strange battery issues

[Lucas44]

hi there,

my dad has had his macbook pro (2.16 c2d) for around 16 months. he asked me about getting a replacement battery as it was only lasting around 30 mins. i ran coconut battery to check it out as i know he only gives his laptop light use (2-3 hours a day).
coconut battery threw me as it said it only had 4 load-cycles but apparently the app is buggy with leopard. system profiler says its been through 66 cycles and is in fair condition. my MBP (2.33 c2d) has 74 cycles and is in good condition.
has my dad got a faulty battery or is he not charging his battery correctly. as far as i'm aware he charges it when it gets to about 5-10% charge. sometimes he will carry on working on it when its charging.

any ideas?

thanks in advance

 

[scienide09]

Coconut Battery and Leopard don't talk to one another very well. So you're right there.

As for the battery itself, have you/has your father tried calibrating lately?
If the battery is being charged before dying completely (eg. at 5-10%), but the system is mis-reporting when you're hitting that level, then that could help explain the short battery life. How does a full charge last, until the battery is drained and the system goes to sleep and won't wake?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

If that doesn't work, a call to Apple or trip to your local store is your best bet.