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Siren · 12:41 AM

I'm running iChat, Entourage, and Safari ...
not doing much just surfing, and IMing ... not even playing music ... but i'm only getting like 3.5 hours (not even .. the time goes down fast)

I have blue tooth and wireless turned off
my screen is at the brightest ... but does that really account for the missing 1.5 hours?

**I've read that people have gotten 5hrs of usage ... just wondering if it takes time to get more out of your battery ... do you have to break it in or something (hehe like you do for a pair of headphones)?

i've calibrated by battery too ...

that only last like 2.5 hours ... cause i was installing stuff

any advice is much appreciated

d.fine · Jun 24, 2004, 03:52 AM

The white LED by the screen latch is indication of a sleeping PB ...
Battery life may depend a little on your Energy Saver settings. Under Systems Preferences > Energy Saver you can change the settings for when running the PB on battery power, like f.e. under options you can change your processor performance, under Sleep you can check 'put the hard disk's to sleep when possible' ... as you can also determine the time after which the LCD will turn off, or the PB goes to sleep. It is believed optimizing these settings will extend battery-based usage. Try it out.

Dr.Michael · Jun 24, 2004, 04:09 AM

3.5 hours with normal work is a good time. The advertised 5 hours are only - advertisement. I never reached them.

2.5 with heavy disk activity is also normal.

My battery is now 10 months old and has lost a good percentage of its initial capacity. That might be because it gets hot in the 12 inch Powerbook and cannot be removed like it could in the TiBooks.

So all what you report is ok.

But you are alright claiming: 12" powerbook battery life not so good ...

KidKit · Jun 24, 2004, 04:12 AM

The backlight and wireless stuff suck a lot of battery, you'll find an appreciable batt life difference turning off airport/bluetooth and going from max screen brightness to 1/2 ...

this topic has been discussed before tho'... you might want to search the forum for more tips

Siren · Jun 24, 2004, 05:01 AM

i do have wireless and bluetooth off (my internet is through LAN right now)
plus my energy saving settings are for the longest battery time
everything is as suggested besides the brightness at 1/2
so I guess that is the cause for shorter battery life

well i guess my message is more directed to those who actually did obtain 5+hr of battery usage doing word and stuff ...

I have an 80gig hard drive that prolly takes more battery
and nothing connected to the other ports

ibook_steve · Jun 24, 2004, 01:24 PM

Advertised battery lifetimes are probably with the screen brightness set to one tick above off, low processor usage, disk spindown enabled, wireless interfaces turned off, and no applications running. Chances are you will never get the advertised battery life if you want to use your computer in a reasonable manner. But as someone said, 3.5 hours is really good. As for knowing if your machine is asleep, all I can say is RTFM.

Steve

hardcat1970 · Jun 24, 2004, 03:33 PM

OSX really sucks a lot of battery life. I used to get 4 hours running os9 on my pismo. but i never get more than 3 1/2 hours on osx and certainly not that much in my 12" powerbook.

rag on a muffin · Jun 24, 2004, 09:06 PM

keep your backlight at the lowest you need it. that sucks a lot of battery. id say that the advertised battery life is rounded to the nearest 5 hours.

Lancer409 · Jun 24, 2004, 10:12 PM

i find it to be ok .. i get more than 3.5 ... when on battery power i set the settings to reduced cpu performance, i dim sometimes ... but as we speak, i have used the powerbook for about an hour and 30 minutes, and the battery info says i still have about 2 and 40 mins left. i have bluetooth off, but wireless on, the backlight is maxed. i am only running safari, ichat, and mail though ... maybe that's why .. got ten safari windows open... if that helps

goodluck

Siren · Jun 25, 2004, 12:44 AM

Originally posted by Lancer409:
i find it to be ok .. i get more than 3.5 ... when on battery power i set the settings to reduced cpu performance, i dim sometimes ... but as we speak, i have used the powerbook for about an hour and 30 minutes, and the battery info says i still have about 2 and 40 mins left. i have bluetooth off, but wireless on, the backlight is maxed. i am only running safari, ichat, and mail though ... maybe that's why .. got ten safari windows open... if that helps

goodluck

I had also just been runing safari, ichat and entourage(not really though ... I just keep it open as it checks my email every 10min)

your times are impressive ... next time i'm off the ac plug i'll try your reduced cpu performance setting ...