[janmc]

My battery time for my new Powerbook (15 Al book 1.25) is pathetic, at just over 2 hours with screen brightness turned down as much as possible, and using it for surfing and listening to iTunes (still on Jaguar).

From reading other posts, I gather that Apple won't replace my battery.(If anyone has anymore info on that I'd be grateful).

My query is whether there are any 3rd party battery vendors that would be worth trying instead of getting another Apple battery with potentially the same problem.

Thanks!

[janmc]

another question - does anybody know any 3rd party vendors for batteries for the Titanium range? I could contact them to see if they intend to produce a version for the Al book

[The Placid Casual]

You may as well ask Apple before you do anything...

Your battery life sounds pretty bad, and it doesn't hurt to ask...

[Cellery]

Newer Technology makes PowerBook batteries with up to 30% more charge capacity than the Apple originals. My TiBook came with a 55 watt hour battery and the one I picked up from NT has 65 watt hours, helping to noticeably increase runtime. I'm sure they'll get around to making AlBook batteries eventually, though I would try bothering Apple for a battery replacement a little more.

[Bruck]

To clarify what i have learned by researching this issue which included a few long calls to newertech.

the 30% increase is only in older machines. Basically as technology has gotten better, it is possible to make longer lasting batteries of the previous size limitations. So a newer technology on an older laptop can get as much as 30% more. So you should know that the last Tibook to be made, only gains 5 to 10% from the upgrade battery from newertech. I called them and they said that because the AL book is so new they don't feel that they will come out with a larger capacity battery since it is already using the newest technology, it is only the space that they have given to batteries that limits its length of use time.

So simply put. You probably will not see a 3rd party battery from another company because

1) apple does not have a large backorder problem with our new batteries (this was the case at the time that i called newertech)


2) apple's batteries are pretty "cutting edge" in terms of space efficiency which means they are holding the most charge within the size limitations that they have created by making the ALbook's battery so small (physically smaller than the previous tiBook's battery)

[Drakino]

It is a bit annoyning to see that the 15 inch Powerbooks now have the smallest capacity battery out of the entire laptop lineup. Even the 12 inch has one more watt hour then the 15.

[janmc]

Thanks for the help guys. I installed Panther last night and I'm now getting 2 and a half hours. Still not great, but definitely an improvement. Maybe I'll just wait a while and get another apple battery when my finances recover from the dent that the laptop made!

[janmc]

Just as a follow up - I contacted Apple Care and spoke to a very unhelpful person who refused to put me through to a supervisor. She told me that that was the best I could expect from my battery and basically that I should stop complaining. She wouldn't give me her name, just the case number. I asked for Customer Relations, who immediately agreed that there was an issue and put me through to a different member of staff who gave me a few tips to try (resetting the power something or other and then recalibrating) and said to ring back if there was no improvement. He also specifically said that the first person I spoke to was incorrect in what she said and that that sort of battery life was unacceptable.

So thanks for the suggestions!

[Esquare]

I have the same PB. You should definitely get something like 3.5 hours for the stuff you describe.

EE