Bad PowerBook battery: only 2509 mAh left

This is not normal, right? Will Apple replace the battery for free?
Markus Dehmann wrote on :

My PowerBook battery is pretty bad and runs for just about 2 hours. CoconutBattery says the max. capacity left is only 2509 mAh (57%) after 321 cycles. New batteries have 4400 mAh.

This is not normal, right? Will Apple replace the battery for free? The PowerBook is just a year old now, and I have the AppleCare 3-yr protection plan.

Does anyone have similar experiences and got the battery replaced? What's the typical mAh after a year?

Thanks! Markus

P.S.: I did a PMU reset, but it didn't help.

$ ioreg -w0 -l | grep Capacity | | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=2509,"Amperage"=18446744073709549624,"CycleCount"=321,"Current"=126,"Voltage"=10658,"Flags"=20,"AbsoluteMaxCapacity"=4400})

Tom Stiller replied on :

In article 4dsjflF15lmuaU1@redacted.invalid, Markus Dehmann markus.dehmann@redacted.invalid wrote:

My PowerBook battery is pretty bad and runs for just about 2 hours. CoconutBattery says the max. capacity left is only 2509 mAh (57%) after 321 cycles. New batteries have 4400 mAh.

This is not normal, right? Will Apple replace the battery for free? The PowerBook is just a year old now, and I have the AppleCare 3-yr protection plan.

Does anyone have similar experiences and got the battery replaced? What's the typical mAh after a year?

Thanks! Markus

P.S.: I did a PMU reset, but it didn't help.

The microprocessor on the battery can be re-calibrated by allowing the PowerBook to run until the depleted battery shuts it down and then charging it fully.

M-M replied on :

In article 4dsjflF15lmuaU1@redacted.invalid, Markus Dehmann markus.dehmann@redacted.invalid wrote:

My PowerBook battery is pretty bad and runs for just about 2 hours. CoconutBattery says the max. capacity left is only 2509 mAh (57%) after 321 cycles. New batteries have 4400 mAh.

This is not normal, right? Will Apple replace the battery for free? The PowerBook is just a year old now, and I have the AppleCare 3-yr protection plan.

Apple will not replace it. The Applecare agreement specifically excludes batteries. (I tried but if it's only a year old, they might)

fyi, mine is at 1951 mAh (44%) after 33 months and 685 load cycles and runs for less than 1.5 hours. I'll get a new one soon.

If you cycle the battery, you can usually get some mAh's back.

m-m

M-M replied on :

Actually there is an upside to the battery losing it's capacity:

It takes much less time to charge completely :)

(that's like the upside to high gas prices is it takes less time to put $40.00 in)

m-m

Markus Dehmann replied on :

Tom Stiller wrote:

In article 4dsjflF15lmuaU1@redacted.invalid, Markus Dehmann markus.dehmann@redacted.invalid wrote:

My PowerBook battery is pretty bad and runs for just about 2 hours. CoconutBattery says the max. capacity left is only 2509 mAh (57%) after 321 cycles. New batteries have 4400 mAh.

This is not normal, right? Will Apple replace the battery for free? The PowerBook is just a year old now, and I have the AppleCare 3-yr protection plan.

Does anyone have similar experiences and got the battery replaced? What's the typical mAh after a year?

Thanks! Markus

P.S.: I did a PMU reset, but it didn't help.

The microprocessor on the battery can be re-calibrated by allowing the PowerBook to run until the depleted battery shuts it down and then charging it fully.

Thanks, that helped a bit. After recalibrating the battery has now 3021 mAh (68%).

Markus