Powerbook battery advice ASAP!

[Aniej]

I am leaving for a week long trip and many parts of it will not be able to run the computer off of the powercord, which is a problem because I get about 40mins of wordprocessing use out of it when I run the battery alone.

Can someone explain what the significance of these levels are for my Powerbook G4 15'' (Alm) 1.25GHz, namely the cycle count and full charge/remaining capacity?

Battery Information:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 1371
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 1266
Amperage (mA): 310
Voltage (mV): 12573
Cycle Count: 401

Also a recommendation on the least expensive kick butt long lasting battery would be very very helpful.

I was told by someone the other day that the powerbook batteries will not work in a MacBook Pro, is this true?

 

[Mernak]

This is what the battery should be
Specification: 10.8 Volts, 4700 mAh
so in other words your battery holds about 30% of its original charge (ratio of mAhs). Cycle count is the number of times the battery has been fully drained (could be at different times i.e. drain 30%, recharge, drain 70% = 1 cycle). AFAIK the batteries are not swappable with the MBP, most laptops have different batteries.

EDIT: be sure to check that it is not one of the batteries recalled by apple, if so you could get a free new battery from them. Here is the apple site

 

[Aniej]

Nope not covered, as I suspected.

Anyway, I am looking for a the highest capacity battery I can get for the best price (who isn't) I'm hoping to stay in the $100 range or under, but can deal with going over. Please help, I obviously don't have much time, what else is new in my life though!

 

[WildCowboy]

I found this battery, but I don't know anything about FastMac. NewerTechnology and Apple batteries are significantly more expensive, but I know they're good.

 

[Aniej]

I found this battery, but I don't know anything about FastMac. NewerTechnology and Apple batteries are significantly more expensive, but I know they're good.

Why is it always you who solves my problems and finds the solution to the issues I am having with my powerbook! you are awesome.

 

[Aniej]

Come on Now, I really need some help before 5p.m.

I am really in a bad spot here as I have yet to find or hear of a battery suggestions that really fit within the range I am looking for. I would love to find a way to be under $100 here on the battery, but it is looking less and less promising. If anyone has suggestions on where to go online to overnight this I really need them because I have to order by 5pm if I am going to get it next day. this is not looking so good.

 

[WildCowboy]

Did the FastMac one not pan out for you?

I don't think you're going to have much luck finding one any cheaper.

 

[Aniej]

Unfortunately I think you are right. I don't know I found them too before I asked this question actually, but something just sort of struck me as a bit odd with them. I might end up using them, but I wanted to take one last shot at it before doing so.

On a separate note. I downloaded coconut battery to check out some of my stats. It is pretty cool, but I am unclear as to one thing that I thought you might know. Under the current battery capacity section it gives me current and original capacity. While the percentage that it puts out below is nice, is there a way to calculate how much time I will have on a given battery based on the current battery capacity mAh? I realize this is highly dependent upon how I am using the machine, but lets say it is average use, in fact all I am going to be doing is word processing. Any way to figure out how much time i should get on my battery before I have to recharge?

 

[WildCowboy]

As a very rough estimate, you can think back to how much uptime your battery gave you when you first got it...maybe three hours? That would suggest that in its current state it should give you a bit less than an hour, which matches with your comment about it lasting 40 minutes. The battery discharge isn't exactly linear, and it goes to sleep before it gets all the way to zero, and as you say it depends on your usage, so it's a very rough estimate.

The best way is just to see how much it actually gives you before going to sleep, which you appear to have done. And it's not much (though still better than the 10 minutes the battery on my old iBook gives me!).