powerbook battery capacity and help

[holy MAC!]

hello,

i am running panther 10.3.2 on an alubook 15 inch 1.25 ghz. here's my problem.

i was reading a mac magazine and i read something about the battery capacity.

if you run

ioreg -l -w 0 | grep IOBatteryInfo

in your terminal, you will get a capacity number for your powerbook... mine is 3688. based on this thread earlier
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51980 ,
the number that you should have "max" is 4600... but most people still get around 4300.... mine is 3700.....

if you own a 15 inch alubook, can you tell me your OS, your capacity number, and your pbook age?

this will give me an idea on whether i will have a valid argument when i go talk to apple.

ps. i also have 4 big white spots.... however, i dont' have any dead pixels... so i'm willing to endure it.

 

[Rend It]

I have a 15" Al 1.25GHz. I also had the white spots (they appeared 3 months after purchase), 3 dead pixels, faulty latch, and 3773 mAh battery capacity via the command you listed. The battery capacity also decreased with each calibration. I called Apple Care about two weeks ago, and the rep said that my 2 hours of battery life was "within spec." She also said she didn't know what the capacity should be. I asked her to have the techs check the battery anyway since it would be in for the other repairs.

Well, I called the next day to follow up (after receiving the box from Airborne), and the new rep said there was no comment for the techs to inspect the battery. So, he told me to call the repair status number to make sure the service depot puts it in the case report.

Anyhow, it turned out that the battery was replaced; capacity is now 4200mAh, which is the norm I think, after 10.3.2 and the battery update. In short, make sure they at least put a note for the tech to test the battery while it's in for the other repairs. But DON'T say that someone with a higher capacity got his replaced and therefore so should you.

The good news is that I dropped off the box at Airborne Wed afternoon, and I got my powerbook back the following Friday morning. How's that for customer service! One more thing, if you haven't already done it, download a pixel checker before you decide whether you have or haven't any dead pixels. I didn't catch mine w/o it.

Good Luck!

 

[holy MAC!]

no one owns an alubook 15 inch?

......... come on. if you do, see if you can check for your number, it takes 10 seconds

 

[holy MAC!]

Hi Rend It.

well, i definitely dont' have any dead pixel..... and everything else is fine, except for the white spots....

my only issue is the battery......

based on what you did, did they also fix all the other stuff?

 

[Paolo30]

Hi,
albook 1.25, sd, 1024mb, delivered early January.
"IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=4160,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=4159,"Voltage"=12537,
incidentally, I forgot to calibrate the battery the first couple of days I had the machine (I lost track of which machine this was after replacing/repairing three.)
Can somebody please tell me why they used a lower capacity battery than the last model and every similarly spec'd Centrino?

 

[Teronke]

I don't have a 15' Alu but I had my battery replaced for my 12'er at the beginning of January.

I was talking to the tech guy at the Apple Repair Centre here in Hong Kong and he told me that you shouldn't keep your Powerbook constantly plugged into the mains.

The short charging that occurs when the Powerbook reaches 100% is bad for the battery's capacity.

I was a bit skeptical at first in light of Apple's articles saying short charging is normal and prolongs the battery life but I have made the following observations since receiving my new battery:

1. Initial capacity reading was 4347. Multiplying by the voltage this gave me approx 50 Watt hours, which is above the 48 Watt Hour spec

2. After almost a month of use my capacity is down to 4055. This gives me about 48 Watt hours.

3. I noticed that the largest reductions in capacity occurred when I was using my Powerbook while the battery meter reads 100%. Presumably this is because of the short charging that is occurring (although my battery meter always stays at 100% unlike some other users who say their meter falls back to 90% before heading back to 100%)

4. I noticed that I don't get reductions or only get a very small reduction if my Powerbook is shutdown and left to recharge overnight. Presumably this is because there is much less shortcharging going on.

5. I noticed that I do occasionally get reductions in battery capacity if I let the battery run down completely. This would be consistent with other users' statements about not letting Li Ion batteries run down to 0%.

The conclusion I have drawn from my observations is that: reductions in capacity are a normal consequence of usage, but short charging seems to be the most detrimental thing to prolonging the life of your battery

These observations don't necessarily prove anything but is something other Powerbook users might take on board when trying to prolong their battery life.

 

[Biker21098]

Battery Life

Ya i have a BTO 15 inch 1.25GHz PBook. 80GB 5400 RPM drive, 512 single stick. Mine is at 3944 capacity. I don't get great battery life. maybe 2.5 - 3 hrs max with airport off. and thats with just word processing. i never get more than 3 ever. Anyways, I ahve 2 whitespots and one edge of my keyboard is kinda floating up a tiny bit so as i hit the F12 button, and eject button the keyboard goes down and makes a clicking noise and then kinda pops back up, its not too good. I love the book, but I didnt expect these many problems.

 

[Rend It]

Originally posted by holy MAC!

based on what you did, did they also fix all the other stuff?

Everything was fixed: latch, white spots, and battery. The new display has 5 dead pixels (when you send it in for white spots, you get a new display). So, I'll be giving them a call again. I probably won't send it in right away, just want to make a note of it for later. Overall, though, I'm very happy with my Albook and Apple's customer service.

Originally posted by Paolo30

Can somebody please tell me why they used a lower capacity battery than the last model and every similarly spec'd Centrino?

I've asked the Apple rep that, and they said they really didn't know except that the new 15" Albook was (supposedly) more efficient. A friend of mine has a 1.3GHz Centrino, and gets 3.5-4.0 hours easily, with quite a few applications running. I suppose we'll have to wait to see if they increase the capacity in the Rev. B Albooks, and just buy the replacement battery for that model. Otherwise, we'll have to wait for an aftermarket with a higher capacity. It's a shame we don't have higher capacity batteries, because if we had something comparable to the Centrino batteries, we would have the 4+ hours of battery life.

Oh well, such is life......