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cheery7upper · 03:58 PM

I got my ibook in late September. When I got it, only the left speaker would work and only the left ear of my headphones work when I plug it in ( multiple pairs ). Then as soon as I intalled microsoft word, my cd/dvd drive stopped working completely. I got one cd to go in , but other than that it has not allowed me to even put disks in ( makes a crunching noise and spits it back out). NOW, my battery when fully charged, only charges to 3 hrs. This was after a weekend where it wouldn't even register that it was charging or not charging and wouldn't change the time on the battery.

This is my first apple, and I am not too impressed. I am going to send it in to the company because I bought apple care I was just wondering if other people had this many problems. I just thought that apples were supposed to be more reliable.

Any ideas ?

cheery7upper · Dec 14, 2005, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by cheery7upper

When I got it, only the left speaker would work and only the left ear of my headphones work when I plug it in ( multiple pairs ).
?

Ok, so I am a bit of a moron.

I went and was like hmmm maybe the settings on the volume were just screwed up from when I bought it or something... I looked and the entire volume was set on the left side

one problem - done.

mduell · Dec 14, 2005, 04:30 PM

I'm happy to hear (oh the pun) you fixed your volume problem, I'm not sure what is wrong with your optical drive, but 3 hours for an iBook is well within the normal range (depends on how you use your iBook, what is on, etc).

cheery7upper · Dec 14, 2005, 04:46 PM

they should say that when you buy it. I mean, they advertise like 5 hours battery life. that shouldn't dissapear after 3 months.

thanks for the response.

mduell · Dec 14, 2005, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by cheery7upper

they should say that when you buy it. I mean, they advertise like 5 hours battery life. that shouldn't dissapear after 3 months.

You may not even get 5 hours on the first day you buy it. 5 hours is a best case scanario; it depends what you have enabled/installed and how you use it. With Airport off, Bluetooth off, screen brightness set to zero, hard drive set to spin down asap, minimal RAM, processor performance on minimal, etc and you only use it for writing a document in TextEdit, you can probably get 5 hours.

Also, the battery life indicator isn't perfectly accurate. It may say 5 hours on a full charge and when you use it you only get 3, or it may say 3 hours on a full charge and when you use it you may get 5.

cheery7upper · Dec 14, 2005, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

You may not even get 5 hours on the first day you buy it. 5 hours is a best case scanario; it depends what you have enabled/installed and how you use it. With Airport off, Bluetooth off, screen brightness set to zero, hard drive set to spin down asap, minimal RAM, processor performance on minimal, etc and you only use it for writing a document in TextEdit, you can probably get 5 hours.

Also, the battery life indicator isn't perfectly accurate. It may say 5 hours on a full charge and when you use it you only get 3, or it may say 3 hours on a full charge and when you use it you may get 5.

that's helpful, I'll try and have my screen on a lower brightness setting. Thanks!

radarbob · Dec 14, 2005, 09:59 PM

screen brightness is perhaps the biggest power drain that you have control over. Turn it down as much as tolerable. The difference between full bright and 1/2 is very significant

cmeisenzahl · Dec 15, 2005, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by radarbob

screen brightness is perhaps the biggest power drain that you have control over. Turn it down as much as tolerable. The difference between full bright and 1/2 is very significant

I agree, screen brightness makes a huge difference.

wataru · Dec 15, 2005, 02:18 PM

Also, take a look at Activity Monitor and see if you have any apps that hog the CPU.