In article 240220051730287797%none@redacted.invalid, American Chick none@redacted.invalid wrote:
I have a new G4 IBook (two months old) and the battery is now showing fully charged at 94 percent. It won't go any farther. Should I be concerned?
Probably not:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88344
(Although it mentions 95% being the minimum, this may be what's going on.)
In article 240220052014109045%garner@redacted.invalid, Garner Miller garner@redacted.invalid wrote:
In article 240220051730287797%none@redacted.invalid, American Chick none@redacted.invalid wrote:
I have a new G4 IBook (two months old) and the battery is now showing fully charged at 94 percent. It won't go any farther. Should I be concerned?
Probably not:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88344
(Although it mentions 95% being the minimum, this may be what's going on.)
Ah, very good. Thank you.
What's interesting is that about an hour after I posted, it went ahead and charged back up to 99 percent. I see so many posts about batteries here that I was a tad worried. But now I'm not. ;-)
I case I haven't mentioned it this week, I LOVE my IBook! Macs just rock the world.
American Chick wrote on 25/2/2005 5:19 am:
Garner Miller wrote:
American Chick wrote:
I have a new G4 IBook (two months old) and the battery is now showing fully charged at 94 percent. It won't go any farther. Should I be concerned?
Probably not:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88344
(Although it mentions 95% being the minimum, this may be what's going on.)
Ah, very good. Thank you.
What's interesting is that about an hour after I posted, it went ahead and charged back up to 99 percent. I see so many posts about batteries here that I was a tad worried. But now I'm not. ;-)
I case I haven't mentioned it this week, I LOVE my IBook! Macs just rock the world. Not too loud, you'll frighten the PC folk. iBook (please!), or dyslexia fad, iBoko...
Fast charge to 80-95%, then trickle charge.
You may wish to condition/train your battery. After it is fully charged, check your energy settings for maximum time, dim the screen, Airport off, BlueT off, network off, let it keep alive without sleeping. (May last 4 to 6 hours). It should then do an emergency shut down, to save a little bit of charge. Re-connect power, (optional start up), fully charge up. Now the battery knows its limits...
The battery has a limited amount of charge cycles (approx 300). Apple do not recommend leaving it plugged in all the time. You could remove the battery when your local power supply is stable, but not when at full charge, (half charge is best for storage). Normal room temperatures for longer working life.
AC, AirPort rooles too! Remember to use WPA & MAC Address list
HTH, &B-) Ian No Spam, Please reply to newsgroup!
In article BE4990E9.BECE%anonymouse@redacted.invalid, Ian_ anonymouse@redacted.invalid wrote:
American Chick wrote on 25/2/2005 5:19 am:
Garner Miller wrote:
American Chick wrote:
I have a new G4 IBook (two months old) and the battery is now showing fully charged at 94 percent. It won't go any farther. Should I be concerned?
Probably not:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88344
(Although it mentions 95% being the minimum, this may be what's going on.)
Ah, very good. Thank you.
What's interesting is that about an hour after I posted, it went ahead and charged back up to 99 percent. I see so many posts about batteries here that I was a tad worried. But now I'm not. ;-)
I case I haven't mentioned it this week, I LOVE my IBook! Macs just rock the world.
[snip]
The battery has a limited amount of charge cycles (approx 300).
Most information I've seen is somewhere between 500-1000, but I've never seen Apple actually state something specific, and I haven't looked around for a while. You got references?
Apple do not recommend leaving it plugged in all the time.
Again, references? I looked over Apple's iBook support site and found nothing like this recommendation anywhere. Information that I've seen at Apple's site in the past implied that leaving the battery in the 'Book was not an issue. I certainly didn't have problems with my PowerBook battery, and it almost never left the case.
You could remove the battery when your local power supply is stable, but not when at full charge, (half charge is best for storage).
Note that when people talk about half-charge being best for storage, they are talking about periods of months or years. Most users will not have to deal with this.
John Johnson wrote on 2/3/2005 4:34 pm:
Ian_ wrote:
American Chick wrote on 25/2/2005 5:19 am:
Garner Miller wrote:
American Chick wrote:
I have a new G4 IBook (two months old) and the battery is now showing fully charged at 94 percent. It won't go any farther. Should I be concerned?
Probably not:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88344 [snip] The battery has a limited amount of charge cycles (approx 300).
Most information I've seen is somewhere between 500-1000, but I've never seen Apple actually state something specific, and I haven't looked around for a while. You got references? I think it was <www.apple.com/batteries/>, Sep 04
Apple do not recommend leaving it plugged in all the time.
Again, references? As above, "Standard Maintenance" For proper...
Not looked again since.
I looked over Apple's iBook support site and found nothing like this recommendation anywhere. Information that I've seen at Apple's site in the past implied that leaving the battery in the 'Book was not an issue. I certainly didn't have problems with my PowerBook battery, and it almost never left the case. They don't last forever, because of the number of charge cycles, (origional died after 3 years) I'm now trying the following...
You could remove the battery when your local power supply is stable, but not when at full charge, (half charge is best for storage). HA HA! Had a power cut last night, that will teach me! Thankfully just a Disk FirstAid & clock adjustment.
Note that when people talk about half-charge being best for storage, they are talking about periods of months or years. Most users will not have to deal with this. Apple was suggesting it was better to have regular mobile usage.
HTH, &B-) Ian No Spam, Please reply to newsgroup!
In article BE4BC4E5.BF80%anonymouse@redacted.invalid, Ian_ anonymouse@redacted.invalid wrote:
John Johnson wrote on 2/3/2005 4:34 pm:
Ian_ wrote:
American Chick wrote on 25/2/2005 5:19 am:
Garner Miller wrote:
American Chick wrote:
I have a new G4 IBook (two months old) and the battery is now showing fully charged at 94 percent. It won't go any farther. Should I be concerned?
Probably not:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88344 [snip] The battery has a limited amount of charge cycles (approx 300).
Most information I've seen is somewhere between 500-1000, but I've never seen Apple actually state something specific, and I haven't looked around for a while. You got references? I think it was <www.apple.com/batteries/>, Sep 04
Ah, thanks for the link. It's got some good information, and here are some quotes. I think our differences amount to details and/or differences in assumptions about what questions are 'really' being asked; we're not actually that far apart in what we're saying.
For example, about the 300-cycle limit: "Battery Lifespan
A properly maintained PowerBook or iBook battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 300 full charge and discharge cycles. "
Depending on what one takes the limit on battery usability to be, you might very well get more than 300 cycles out of a battery (e.g. if you consider 30% capacity sufficient). As I said, it's a detail.
Apple do not recommend leaving it plugged in all the time.
Again, references? As above, "Standard Maintenance" For proper...
Not looked again since.
I looked over Apple's iBook support site and found nothing like this recommendation anywhere. Information that I've seen at Apple's site in the past implied that leaving the battery in the 'Book was not an issue. I certainly didn't have problems with my PowerBook battery, and it almost never left the case. They don't last forever, because of the number of charge cycles, (origional died after 3 years) I'm now trying the following...
And here's one where I was talking about something different from what you were (mea culpa). I was addressing the question about whether leaving the battery in the 'Book was a problem or not. Typically it is not. You were addressing the question of whether leaving the battery on the charger, always at full charge, was ok. This does have consequences. Even though I almost never removed my battery from my Pismo, it was getting charge cycled pretty regularly, so I didn't have problems (until 3 years later when it only ran the computer for 1-1.5 hours, and I bought a new one-fair enough I think).
I'd say that the primary things to avoid are (approximately in order of importance):
- over-temp on the battery. If you use your 'Book in a hot environment, the additional heat generated by the machine might do this. Most of the time it's not an issue.
- storing the battery dead. Don't do it.
- leaving the battery on the charger at all times, forever. Note that this doesn't mean that leaving it on the charger when it's full is a significant problem (I've never seen information about a measure of 'badness' versus time on the charger), so long as the battery is regularly discharged and recharged.
Upshot: Read the information at the link that Ian posted above. It's good info and quite clearly lays out the issues that most people ask about in our regular battery threads.
Most of us here worry far more about these things than we really need to, IMO. If the OP uses the machine in something approaching a 'normal' manner, none of the issues above are likely to come up. Of course, YBAtteryExperienceMV.
In article 1125661578.868157.162980@redacted.invalid, "nickravo" nickravo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I have a three year old G4 Tbook, Battery life is about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Should I expect more? What would a new battery give me?
Try CoconutBattery (look for it at versiontracker.com)
It will give you lots of detail information on your battery.
There is also a web page on battery use at Apple http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Bob Harris
nickravo nickravo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I have a three year old G4 Tbook, Battery life is about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Should I expect more? What would a new battery give me?
I think you actually get a lot from a three year old battery, depending a little on past usage pattern (i.e., number of discharge cycles). For comparison, I just had to change my 18 months old Alubook battery as it gave me around half an hour. It has been intensely used, and perhaps not too wisely, but still - that hurts. And they are expensive as service parts from Apple.
Please note that I have since learned that there are third party offerings, so search the relevant net outlets at your convenience.
On Fri, 2 Sep 2005 4:46:18 -0700, nickravo wrote (in message 1125661578.868157.162980@redacted.invalid):
I have a three year old G4 Tbook, Battery life is about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Should I expect more? What would a new battery give me?
That is a little low, from my experience, but maybe not unusual, depending on how you have used it. If you have regularly discharged the battery only halfway, for example, the battery may be able to go longer, but the computer 'thinks' that the battery is weaker than it is. You may be able to 'reset' the computer/battery to its actual full discharge size by running the battery a few times all the way down until the battery will not wake from sleep. Be careful not to discharge the battery completely, just to the point that the computer will no longer wake from sleep.
When you get the battery to this point, plug it back in, and let it charge for a good long time, like 12 hours. Do this full discharge/full charge cycle a couple of times, and you might get some additional battery life out of the existing battery. If not, and you want/need longer battery life, I highly recommend the NuPower high capacity replacement batteries. I bought one for an older iBook, and with normal usage I can get 5-6 hours of use per charge. Much higer even than the original battery when it was new.
Stephen C.