[talldrinka]

I will be leaving for college in like a month, and got an ibook about a month ago. i just use it alittle at home since we already have an imac. but is it better to plug it in or run on battery. and my biggest question, does it do anything (bad) to the battery when its puged it too much?

[Nodnarb]

Originally posted by talldrinka:
I will be leaving for college in like a month, and got an ibook about a month ago. i just use it alittle at home since we already have an imac. but is it better to plug it in or run on battery. and my biggest question, does it do anything (bad) to the battery when its puged it too much?

If your near an outlet, you might as well plug it in. If you happen to be to far from the plug then theres no need to worry about it until the battery gets low.

As for the second question, I've never read anything about it hurting your battery by leaving it plugged in. I leave my iBook plugged in most of the time and nothings happened, so I'm 99% sure its fine.

[cold aspiration]

read a bit at

http://www.apple.com/batteries

and you will see that it is NOT that good if you leave the notebook plugged in ALL THE TIME

[ginoledesma]

I leave my iBook plugged in for the most part of the day, but I use the battery at night, just to get the battery charge to move. Nothing really wrong with it, I guess.

[fhoubi]

Leave it ON most of the time, as much as possible. Look in your top right corner during a couple of days, does the battery stay at 100% charged? No. Even when always plugged in, my iBook 700 decharges with 1% per day. At 94..95% it than recharges to 100% again.

So my recharge frequency is only once per 4..6 days.. Once in a while I let the battery drop down to f.e. 5..20%. In the past I charged my battery once or twice a day. It died after 7 months.. My new plugged battery is still brand new after 1 1/2 years. Go figure.

I guess any battery dies after about 200+ charging cycles.

[techtrucker]

I run on ac most of the time but every so often unplug and let the battery completely drain. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was good for the battery to do that now and then.

[MacmanX]

Originally posted by techtrucker:
I run on ac most of the time but every so often unplug and let the battery completely drain. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was good for the battery to do that now and then.

Yeah, that's a good regime. The batteries are generally fine as long as you aren't at one extreme or the other. Too much time on the wire = lower battery life; too many discharge/recharge cycles = lower battery life (in terms of physical time, not cycle count). I wouldn't sweat it unless your iBook is never away from the desk. Then, I suppose battery life doesn't really matter. However, I'm sure you will want to show off your new book all over campus. (Little winking emoticon)

Cheers!

Edit: Proofread then submit

[RevEvs]

I leave mine plugged in.. but without the battery in.

[polendo]

I used to plug it in almost all of the time. Now my battery doesn't stop recharging.. it's forever orange on the ring and doesn't get past 96%. I tried resetting PMU, recalibrating, etc etc. This is a replaced battery from the original who was also defective.

Sincerely, I think that battery is defective and wasn't caused by leaving it plugged. I would just use the battery whenever there is no place to plug it in. In other words use the battery at your convenience and let it work for you.

[MrForgetable]

Originally posted by RevEvs:
I leave mine plugged in.. but without the battery in.

how? the feet are on the battery

[rozwado1]

I wouldn't worry about the battery too much. Use it how you want for a couple of years, then buy a new one when it starts to die - they're only $120. I think it's better to do that than to always worry about charging cycles.