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AlbanianGenome · Nov 30, 2005, 08:41 PM

I have a 15" 1.25ghz albook, in which I have owned for 2 years now. Last week I unplugged it and to my surprise my battery now only has 25 minutes of life, lovely. Then I proceeded to reset the PMU, nothing. I then checked the cycles on the battery, and its only at 158 cycles, batteries are supposed to last 300+ cycles according to Apple. I guess I am going to have to keep this thing plugged in all the time now. Anyone else experience this issue? Early battery death that is? Any advice towards this topic or experiences are welcome.

mduell · Nov 30, 2005, 08:54 PM

Have you calibrated your battery recently?

hickey · Nov 30, 2005, 08:56 PM

my similar pbook only has a battery life of around 1 hour and half

gperks · Nov 30, 2005, 09:28 PM

I'm with hickey. Battery used to be great but two years have taken their toll. I swear the darn thing runs hotter now too :-)

hickey · Nov 30, 2005, 09:38 PM

yeah mine runs pretty hot, i have it set up on 4 lego block type things to get more air circulating underneath and that seemed to help, and it doesnt make it weird when typing on it either

Chicacredes · Nov 30, 2005, 10:08 PM

Yea mine died while i was reading this thread.

only get around an hour now... Ive been considering buying a new battery.

AlbanianGenome · Nov 30, 2005, 10:11 PM

I have not calibrated the battery, how do I go about doing that, that is my last hope for now apparently, thanks for the input guys

mduell · Nov 30, 2005, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by AlbanianGenome

I have not calibrated the battery, how do I go about doing that, that is my last hope for now apparently, thanks for the input guys

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

AlbanianGenome · Dec 1, 2005, 12:14 AM

lol, oh I knew that one, did that a few times already, I thought there was some complicated procedure I had to do, damn, guess my battery is done. No harm in not buying a new one I guess until I want because I will always have my battery adapter on me

BrianZeit · Dec 1, 2005, 02:27 AM

the battery sucks on powerbooks my 17" only gives me like 3 hrs of life

inkhead · Dec 1, 2005, 03:50 AM

why not buy a new battery? What's the big deal. It's old, get a new one.

AlbanianGenome · Dec 1, 2005, 10:23 AM

$120 for a battery, those bastards are ripping me off nice, maybe there is a power issue in my laptop, who knows, no one really has deals on batteries thats for sure

hickey · Dec 1, 2005, 10:26 AM

yeah I've never found a good deal on a battery for under 120, has anyone ever heard of sales on batteries?

iomatic · Dec 1, 2005, 12:10 PM

I wonder if AppleCare covers it, or your particular battery is covered under the recall.

?

AlbanianGenome · Dec 3, 2005, 12:33 AM

I dont have applecare

I have had the computer for 2 years, out of coverage now. The recall was for the newer models, trust me, I looked into it

Any other suggestions anyone

benwhanlee · Dec 3, 2005, 01:40 AM

I think you should just bite the bullet and get a new one. A battery going down after two years isn't unheard of.

I've had good luck keeping a new battery's capacity up by doing the following:
-avoiding deep discharges. this includes recalibrating the battery, which i know a lot of people are fond of. now if the battery is acting weird, go ahead and recalibrate. but deep discharges take more out of the battery. if i have a choice of running the battery down under 50% or plug it in and top it off i always plug it in.
-keep the electrons flowing back and forth. keeping it plugged in all the time isn't doing you any favors.
-track the capacity in system profiler or using a third-party utility like capacity meter.

good luck.