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mikelao

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2005
10
0
i bought a new powerbook 15" about a month ago at the apple store. battery was okay till today. it used to show around 2.45 hrs when i unplug it. now, it just shows approximately 20 minutes!

i checked the battery information and here's what it says:

- full charge capacity (mAh): 432
- remaining capacity (mAh): 425
- amperage (mA): 0
- Voltage (mV): 12532
- cycle Count: 8

please help! what do i do? is the battery pack damaged?

thanks!
 
Download CoconutBattery
http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/files/coconutBatteryEN_1_3.zip

It will show you a comparison to it's 'Original capacity' and it 'Current capacity'. The lower it is, the worse off your battery is.

page2_3.png
 
thanks! i tried it out and i am scared of the results. i think it's not good...

here's what it said:

Current Battery Charge

current battery charge: 424 mAh
maximum battery charge: 432 mAh

Current Capacity Status
Current Battery Capacity: 432 mAh
Original Battery Capacity: 4400 mAh
graph shows 9%


Additional info:

Battery-load cycles: 8
Age of your mac: 1 month
charger connected: yes
Battery is charging: no (this is weird because my mac is plugged in)
 
You have a really confused or faulty battery. It is registering it's mAh(milli-amp hours) as less that 10% of what it should be when new. Call apple ASAP.
 
thanks for the help! i did drain the battery and it didnt work the first time... still the same effect. i did it again and charging it now... hope this will fix it.

i might just have to bring this in to apple... =(

any ideas what would cause this? is this just one of those defects of the powerbook battery?
 
Are you all using 'letting the battery drain' as being synonymous with 'calibrating the battery'?

If not, I'd suggest trying to calibrate the battery again. I don't mean to insult you if this is a tried and obvious solution, just want to make sure all the bases are covered.

How much is a new Powerbook battery I wonder...
 
yup... i drained the battery using the steps in calibrating the battery but it didn't fix the problem. it's fully charged in about an hour or so, and then when i remove the plug to see how long it will last, it says around 23 minutes.
 
Yep, the battery is completely knackered. As it's so new, I'm guessing it's faulty... A lithium ion battery shouldn't loose it's charge like that.

Contact Apple and demand a replacement - you have the stats to prove it now :)
 
yeah -- it's good that it's under warranty. i bought it in the states and now i'm out of the country so i don't know if the apple authorized reseller here in my country will recognize my warranty.

thanks again for all your help!
 
kbonnel said:
Yup, sounds like you got a dud battery. Bummer. At least it is under warranty, though that doesn't really make it less of a pain.

There must be many more new PB battery failures around. Mine is down to 20 minutes of working time (650 mAh or so). I've been waiting for 14 (FOURTEEN) days for my new battery to arrive through my local Apple dealer. According to the tech, "many" more replacement batteries for the new PB are on order, with no indication whatsoever of an arrival date....

Peter
 
psendeavor said:
There must be many more new PB battery failures around. Mine is down to 20 minutes of working time (650 mAh or so). I've been waiting for 14 (FOURTEEN) days for my new battery to arrive through my local Apple dealer. According to the tech, "many" more replacement batteries for the new PB are on order, with no indication whatsoever of an arrival date....

Peter

This might be due to the fact that there was a recall on PB batteries, something about them catching fire or something like that. It is on the apple.com website.

Kimo
 
Ideas on reviving battery?

The battery on my PowerBook G4 has died suddenly. CoconutBattery tells me that its current charge is 0 but maximum charge is 3170 mAh as well as current battery capacity is 3710 mAh. The other information it provides is battery-loadcycles 286, age of Mac 35 months, charger connected yes, and battery is charging no. I have tried two chargers, and even though the LED turns orange, the battery no longer will take a charge. The LED indicator on the battery itself indicates discharged. The battery status at the top of the screen never changes from "calculating". And if I remove the power supply, the system powers down. All of this is consistent with a battery that's no longer operational, and I'm not complaining since I got three years out of it.

My question is . . . is there anything I can do to "goose" this relic back to life? I've got nothing to lose at this point. I remember that there used to be tricks you could use to revive NiCad batteries, but my knowledge ends there.

By the way, to answer someone earlier in the thread . . . the cost of a new battery for a PowerBook is about $150.
 
G4 Powerbook battery woes

I just read this thread trying to figure out why my battery quits charging when it gets to 33%. Tried PMU reset, and reclaibrated the battery. No luck. It was working great until I ran this bit of code in Terminal to check the battery:

ioreg -l -w0 | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

After the check, it gave the data and then my battery went from 75% full (started the day at 96%) to 0% instaneously. Then my machine went to sleep. I plugged in the ac and charged it, but it would only reach 30-33% and sticks in "calculating" mode. Seems like somehow the battery info was reset in a way that I can not see or use the full charge. Any ideas on how to salvage this battery? It is old but barely used and was calibrated when new.

Here is the latest battery info, seems like it should be ok except that the Current is 1119 (near 33% of the Capacity 3344) and the battery will not charge anymore.

ioreg -l -w 0 | grep IOBatteryInfo
| | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=3344,"Amperage"=0,"Cycle Count"=17,"Current"=1119,"Voltage"=16282,"Flags"=838860805,"AbsoluteMaxCapacity"=3600})
 
Kurpmonster said:
I just read this thread trying to figure out why my battery quits charging when it gets to 33%. Tried PMU reset, and reclaibrated the battery. No luck. It was working great until I ran this bit of code in Terminal to check the battery:

ioreg -l -w0 | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

After the check, it gave the data and then my battery went from 75% full (started the day at 96%) to 0% instaneously. Then my machine went to sleep. I plugged in the ac and charged it, but it would only reach 30-33% and sticks in "calculating" mode. Seems like somehow the battery info was reset in a way that I can not see or use the full charge. Any ideas on how to salvage this battery? It is old but barely used and was calibrated when new.

Here is the latest battery info, seems like it should be ok except that the Current is 1119 (near 33% of the Capacity 3344) and the battery will not charge anymore.

ioreg -l -w 0 | grep IOBatteryInfo
| | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=3344,"Amperage"=0,"Cycle Count"=17,"Current"=1119,"Voltage"=16282,"Flags"=838860805,"AbsoluteMaxCapacity"=3600})

This is exactly what my Powerbook 12" does. I've had it since Nov. 2003. It will slowly drop from 99% to about 70-80%, then immediately to 0 - do not pass go, do not collect $100.

When it "recharges," it gets to about 25-30%, followed by "calculating," followed by "100%." Either my battery is seriously confused or seriously dead.
 
My battery was working fine until I reinstalled Tiger and updated to 10.4.3 now I have the 20 minute problem!!!

The strangest thing is the data from CoconutBattery and Terminal, Check this out!!!

pbook:~ luca$ ioreg -l -w0 | grep -i IOBatteryInfo
| | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=24350,"Amperage"=18446744073709550358,"Cycle Count"=222,"Current"=23962,"Voltage"=14730,"Flags"=4,"AbsoluteMaxCapacity"=4200})
| | | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=24350,"Amperage"=18446744073709550358,"Cycle Count"=222,"Current"=23962,"Voltage"=14730,"Flags"=4,"AbsoluteMaxCapacity"=4200})

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!!! ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED
 
It was charging fine until I reinstalled the OS and now I don't know why it is doing this! I am really reluctant to buy a new one, It just seems that it is a software problem:

Current Battery Charge: 23582 mAh
Maximum Batterh Charge: 24350 mAh

Current Battery Capacity: 24350 mAh
Original Battery Capacity: 4200 mAh

nuts!
 
Will Cheyney said:
Download CoconutBattery
http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/files/coconutBatteryEN_1_3.zip

It will show you a comparison to it's 'Original capacity' and it 'Current capacity'. The lower it is, the worse off your battery is.

page2_3.png

My pb is about the same age as yours and is at about 90% current capacity. How long is the battery expected to last in "good" quality? How often should you replace the battery? Every 2-3 years?

I kinda hoped that I didn't need to buy or replace anything... but I already got a busted charger on the list (at least that was covered in the warranty).
 
This powerbook had a new battery about a year ago and only since my last re-installation of Tiger has it played up. I have tried the reset-nvram and all the other recommendations but nothing seems to change. From what coconut says it seems that it is a software issue as it is stating it's capacity has increased which is physically impossible.

Further to that software problem, my battery meter in the top right hand corner never states anything less than 100%

I am going to make an appointment with a mac Genius at the Bluewater branch, I am really unhappy with this situation.
 
I can't seem to find the Titanium Powerbook G4 Battery on the UK Apple Store? Seems like they have removed it from sale, has anyone else noticed this or has any information on them removing it from sale?

Luca
 
dorqiekat said:
My pb is about the same age as yours and is at about 90% current capacity. How long is the battery expected to last in "good" quality? How often should you replace the battery? Every 2-3 years?

I kinda hoped that I didn't need to buy or replace anything... but I already got a busted charger on the list (at least that was covered in the warranty).
I've gone through about a battery every 18 months. Pretty quick although I use the battery a couple of times everyday.

One of my Apple guru friends swears on buying a new battery for his powerbooks every time he upgrades his O.S. Kind of pointless but it seems to make him happy...
 
.Andy said:
I've gone through about a battery every 18 months. Pretty quick although I use the battery a couple of times everyday.

One of my Apple guru friends swears on buying a new battery for his powerbooks every time he upgrades his O.S. Kind of pointless but it seems to make him happy...

Well I was getting 2 hours of life out of mine before my last reinstall of Tiger and now I only get half an hour. Admittedly it is gradually getting better as I cycle it but it looks like the software is messed up, Coconut battery shows it continuously as 222 cycles when I am trying to get it working now.

I don't know if it is the laptop that is malfunctioning or the way the laptop charges it. Is there a way to tell?
 
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