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Question for PPC laptop owners.
- Thread starter jbarley
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Altemose
macrumors G3
Choose a random one of the shelf and use it for the day then recharge at the end of working.
CountMaxMore
macrumors member
I just run mine until around 20% battery then recharge it rinse and repeat I never had to do any type of battery deep cycles or anything its been working great ( I have 2 ibooks I switch back and fourth during the day)
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
No schedule. My own laptops have long dead batteries and I mainly use them with my adapter wherever I go so I've never gotten around to replacing them.
My son was lucky enough to get the one battery I did buy years ago for his Titanium Powerbook. It was an extended life battery and came out of my old G4/400 when it's original battery only died eight years after it was made. This battery is some sort of undead thing that never, never quits. It sat dormant for a year at one point and rebounded like you wouldn't belive. He mainly uses his TiBook with an adapter though and he does have a decent spare battery that came with his TiBook.
My daughter's battery on her iBook is shot to hell and my wife's 12" G4 battery is middling. Both my daughter and my wife mainly use their Macs on adapters. So…there has never really been any effort or expense put out to replace batteries.
Sorry, I couldn't be of more help.
My son was lucky enough to get the one battery I did buy years ago for his Titanium Powerbook. It was an extended life battery and came out of my old G4/400 when it's original battery only died eight years after it was made. This battery is some sort of undead thing that never, never quits. It sat dormant for a year at one point and rebounded like you wouldn't belive. He mainly uses his TiBook with an adapter though and he does have a decent spare battery that came with his TiBook.
My daughter's battery on her iBook is shot to hell and my wife's 12" G4 battery is middling. Both my daughter and my wife mainly use their Macs on adapters. So…there has never really been any effort or expense put out to replace batteries.
Sorry, I couldn't be of more help.
PowerMac G4 MDD
macrumors 68000
I just take my charger with my wherever I go and try to position myself near outlets. The best way to keep a battery in optimal health is charging it and not letting it consistently go lower than--say--40%. Of course, it is said that you should, once in a while, let it drain completely so it can finish a full cycle; I have never done so or looked into that closely, so I cannot be a good judge of whether that's beneficial or not.
Generally, just keep your laptop plugged in when you can. This goes for ANY laptop. If you want to monitor the health of your battery, try Coconut Battery PPC.
Generally, just keep your laptop plugged in when you can. This goes for ANY laptop. If you want to monitor the health of your battery, try Coconut Battery PPC.
Generally you only need to deep drain(full cycle) once a year if you typically drain your battery into the 20-35% range twice a week but keep in mind if the health dips below 40% you should get the battery re-packed as Apple like other OEMs began using a fuse which breaks/fails if the health drops to ~15% as a safety feature. That is how my old 12" PowerBook G4 batteries remained in great condition during my student years, just remember since Apple never made it easy to know the cell maker if the battery suffered rapid health drop in ~2-3yrs chances are it may have been Sanyo... Panasonic/Sony cells usually last 5+ years.
I was exclusively an Apple notebook user from 2000 until 2007, moved to a Thinkpad during the dark/ugly nVidia 8-series GPU failure and melting MagSafe adapters... I waited until 2010 before I felt comfortable buying a MacBook Pro.
I was exclusively an Apple notebook user from 2000 until 2007, moved to a Thinkpad during the dark/ugly nVidia 8-series GPU failure and melting MagSafe adapters... I waited until 2010 before I felt comfortable buying a MacBook Pro.
bunnspecial
macrumors G3
A lot of mine is situation specific...
I.e. if I want to use a laptop and need OS 9, I generally grab my TiBook or Pismo, although with a strong preference for the former(especially if I'm also going to be doing OS X work). If I really want to work efficiently, I use the 15" DLSD due to the screen area. If I care about size/weight, I use grab my 12" iBook G4 or 12" Powerbook-although with a strong preference for the latter since it's MUCH faster(thanks to the mSATA SSD).
I also rotate through a couple of Intel laptops. My main one is a late 2011 13" Macbook Pro that I'm really partial to as it was my first Mac(bought new in Spring 2012). I have a TON of older files and work on it. Even though they're all backed up, and many are duplicated across other computers, I can often still find files fastest on this computer. Plus, as much as I love PPC computers, so much current software requires an Intel processor that I really can't get around the fact that at times it's the most practical computer to use. I also have black and white Unibody Macbooks. The white MB is a mid-2009 model and has been my testbed for Yosemite before I upgrade my main computer. The black MB is stuck at Lion, but I really enjoy using it. The black plastic has a different "feel" from aluminum and the white plastic used on Macbooks, and it's just enjoyable to use for that reason. Plus, even though it is running Lion, most of the programs I use under Mavericks and Yosemite work every bit as well on Lion. My Macbooks both have SSDs are are quite peppy as a result-much more so that the specs would lead one to believe.
Otherwise, I just rotate through them. I'm a full time graduate student, and one of my TA assignments last semester involved me sitting in the back of the room and working/playing on my computer. I made a point of rotating through my laptops-both PPC and Intel-although I'm not sure anyone noticed 🙂.
As far as battery use goes-I've gone to the trouble of replacing batteries in all every laptop I own except for the iBook G4, Pismo, and the Black Macbook(and of course my MBP, although the battery health is sitting at about 80% now and I'm really hoping that it gets well into 70% before Applecare runs out around the first of April so I can get a replacement on Apple's dime). The iBook and Macbook both have what I think are their original batteries-Cococut Battery reports the MB battery as being the same age as the computer. The iBook may be an old replacement. In any case, both have what I consider acceptable battery life-over 3 hours-so I don't have any motivation to replace it. The Pismo battery is basically good for moving the computer between outlets, but replacements cost more than I paid for the computer so I'll deal with hauling an adapter.
Many aftermarket batteries are variable in quality, so for that reason I always carry a charger with me when I'm using a PPC computer. If I'm using one that hasn't been used for a little while, I'll generally run it to about 20% and then plug it in and leave it plugged in for the duration of the time I'm using it. Since I sometimes inadvertantly sleep a computer for a week or so without using it or plugging it in, my laptops do generally get deep-cycled once every month or two.
One last thing-when I bought my white Macbook, it came with an aftermarket battery. It gave me no end of problems, including randomly turning off when run off battery power, although I didn't realize that some of the problems I was having were in fact battery related since the battery was practically brand new(4 or 5 cycles when I bought the computer, I think). Finally, the aftermarket battery gave up the ghost and wouldn't charge at all. I gambled on a used OEM battery on Ebay that was reported to only have 6 cycles(it was about 1/3 the price of a new battery from Apple, which, incidentally, is still available for this model. The used battery I gambled on has actually been great-it reports as over 100% health(103% or so the last time I checked) and will run the computer for over 4 hours easily with moderate use.
I.e. if I want to use a laptop and need OS 9, I generally grab my TiBook or Pismo, although with a strong preference for the former(especially if I'm also going to be doing OS X work). If I really want to work efficiently, I use the 15" DLSD due to the screen area. If I care about size/weight, I use grab my 12" iBook G4 or 12" Powerbook-although with a strong preference for the latter since it's MUCH faster(thanks to the mSATA SSD).
I also rotate through a couple of Intel laptops. My main one is a late 2011 13" Macbook Pro that I'm really partial to as it was my first Mac(bought new in Spring 2012). I have a TON of older files and work on it. Even though they're all backed up, and many are duplicated across other computers, I can often still find files fastest on this computer. Plus, as much as I love PPC computers, so much current software requires an Intel processor that I really can't get around the fact that at times it's the most practical computer to use. I also have black and white Unibody Macbooks. The white MB is a mid-2009 model and has been my testbed for Yosemite before I upgrade my main computer. The black MB is stuck at Lion, but I really enjoy using it. The black plastic has a different "feel" from aluminum and the white plastic used on Macbooks, and it's just enjoyable to use for that reason. Plus, even though it is running Lion, most of the programs I use under Mavericks and Yosemite work every bit as well on Lion. My Macbooks both have SSDs are are quite peppy as a result-much more so that the specs would lead one to believe.
Otherwise, I just rotate through them. I'm a full time graduate student, and one of my TA assignments last semester involved me sitting in the back of the room and working/playing on my computer. I made a point of rotating through my laptops-both PPC and Intel-although I'm not sure anyone noticed 🙂.
As far as battery use goes-I've gone to the trouble of replacing batteries in all every laptop I own except for the iBook G4, Pismo, and the Black Macbook(and of course my MBP, although the battery health is sitting at about 80% now and I'm really hoping that it gets well into 70% before Applecare runs out around the first of April so I can get a replacement on Apple's dime). The iBook and Macbook both have what I think are their original batteries-Cococut Battery reports the MB battery as being the same age as the computer. The iBook may be an old replacement. In any case, both have what I consider acceptable battery life-over 3 hours-so I don't have any motivation to replace it. The Pismo battery is basically good for moving the computer between outlets, but replacements cost more than I paid for the computer so I'll deal with hauling an adapter.
Many aftermarket batteries are variable in quality, so for that reason I always carry a charger with me when I'm using a PPC computer. If I'm using one that hasn't been used for a little while, I'll generally run it to about 20% and then plug it in and leave it plugged in for the duration of the time I'm using it. Since I sometimes inadvertantly sleep a computer for a week or so without using it or plugging it in, my laptops do generally get deep-cycled once every month or two.
One last thing-when I bought my white Macbook, it came with an aftermarket battery. It gave me no end of problems, including randomly turning off when run off battery power, although I didn't realize that some of the problems I was having were in fact battery related since the battery was practically brand new(4 or 5 cycles when I bought the computer, I think). Finally, the aftermarket battery gave up the ghost and wouldn't charge at all. I gambled on a used OEM battery on Ebay that was reported to only have 6 cycles(it was about 1/3 the price of a new battery from Apple, which, incidentally, is still available for this model. The used battery I gambled on has actually been great-it reports as over 100% health(103% or so the last time I checked) and will run the computer for over 4 hours easily with moderate use.
Blackomen
macrumors newbie
I just got my ibook a few weeks ago. The ad stated the battery needed to be replaced. So I a new battery at the same time.
As it turns out the one that came with the ibook lasts an acceptable amount of time for me. I use the laptop for mainly word processing. After about two hours it still has around 85-90% remaining.
So I can use it for two to three days between charges.
My routine so far is that to use a battery till it's around 50-60% remaining then charge it back to full and switch to the other battery and repeat.
I figure they both get exercised. Hopefully they will both last a while.
As it turns out the one that came with the ibook lasts an acceptable amount of time for me. I use the laptop for mainly word processing. After about two hours it still has around 85-90% remaining.
So I can use it for two to three days between charges.
My routine so far is that to use a battery till it's around 50-60% remaining then charge it back to full and switch to the other battery and repeat.
I figure they both get exercised. Hopefully they will both last a while.
Jessica Lares
macrumors G3
I don't even bother doing that with Intels. My battery gets shot within 3 hours. It's always going to be that way when you're working with fancy drawing and video apps. Everyone used to pack their power adapters now, and still a lot of people do.
