I have an 800 Mhz TiBook. The battery gave it up a long time ago. If it is charged all the way and I unplug it, I get the low battery warning within 3 minutes and forced sleep mode within 7 or 8 minutes. Using ioreg from Terminal, I can see that my battery's capacity is down to like 209. So, this battery is done for. Not surprising as it is the one that originally came with the computer 3+ years ago.
So, last fall, I see an OEM Apple replacement battery on clearnance at CompUSA. I bought it, and put it in to charge over night (for 12 hours). Tried it the next day and the battery had never charged. Capacity read as 0% in the menu bar. I thought maybe it had been sitting on the shelf too long and the cells had gone bad. So, I took it back and got my money refunded.
Well, I gave it a go again. This time, I ordered the 4800 mAh battery from NewerTech. I put it in last night, and let it charge for 12+ hours. Booted the computer and the battery showed 0% charge. Also, using ioreg from Terminal, it showed maximum possible capacity as 3600. Some utility I got yesterday called coconutBattery also said max possible is 3600 mAh. But this is supposed to be a 4800 mAh batter?!?
I called NewerTech. The guy asked if my old battery still charges. It does. I can unplug it and using ioreg, the capacity slowly drops, and then if I plug it in, capacity increases. So, he said though it happens infrequently, sometimes their new batteries have a bad cell in them. So, he was going to ship me another and have me return the one I already have.
This seems hokey though. I know the probability of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3720 to 1, but what are the chances that I have had two "brand new" batteries that have bad cells in them? If it is not the battery, then what could be wrong with my computer? Yet, if it is something wrong with the computer, why can my computer still charge my ancient battery?
I can troubleshoot some if anyone has a suggestion. Oh, I have reset the PMU a few times already, so I don't think hitting that button anymore will help. Also interesting is that the old battery has that button on it--all 4 lights flash when I push it. On the NewerTech battery, when I push the button on the battery, the first light (the one closest to the button) flashes, but no others. I thought when the button got pushed, lights turned on solid to show approximate capacity; I don't ever remember them flashing. If they flash, does that indicate some kind of error message? I notice too that when I plug the AC adapter into my computer with the NewerTech battery installed, the glowing ring almost immediately changes from the orange to amber.
Thanks for any help on this.
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