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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > 12" PB -- time for a new battery?

12" PB -- time for a new battery?
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CaseCom
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Jan 24, 2005, 03:13 PM
 
I have a Rev A 867 MHz 12-inch PowerBook that is about two years old (bought in Feb. 2003). I'd always gotten 2-2.5 hours of use out of the battery per full charge. Lately it seems to be much shorter -- 1.5 hours maybe.

It used to go to sleep when the meter said about 20% (and then after plugging it in and waking it up it showed 0%) -- strange, but I got used to it. Now it goes to sleep at about 40%. I haven't changed the Energy Saver settings.

After two years is it just time for a new battery? Is this normal for PowerBooks?
     
Arty
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Jan 24, 2005, 04:57 PM
 
I had similar problems with my 12" (same model and age as yours). All sorts of strange issues to the point where it would barely work on the battery at all.

Bought a new battery and now back to 2-3 hours.

Go for it.
     
Macola
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Jan 24, 2005, 06:23 PM
 
OTOH, a new battery may not fix the problem. Check the PowerBook : Battery forum on Apple's discussions. Lots of people (myself included) are having battery problems with the AlBooks.
I do not like those green links and spam.
I do not like them, Sam I am.
     
Simon
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Jan 25, 2005, 04:42 AM
 
This is what I did when my 12" rev B PowerBook acted similarly.

� reset the PMU -> Apple's how-to
� do full discharge, recharge cycle o calibrate PMU software
� type the following into the terminal and report what the result is:
ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

A new 12" battery gives a capacity of about 4000. My old battery gave about 1900 and lasted for 1.5 h. I got a new one and I'm back to 4000.

Good luck.
     
wilsonng
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Jan 25, 2005, 08:03 AM
 
Search macupdate.com or versiontracker.com for a program called Capacity Meter.
It is a GUI to access some type of Terminal command that can read your capacity charge on your PB. When you start reaching about 60% battery capacity, it suggests that it may be a good time to look at buying a new battery.
     
bbales
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Jan 25, 2005, 11:00 AM
 
Originally posted by Simon:
This is what I did when my 12" rev B PowerBook acted similarly.

� reset the PMU -> Apple's how-to
� do full discharge, recharge cycle o calibrate PMU software
� type the following into the terminal and report what the result is:
ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo

A new 12" battery gives a capacity of about 4000. My old battery gave about 1900 and lasted for 1.5 h. I got a new one and I'm back to 4000.

Good luck.
My 12-inch PB is same age as yours. I echo what everyone else said. I did the required "fixes" -- and bought a new battery. Works fine. Works great. You need a new battery.
     
CaseCom  (op)
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Jan 25, 2005, 03:08 PM
 
Well, good to hear I'm not the only one, at least. I tried the "new user fix" on Apple's boards and it didn't work for me.

Here's my battery info from Terminal:

"IOBatteryInfo"
({"Capacity"=3920,"Amperage"=18446744073709550448, "Current"=2128,"Voltage"=12460,"Flags"=8388608 07})

The thing is, it looks like there's no sure-fire fix; what works for some might not work for others. I'll try a couple more times and save the new battery as a last resort.

I'll report back if I find anything.
     
Halfloaf
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Jan 25, 2005, 03:26 PM
 
Originally posted by CaseCom:

({"Capacity"=3920,"Amperage"=18446744073709550448, "Current"=2128,"Voltage"=12460,"Flags"=8388608 07})
Well, the capacity looks good (ish) but there is something whacked with your Amperage...That's just not right...

BTW: My Tibook dies on about 20%...This only started after 10.3.7.

-hl
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iREZ
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Jan 25, 2005, 03:33 PM
 
I don't get it my capacity is at 3600 and myamperage looks the same (20digit number), but I still get 3:30+ hrs on my Rev B. What gives?
NOW YOU SEE ME! 2.4 MBP and 2.0 MBP (running ubuntu)
     
CaseCom  (op)
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Jan 25, 2005, 03:47 PM
 
Originally posted by Halfloaf:
Well, the capacity looks good (ish) but there is something whacked with your Amperage...That's just not right...

BTW: My Tibook dies on about 20%...This only started after 10.3.7.

-hl
It seems I get the long Amperage number when plugged in. On battery I get:

"IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=3920,"Amperage"=1250,"Current"=1923," Voltage"=11610,"Flags"=4})

This is with the battery percentage at 48%.
     
Simon
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Jan 25, 2005, 04:35 PM
 
Your capacity looks just fine. Try a PMU reset and re-calibrate the battery. Then check capacity again.
     
crazeazn
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Jan 25, 2005, 06:18 PM
 
ur lucky i have a 12" rev b for about 1 year and i can barely ink out an hour off. ive tried all the PMU resets but no avail i will just have to buy a new battery.
12" AI book REV B, mac mini core duo 1.66
     
wilsonng
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Jan 25, 2005, 06:26 PM
 
Maybe try deleting the Energy Saver preferences file from your Library > Preferences folder and then restarting it? Then you can manually adjust your Energy Saver settings again.

Sometimes deleting a corrupted preference file works. Sometimes the settings may be screwed up even though it looks fine in the preference windows.
     
CaseCom  (op)
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Jan 27, 2005, 03:54 AM
 
I reset the PMU, drained the battery ... and it went down to 0% (and stayed there for several minutes before going to sleep).

But on recharging it went to 70% and jumped straight to 100% ... and upon draining again it went to sleep at 30%.

Any thoughts before I head out to get a new battery this weekend?
     
Simon
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Jan 27, 2005, 04:18 AM
 
Originally posted by CaseCom:
Any thoughts before I head out to get a new battery this weekend?
After you reset the PMU and re-calibrated, what capacity did the battery show?
     
bbales
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Jan 27, 2005, 10:42 AM
 
You got nearly 2 years on your battery (I assume your computer is on most of the time) which is great. And it's a couple months more than I got. I don't think you can complain at all. It's simply that the battery needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, it's a pricey item, especially when it doesn't ADD anything. Kind of like getting a new roof for your house. You pay a lot of money for your house to look jsut the same. But you still need the roof.
     
CaseCom  (op)
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Jan 27, 2005, 02:55 PM
 
Originally posted by Simon:
After you reset the PMU and re-calibrated, what capacity did the battery show?
Basically the same: 3922, compared with 3920 before.
     
Simon
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Jan 27, 2005, 05:08 PM
 
Originally posted by CaseCom:
Basically the same: 3922, compared with 3920 before.
Strange. Judging by those values, your battery should be like new.

Do you have any possibility to try it out in another PowerBook?
     
iREZ
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Jan 27, 2005, 06:15 PM
 
Wow that sucks....I only get 3600 for capacity, and my PB is newer...what gives?
NOW YOU SEE ME! 2.4 MBP and 2.0 MBP (running ubuntu)
     
t500
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Jan 27, 2005, 06:58 PM
 
Today:

I just got my new DVD drive for my G5 from Other Would Computing ( macsales.com) and it had a flyer in the box advertising thier new high capacity battery for the 12 and 17 Al powerbooks....

If I wasnt waiting for a new Powerbook I would pick one of those buggers up.


Just an FYI.
     
CaseCom  (op)
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Jan 28, 2005, 03:16 AM
 
Originally posted by Simon:
Strange. Judging by those values, your battery should be like new.

Do you have any possibility to try it out in another PowerBook?
No, other than taking it into an Apple store and seeing if they'll let me swap it into a display model or something.

Here's the thing: I just finished draining again and this time it went all the way to 0%. So now I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe I'll just leave it in for a few weeks and see how it goes. I'm just getting tired of worrying about it, so maybe I'll just stop worrying for a while.

I may be partly to blame, anyway. I rarely let it drain all the way to sleep; usually if it fell below 50% I'd plug it in and start charging. So the calibration may have gotten screwed up after a while.
     
Simon
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Jan 28, 2005, 03:48 AM
 
As long as it's just the calibration that has gone haywire, there's no real problem. You just re-calibrate and everything is back to gravy.

The problem with batteries is that they're kind of like a cheating g/f. Once you can't trust her anymore, the relationship is screwed. If you're battery keeps on acting up and you're not extremely poor, I'd get a new one.
     
dreilly1
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Jul 23, 2005, 04:09 PM
 
I'm bumping this thread because it seems pretty informative.

My wife's 1GHz TiBook has started acting up recently (It wasn't a gradual transition, it just started happeining all at once). On a full charge, the computer reports just over 2 hours. But the computer only runs for about 1/2 hr. before going to sleep. This is after the PMU reset and full discharge/recharge cycle. (Incidentally, did you know these models have a PMU reset button? I didn't, and reset the PMU the normal way before realizing there was a button under the keyboard. For some reason, the computer chimed using both methids, so I'm not sure what the "normal" method might have done...)

We have been running XBattery to try and help diagnose it, and it reports normal usage on battery until the battery gets to around 75%, then it goes straight down to 0% when the PB goes to sleep.

After searching this site a bit, I found the ioreg command, and her battery capacity is listed as 3819. Does this mean that the battery is fine, and the PMU itself may be hosed? We still have a few months of AppleCare on this PB, and if the PMU needs replacing I'd like to get Apple to do it. But I know that they usually don't replace batteries that are 2+ years old. Where do you all think the problem is likely to be?

----

Edit: I found a very good site, http://girr.org/mac_stuff/pb15_battery_life.html, which has some information that pretty much matches my situation, and makes me think we definitely have a dead battery.

Halfway down the page he shows this graph (which pretty much mirrors our battery graph) with the following quote:


This is an iBook battery on its very last legs as shown on an X-Charge capacity plot. When one of the four cells in this battery starts to degrade faster than the others, the voltage on that cell will drop rapidly when that cell discharges and the whole battery will seem to die suddenly. In this case, you may not even get the 10 minute warning, the voltage collapses so fast that the only response the computer has is to suddenly go to sleep. You can see the same thing on the recharge curve. When the one dead cell rises in voltage, the other cells are still mostly charged and the recharge curve terminates suddenly too.
This makes sense to this engineer. It also explains why the overall capacity value seems good: only one cell is dying, the rest are OK, so the overall capacity of the battery is good. Fat lot of good it does me, though!

Oh well.
( Last edited by dreilly1; Jul 23, 2005 at 05:02 PM. )

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