.duracelldirect.co.uk/laptop-notebook/apple/oem-pno/a1148.html

I appreciate it's a little pricey though :(
 
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If you are mechanically inclined, I think the best option is to re-cell an old battery. There are some pretty good 18650 cells available, like the LG 18650 LJ1 or the Samsung INR18650-35E.

I used some really cheap 1 year old Sanyo NCR18650BF and have a better-than-new battery in my 12" now. I posted about this somewhere before.

I would stay away from the amazon/fleabay chineze packs. I tried a few and they were all junk.
 
nottorp said:
It would be interesting if it were actually made by Duracell, but it's labeled "2 POWER". I bet it's the same as the 20 quid batteries on Amazon, plus 40 extra for being endorsed by Duracell :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, should've edited my original post to clarify as I noticed the same thing! I did have a look at other 2 Power batteries of the same A1148 model and they were even more expensive than on Duracell's website. So I'm (half hoping) it's a really decent brand for what you need.

But again, not my finest suggestion. :oops: I'll keep looking around!
 
flyrod said:
If you are mechanically inclined, I think the best option is to re-cell an old battery. There are some pretty good 18650 cells available, like the LG 18650 LJ1 or the Samsung INR18650-35E.

I used some really cheap 1 year old Sanyo NCR18650BF and have a better-than-new battery in my 12" now. I posted about this somewhere before.

I would stay away from the amazon/fleabay chineze packs. I tried a few and they were all junk.
Click to expand...

So far this is the only reply that sounds like a first hand witness, and it's not encouraging :(

Edit: One more thing, my original battery has never worked since i got the powerbook, and on most days the laptop thinks it doesn't have a battery plugged in. On some days it sees it as empty for a minute or two, and then it says it has no battery. That says it's beyond recelling?
 
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I have a decent battery in my PB G4 "15 that hasn't given me a problem, I'll pull it out and give ya the brand when I can.

EDIT: here's a pic, it looks like it's a FastMac battery
 

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CooperBox said:
If by any chance you have a good battery available for a G4 12" I'm interested!
Regarding the question on reliable replacement batteries available in Europe, there was a fairly recent thread on this (and a satisfied user) but unfortunately I'm unable to find the link.
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Worst thing about the 12" PB replacement batteries is the bad design of the Powerbooks battery-bay itself with the battery being part of the edges of the Powerbooks bottom-case. There's no such a flaw in design with the 15" and 17" models.
Nearly all batteries come with a plastic housing that doesn't resemble the thin aluminium-cover of the original battery-pack and they do not fit very well.
I removed the plastic shell off one of my 12" batteries and replaced it with the thin aluminium blade from the original battery. To be honest - it doesn' t look that fancy...

But I would not dare to recell the original battery 'cause I'm pretty afraid of any homemade firework ...
 
iModFrenzy said:
I have a decent battery in my PB G4 "15 that hasn't given me a problem, I'll pull it out and give ya the brand when I can.

EDIT: here's a pic, it looks like it's a FastMac battery
Click to expand...

Interesting. I note that it's a battery for a 15", and I see that it's still listed on Amazon - although probably old stock. I say this because I can find no reference to a FastMac 12" PowerBook battery since 2007/8.
 
I recommend AGPTEK batteries. I have a couple in various laptops and they work quite well. Their customer service is also real and helpful. They replaced a faulty ThinkPad T61 battery without question and for free. So I recommend them and they do indeed sell PowerBook batteries
 
I don't want to open a new thread for my PowerBook G4 problem as it is related to this thread... i managed to acquire a 15" PB 1,67 non high res. Problem is the battery... it won't charge. My first guess was to replace to battery connector as it is described as a common problem for not charging. But still it won't :(
Sometimes it doesn't recognise the battery at all and sometimes it says 0% not charging. 167 loading cycles doesn't seem to much for the battery itself to be dead, right? Should i try to get a new one on ebay first or does anyone have recommendations on how to proceed now?
thx a lot in advance :)
 
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If you can, the best bet would be to identify the problem. Try a different charger/powerbook/battery combination to narrow it down. Otherwise it's hard to say for sure which is the culprit (I've seen all 3 give the same symptoms).

A PMU reset might be worth a try.

Also, the cycle count on a battery is not the whole story. Age, brand/manufacturer, and storage factor in too.
 
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PMU reset was my first guess too but that changed nothing :/
As I only possess one PB I can't identify the problem by trying different setups.
When I press the button on the battery there's no light but when I insert it into the PB the first light blinks for only a moment. Pressing the button doesn't do anything wether inserted or not. Therefore I assume I should test a new battery first.
Thank you for now, I'll report back when I've tested a new battery
 
nottorp said:
Well, for now I ordered this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/PowerSmart...&qid=1489579559&sr=8-1&keywords=a1148+battery
mainly because it's advertised as 4600 mAh not 5200 so they're less likely to lie about the capacity a lot.
Will update the thread with how it works (or doesn't) end of March/early April when it's supposed to arrive.
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Got the battery. It looks pretty similar to the original, it includes the charge status button which seems to be actually working. It wiggles just a tiiiny little bit in the slot, as opposed to the original which didn't move at all.

Laptop recognized it and said 4500 mAh max and 0 cycles, but i haven't been through even one full cycle yet.
I charged it to full and it did get hot, but i never had a working original battery so I don't know if better or worse than the original.

So far I've played Warcraft III for 30 minutes, and that ate 28% of the battery (but I don't know if i should trust that yet). Going to leave it idle on the WC3 menu to discharge, I don't think I should post any more battery times until i do a few cycles so the system calibrates it.
 
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nottorp said:
Got the battery. It looks pretty similar to the original, it includes the charge status button which seems to be actually working. It wiggles just a tiiiny little bit in the slot, as opposed to the original which didn't move at all.

Laptop recognized it and said 4500 mAh max and 0 cycles, but i haven't been through even one full cycle yet.
I charged it to full and it did get hot, but i never had a working original battery so I don't know if better or worse than the original.

So far I've played Warcraft III for 30 minutes, and that ate 28% of the battery (but I don't know if i should trust that yet). Going to leave it idle on the WC3 menu to discharge, I don't think I should post any more battery times until i do a few cycles so the system calibrates it.
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I seem to recall my PB 15" was able to run on an original Apple battery for around two hours playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 which was a fairly taxing game for that PowerBook G4, well I presume it was since the fans would always be blowing like a force ten gale and the underside of the thing would get hot enough to burn my nob if I wasn't careful. So 30 mins of WC3 noshing off nearly 30% of the bat seems about right I suppose.

Do report back once you've broken the thing in and gone through a few charge cycles with it though as I'm inclined to buy one of the batteries that you got myself. Only problem I have is I'm unsure of what exactly is wrong with my PowerBook - It has issues with charging (ie it decided to stop bloody charging at all), but after all the years of faffing around trying chargers and a battery in it I still haven't completely narrowed down exactly what is wrong with it (long story but essentially it might be the charging circuitry on the actual logic board that's buggered which would render buying a new battery pointless).
 
I'm not sure it's stabilized, but it's at 5 cycles and after the last 2 charges it showed 4244 and 4245 mAh. It doesn't seem to heat up more than the rest of the laptop (most of the time less), which is what i was worried about.

The funny thing is, my PRAM battery is gone (even though I replaced it with a sold-as-functioning one years ago). Before adding a working main battery, the laptop forgot its wifi networks every time i unplugged it. Now it forgets them every time i shut down, regardless of being plugged in or not. Still, it's a lot more functional than before, especially as long as i don't let the battery drain completely.
 
Isn't the PRAM battery supposed to be a recharging supercapacitor? At least in the later PB models?

My problem actually was a dead battery :mad: as stupid as I am I didn't even consider it could be that simple... i'm not used to simple solutions... Got a new battery and now it's running again and I can use it in University as replacement for the iBook (Yes, I use PPCs in University 'cause it's fun, i actually have a really fast Windows laptop that I could use... but where's the fun in that? :D)
 
amagichnich said:
Isn't the PRAM battery supposed to be a recharging supercapacitor? At least in the later PB models?
Click to expand...

Hey, it seems to work now - after the laptop has been mostly plugged in for a week. I suppose the main battery doesn't power the PRAM when it's in, you have to wait for the separate PRAM battery to recharge.

My problem actually was a dead battery :mad: as stupid as I am I didn't even consider it could be that simple... i'm not used to simple solutions... Got a new battery and now it's running again and I can use it in University as replacement for the iBook (Yes, I use PPCs in University 'cause it's fun, i actually have a really fast Windows laptop that I could use... but where's the fun in that? :D)
Click to expand...

RANT

Windows laptop? Apple may be going insane, but Windows is no replacement to OS X. I switched to macs from Linux, and if Mr Cook keeps not taking his medication I'll go back to it.

For now, my 2014 mbpro and my desktop hackintosh (where's the Mac Pro for developers?) will do. Besides the PowerBook being simply too old for my work, i have some interesting graphics corruption when it gets hot (pixels changing colours here and there and kinda flickering) which doesn't entice me to use it too much.

END OF RANT
 
amagichnich said:
Isn't the PRAM battery supposed to be a recharging supercapacitor? At least in the later PB models?
Click to expand...

Yes, up until the later PowerBook's it was a Lithium "Button cell" battery but in the later models they changed it to a single cell rechargeable Li-Polymer battery in the region of 100 to 200 mAh. It's not immediately obvious when you look at the pack since it's covered in a protective shield, but that can actually be carefully removed. Fun fact; The batteries can also be replaced. You just have to source a suitable replacement and do some soldering. I brought mine back to life at as fraction of the cost of buying a second hand replacement.

nottorp said:
Hey, it seems to work now - after the laptop has been mostly plugged in for a week. I suppose the main battery doesn't power the PRAM when it's in, you have to wait for the separate PRAM battery to recharge.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, since as I mentioned before my PB has some quirky issues with it's lack of ability to charge the main battery, but based on my own experience after replacing the NVRAM battery it only recharged when the Mac was actually running and possibly plugged in.

RANT

Windows laptop? Apple may be going insane, but Windows is no replacement to OS X. I switched to macs from Linux, and if Mr Cook keeps not taking his medication I'll go back to it.

For now, my 2014 mbpro and my desktop hackintosh (where's the Mac Pro for developers?) will do. Besides the PowerBook being simply too old for my work, i have some interesting graphics corruption when it gets hot (pixels changing colours here and there and kinda flickering) which doesn't entice me to use it too much.

END OF RANT
Click to expand...

Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say that; I have used both Windows machines and Macs for over twenty years. I like having the best of both worlds. But different strokes for different folks I guess, I just dislike the whole Mac V PC thing, since it usually winds up with people suggesting one OS is better than the other for whatever reason and anyone using 'the other' ends up being lambasted for it. Life's too short for such silliness.

As for your graphics corruption... That's bad. You seem to already be aware of the issue but just to say anyway; from experience it's usually not so much a warning sign that something's going wrong but rather a danger sign that something already went wrong and now there's irreparable damage. Of course with the graphics on a PowerBook you're pretty much stuck with replacing the entire logic board as the only fix. If keeping it from getting hot prevent the issue for now though, just stay the course I guess until it potentially one day starts doing it even when cold or completely goes south on you.
 
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