[Jbroad572]

Ok. I first got my comp 2 weeks ago and let the battery drain all the way down. It has been fully charged ever since. When I unplug it from the adapter my battery life is only 1:55. Is that normal? I have the brightness all the way down if that matters.

[Jbroad572]

and the bluetooth is off.

[xylon]

What kind of computer is it? 2 hours of battery life for a 17" isn't out of the ordinary. However, if you've turned down the brightness you should get a decent bump up in battery life. Be sure to check that the monitor isn't being automatically adjusted. You may be turning down your brightness only to have your computer brighten it back up.

All of this, of course, relates only to the 17". If you have another type of PB, well, 1:55 of battery life is definitely not right. I'm no expert when it comes to batteries so I couldn't tell you what the problem is. Good luck.

[Chris Grande]

All I know is that my 17 gets no where near the 4.5 hours of battery life advertised. The most I can squeeze out is like 2.8 and that is with everything off and the monitor on the lowest brightness. I can get around 3 if I turn off the monitor completely.

[The Placid Casual]

Whether it is reasonable or not all depends on what machine you have...

If I turn the brightness way down, turn off bluetooth and Airport and turn on the energy saving settings I can get 4.5+ on my TiBook 867.

With the same settings on my 'old' 12" PB I was lucky to get 2.5!

[Macfreak7]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
Whether it is reasonable or not all depends on what machine you have...

If I turn the brightness way down, turn off bluetooth and Airport and turn on the energy saving settings I can get 4.5+ on my TiBook 867.

With the same settings on my 'old' 12" PB I was lucky to get 2.5!

Why 'old' 12" PB??
Anyway, that's just weird, i used to get around 3 to 3.5 hours on my PB until i recently reinstalled jaguar and panther. Now i only get about 2.
(p.s. I always have airport on, bluetooth off and brightness is turned up halfway.)

maybe i should try deleting that one file that seemed to fix the heat issues.

[Jbroad572]

I've got a 17" PB. I had no idea the battery life was that bad, after reading how other people get around 3 hours with theirs. I turned off bluetooth and the brightness was down, what else could I do? Am I suppose to drain my battery out all the way again charge it up drain and then charge?

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by Macfreak7:
Why 'old' 12" PB??
Anyway, that's just weird, i used to get around 3 to 3.5 hours on my PB until i recently reinstalled jaguar and panther. Now i only get about 2.
(p.s. I always have airport on, bluetooth off and brightness is turned up halfway.)

maybe i should try deleting that one file that seemed to fix the heat issues.

When I say 'old', it is a relative term... I had a 12" PB for about 6 weeks earlier in the year, but sold it to get a 15" TI...

Thinking about it, I may have been a bit harsh. With very same settings I may have pushed 3 hours with the 12", but no more than that. It was one of the gripes I had with the machine, and why I no longer have it... for me, the Ti is much more suited my needs and the battery life is excellent.

I carry a spare battery, and can easily do about 8 hours work with no need for the adaptor... one less thing to carry around in the day.

[Link]

i find that absurd.. I was hoping on getting a 17" pb but with 2 hour battery life.. those things are supposed to get 2 hours playing wolfenstein and airport on/brightness up o_O

Nevermind everything off WTF apple?!?!

[IronPen]

A LOT of things determine how much life you get out of your battery. As mentioned, screen brightness, airport and bluetooth running, etc.. But Energy Saver settings are a huge factor, I'd say the biggest outside of screen brightness is in your Energy Saver settings. Those can be configured any number of ways, so saying it's the battery or the 12" PB isn't fair unless everything is configured exactly the same, which I doubt is true in most cases. You can even configure setting for being on batter versus the adapter. Try it and see if changing these settings help.

[Jbroad572]

Good News. Last night I was playing around with it and the battery life is much better. I just came home for the weekend and after letting the battery drain and charge back up, I took it out the sleeve and have been on it for about 10 minutes and it now reads 2:56 (just went to 2:54). That sounds much much better. I'm happy now.

[:XI:]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
When I say 'old', it is a relative term... I had a 12" PB for about 6 weeks earlier in the year, but sold it to get a 15" TI...

Thinking about it, I may have been a bit harsh. With very same settings I may have pushed 3 hours with the 12", but no more than that. It was one of the gripes I had with the machine, and why I no longer have it... for me, the Ti is much more suited my needs and the battery life is excellent.

I carry a spare battery, and can easily do about 8 hours work with no need for the adaptor... one less thing to carry around in the day.

So... you're saving having to carry a power adaptor around, by carrying a second battery around?

[Link]

so is it possible at all? maybe if I was lucky? to get a 17" to make 2 hours with screen full blast, airport on, volume 3/4, kb backlight on, and wolfenstein running?

I am sooo not buying a 17" if not

[boddjob]

This may help I found it on another (ehem!) forum space.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...30217044725215

It describes a way to slightly increase battery performance.

Reader beware!

goodluck

[Tritium]

yeah, screen full brightness, processor at 100%, you'll get at most 2 hours out of a 17" PB.

I routinely get 3.5 hours on mine with the brightness one notch from off sitting quietly on my bed at night. The keyboard light doesn't appear to affect the battery life at all. Processor usage and most of all, backlight determine how long it'll last.