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MacBook Battery LIfe
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Aug 2006
Status:
Offline
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Hi All,
I recently bought a MacBook. My question is this, is it a good idea to run the battery down from time to time to keep performance up? Ive notice with my girl friends Compaq that her battery life has gotten pretty bad pretty quick so I'm trying to avoid this happening with my MacBook.
Cheers in Advance 
-Batto
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Here
Status:
Offline
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It is a good idea to completely charge and discharge a laptop's battery once in a while to keep the battery meter accurate. It says so in the Macbook User Manual.
It used to be true that one could increase the longevity of a laptop battery by completely charging and discharging it. This was tru in the days of Nickel Cadmium batteries. This is true no more. Laptops have since gone from Nickel Cadmium to Nickel Metal Hydride and then to Lithium Ion/Lithium Polymer. I am pretty sure that it is now illegal to manufacture Nickel Cadmium batteries.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Jul 2006
Status:
Offline
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batto,
straight from Apple: "Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her MacBook Pro on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month."
that recommendation is for both the regular MacBooks and the MacBook Pros. Apple - Batteries - Notebooks
within the first two weeks (and every 2 months or so after), they recommend doing a "battery calibration." you essentially charge the battery to full and leave it plugged in for 2 hours. unplug the AC adapter and use your computer normally, fully draining it to the point where it gives you a warning that it will go into sleep mode. you let it go to sleep mode and leave it there for 5 or more hours. this will fully drain your battery. after the 5 hours, plug your macbook back in until it is fully charged. this resets settings in both your battery and computer reading. your battery can fully charge and your computer will have a better reading on how long your battery will last during use.
here's the actual apple article: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Northeast USA and sometimes Europe
Status:
Offline
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wow, great info and i dont even have a mbp yet! i will keep this info in mind though.
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Mac Mini G4 1.33 Ghz:40GBhf, 512MBRAM, 32MBVRAM
MBP 15.4' 2.33Ghz:160GBhd, 2GBRAM, 256MBVRAM
iMac 24' 2.4 Ghz, 300GBhd, 2GBRAM, 256MBVRAM
80GB iPod Classic (black)
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