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DigitalEl · May 25, 2002, 05:23 AM

I learned the hard way today the battery indicator on the iPod (well, on my iPod at least) is no true indicator of how much juice is left.

I use mine at work every day. I didn't charge Thursday night, because 3 of the 4 battery bars were still lit. Then, after about 6 hours of use, she shut down. At the time the iPod stopped, 3 of the battery bars were still lit.

Is there a reason, it wouldn't have gone from 4 to 3 to 2, then to 1 before shutting down?

I'm not dissatisfied with the battery life of my iPod, but it'd be nice to get a fair and accurate representation of how much battery life is availble... So that informed recharging decisions can be made.

[ 05-25-2002: Message edited by: DigitalEl ]

Phat Bastard · May 25, 2002, 09:12 AM

The same has been happening to me, ever since the 1.1 upgrade. I don't want to downgrade back to 1.0 since I need the comments feature though.

I'm thinking about filing a formal complaint with Apple.

jules · May 25, 2002, 10:12 AM

Same thing here.....showed 4 bars even after 6 hours of use!

OSX Abuser · May 27, 2002, 10:39 PM

I too have noticed that the power bars do not match how much time you have left.
One thing you can do is make sure your song files are under 22 megs in size.
With normal operation the drive only runs long enough to load the drive into memory.
If the song is to large it will play from the drive for the lengh of the song.
I also think the charge indicator may get 'confused' when you turn off the iPod.
I have noticed when I had turned it off with 2 bars and then turn it back on later it will show 3 bars.

Stogieman · May 27, 2002, 11:50 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by OSX Abuser:

One thing you can do is make sure your song files are under 22 megs in size.
With normal operation the drive only runs long enough to load the drive into memory.
If the song is to large it will play from the drive for the lengh of the song.<hr /></blockquote>Upgrading the iPod software to version 1.1 fixes this problem. I'm able to play a 30MB file without the hard drive constantly spinning.

Phat Bastard · May 29, 2002, 09:50 PM

What really irks me is that Apple doesn't have any form of support or even a Knowledge Base document on their site that says they're even aware of the problem.

Has anyone found anything in writing by Apple about this problem?

G4 Mac User · May 29, 2002, 10:46 PM

Hi everyone,

I had many of the same problems you people have had with the 1.1 update. I was forced to go back to 1.0.4 because of poor battery life and numerous freezes. I sincerely hope that 1.2 update will be a whole lot better because I miss having the contacts in my iPod.

The above statement was made with ViaVoice X. No more typing yippie!! The via Voice X has only been stalled for three hours and look how good it's doing! In fact had just got done reading all the stories then used it to chat on-line.

Your pal

G4 Mac user

May 30, 2002, 12:38 PM

I have also noticed the problem and think that, just like any batery once you use it then drain it fully in a short time, there is still a little juice left in the batary, so when you use the iPod there is a short time where the batary is being used and then a time when it is not, so it regains the lossed power. I have noticed that my iPod can go from 4 bars down to 2 bars and then back to 4, just because the HD spins up. I think the software is looking at how much time there is left in the iPod if the HD dosn't spin back up.

Stogieman · May 31, 2002, 08:38 PM

My battery indicator is way off. I was listening to my iPod today and noticed that ALL four bars were empty. My iPod kept playing for another hour before it finally ran out of juice.

jules · May 31, 2002, 10:04 PM

Spoke to Apple today about that issue and they said it's a software thang and they are working on a fix in the next update.

poocat · Jun 1, 2002, 09:17 AM

i'm totally hoping that 1.2 fixes these things, as i'm one of the people that had to downgrade to 1.04 to preserve battery life (cronicled previously in different threads) because 1.1 killed it.

but i'd love to have the features of 1.1 back... don't care about contacts, but would really like the modifications to play time/total time, etc...

hope they're working hard on this... any idea of a timeline?

i love ipod though... take it with me everywhere.

poocat.

Phat Bastard · Jun 1, 2002, 12:24 PM

Jules--thanks for contacting Apple and getting the official word on this issue.

I'm getting sick and tired of people espousing their "battery life expertise" and all their hair-brained theories.

This obviously then has nothing to do with completely discharging your battery before charging it, the HD spin rate, the size of the files you're listening to like everyone has been talking about.

What a relief.