[phoenix78]

Hey guys,

Im writin to ask yall how to manage the battery. Threads about batteries say to let the battery deplete and then recharge it and continue in that cycle...

However! (when i had my pb) i would plug it into ac mains whenever i could and only use battery power when i couldnt find a mains point. The battery would start 'charging in use' right? Now... would this screw up the battery given that it is reccomended that the battery be depleted before recharging???

This makes it rather impractical since the pb will be required to run on battery ALL the time so that you dont screw the battery.

I have ordered the new 17"G4. i finally pulled the trigger lol... being away from a mac has been hard for the past year. I couldnt wait for a g5 because it is not likely it will come out soon by the looks of it.

anyway... so having a new pb makes me curious about battery management again.

Cheers,
rob.

[SpaceMonkey]

You can think of battery management as a continuum between two extremes: those who run the battery down all the way before recharging, and those who constantly keep their laptop on AC power. The ideal battery management model lies somewhere between those extremes.

In practice, that just means: use your Powerbook how it is most convenient for you to use it. Since most users won't find it convenient to exclusively run on either AC or battery power, the relative advantages of compulsively "optimizing" your battery life are minimal.

Also, you might want to check out Apple's battery info at http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html and http://www.apple.com/batteries/

[powerbook911]

4-5 days a week I usually use mine on the battery, where I'll use anywhere between 30 and 70 percent of the battery.

Once a month, I drain to zero percent, and then recharge.

[driven]

I don't know what the happy medium is here.

When my Dell was still fully functional I thought I had a plan (perhaps not for usage, but for expiration of the battery)

When I purchased the laptop I held off on purchasing a second battery. A year later I purchased another battery.

My thinking was this: When the first one died, I'd still have a year left on the other one so I wouldn't need to buy two $150 batteries at the same time.

Guess what? The new battery died first. The old one lived on. (As far as I know it continues to live on ... I have to fix that laptop.)

Bascially ... use your laptop and deal with the battery problems when they arise. I'm not sure any of this religious battery management stuff helps anyway.