[geomike]

If I run my 12' powerbook on battery, the battery will go down to 40% - 30% (from full charge) and then the computer goes to sleep WITH NO WARNING. If I plug it in and wake up, the battery shows 0%. I drained it a couple of times (down to 30-40% untill it shuts down) and fully recharged it, but it still happens. My battery capacity at full charge is at 3812. Somehow, draining and recharging does not calibrate the battery as it should. Clearly, the battery is old (1 year) and out of wack, but I don;t know how to fix this.

Any ideas?

[Maflynn]

Originally posted by geomike:
but I don;t know how to fix this.
Any ideas?

Buy a new battery

[Raining Down in Texas]

This is interesting - my 1 GHz TiBook just started doing this same thing in the last couple months. I also have tried recalibrating the battery with no positive result. My battery capacity is 3909.

[southtdi]

My tiBook battery just started doing that threee weeks ago. (867mhz) Mine is just two weeks short of warranty and I called Apple about it Monday. Tuesday I had a new battery and sent the old one back. For me the problem was solved. I just got AppleCare itself since i found a way around the stupid Florida law keeping me from getting it before. For issues like this I am glad I will have it.

[torifile]

Same thing happened to mine. I got the battery replaced under warranty.

[pvito]

I had the same problem with a rev A 12" PB. I had to reset the PMU. I forget the keys that you need to hit at startup...

[sith33]

Hrm. I have the same problem on my 12" Powerbook (rev a). I have applecare on the 'book, but when I called, they told me the battery wasn't covered for something like that, I had to go out and buy a new one. Grr? Think it's worth calling and trying again?

[HasanDaddy]

if its under warranty,then Apple will replace it for you

[globo]

What if you don't have the extended warranty? Any Infos on how to solve it?

[cszar2001]

Get a new one.
If completely draining the battery and loading it again doesn`t solve the problem it`s dead.
How old is it anyway?

[bbales]

Same problem with my Rev A 12-in PB. It's 19 months old, so I guess I've gotten my money's worth.

I called Apple (the battery wasn't even charging) -- and even though I have applecare, I was told the battery wasn't covered. Zapping the PRAM, by the way, had no effect. What bugs me is that the warning notice has disappeared.

Have others gotten a new battery if it's more than a year old, even with AppleCare?

[geomike]

My 12' PB is 12 months old and does exactly the same, and yes, the lack of warning that the battery is drained is what is the worst thing about it. Of course non of posted remedies (here and form Apple) have not fixed the problem. I have not contacted Apple yet, but the fact hat applecare doesn;t cover a 1 1/2 year old battery is really upseting!

[cszar2001]

The battery in a PB 17 should last much longer than in one of the smaller models because it`s not as hot.
The PB 12 has no space to get rid of the heat - so the battery deteriorates much faster.

[geomike]

So isn;t this a design failure by Apple with the 12' PB? And battery life may be one of the reasons that one of the older updates by Apple involved changing the set point where the fan would come on on the 12'.

[SEkker]

My revA PB17 does the same thing, it's terrible (and 17 months old). I am assuming it's not covered under Apple Care.

I am surprised it's this bad, tho. My Lombard/Pismo batteries are much older and have seen many more charge/discharge cycles and only 1 is anywhere near this bad.

Maybe the new batteries are just not the quality as the older models, I don't know.

[geomike]

Indeed, in my clamshell ibook which I abused daily, the batteries lasted for 3 years before needed replacement. One other hand it never got even barely warm, unlike the 12' PB where you can brew some coffee on it.

[Wiskedjak]

My 600 iBook is doing this as well. It happened the first time I ran my battery below 50% after updating to 10.3.5 (3 days after the update). Mine has dropped from 2.94Ah to 1.45Ah in the last 5 weeks.

How many with this problem never had it before updating to 10.3.5? Any with this problem NOT running 10.3.5?

[Calamity]

Same thing happened with my Rev B 12" PB. I have AppleCare and they sent me a new battery, which fixed the problem. (Mine was less than a year old, though.)

[saman]

this is probably a stupid question but how can you find out your "battery capacity" (i.e. geomike quoted his 3812)?

sorry for my igorance folks!

[geomike]

Saman, Open the Terminal and type the following (or copy/paste)

ioreg -l | grep IOBa

This gives capacity, voltage and other stuff I don;t know about What are "Flags" anyways?

[saman]

thanks - just tried it:

Capacity=5595

is that good? my PB is fairly new I have to add...

[geomike]

For 5595 capacity it sounds to me like a new 17"? at any rate, this is one of the highest numbers I ve seen in these forums.
So, i guess you are ok!

[saman]

good to know - well, I'll pray it will keep this way! (*wishing*)


this is my full reading:
({"Capacity"=5595,"Amperage"=0,"Current"=5542,"Vol tage"=12480,"Flags"=1090519045})



is that Amperage = 0 worrying? what does that stand for?

[geomike]

I think if you disconnect the power supply you'll get a correct reading. same with the flags whch will be "4" if running on battery