Powerbook G4 TiBook battery quick drop in capacity

[agentbob]

Hi,

I've had my 667mhz DVI Powerbook for about 2-3 years now and the battery suddenly starting giving me 15min of power instead of the 2h+ it was giving me.

Originally the battery used to last 3-4h with very light usage (just ssh, and web browsing) and it slowly went down to 1 1/2 - 2h battery time. Now all of a sudden there was no gradual drop but its straight down to 15min per 100% charge.

Running `ioreg -w0 -l | grep Capacity` on 10.3.8 gives me:

"IOBatteryInfo" = ({
"Capacity"=281,
"Amperage"=0,
"CycleCount"=165,
"Current"=281,
"Voltage"=16219,
"Flags"=838860805,
"AbsoluteMaxCapacity"=4000
})

Come to think of it... this might even have happened when I installed 10.3.8 :| Has anyone heard of this before and is this the normal way a battery dies? Also is there anything I can do about it short of buying a new battery?

Thanks in advance,

Dan

 

[5300cs]

...Has anyone heard of this before and is this the normal way a battery dies?...

Unfortunately, yes. I've had a number of laptop batteries die that way (all Mac.) I use a program called Xcharge, which shows a graph of the battery's charge. I've had a battery go from 60% to 0% instantly and the machine hibernates, or just shuts off completely

I'm not really sure what you can do other than buy a new one.

 

[dotdotdot]

[...]
I'm not really sure what you can do other than buy a new one.

You mean if a battery dies you need to buy an entirely new PowerBook!?!?!? Or just the battery?

 

[runninmac]

You mean if a battery dies you need to buy an entirely new PowerBook!?!?!? Or just the battery?

No... You just gotta go to OWC (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/batteries/) and get a new one. I havent ordered anything from there but from what ive herd its a safe place to shop.

 

[crazzyeddie]

No... You just gotta go to OWC (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/batteries/) and get a new one. I havent ordered anything from there but from what ive herd its a safe place to shop.

OWC has some incredible batteries for the Powerbooks from Newertech. I highly recommend the higher capacity batteries they sell, as I use one in my Powerbook and get almost 4 hours (1ghz Titanium). Their service and shipping are top-notch, too.