[Big Mac]

I just recently got a new battery for my iBook 466, and I'm happy to say my battery life is far better. With backlighting dimmed to one bar (on 10.2.3), I got 4 hours and 50 minutes out of my battery.

I believe many of you who are experiencing poor battery life need a new one. Especially if your battery is around three years old, it's time to get to get another. Then again, I've heard some really awful things about the battery performance of new iBooks. What kind of battery life are you getting? In order to keep the poll as consistent as possible, please try to measure your battery life with your backlight dimmed to one bar. And if you're looking for a battery monitor, I like X-Charge.

[imactheknife]

Hi have my backkight down to 4 bars...and under constant use (no sleep, screen stays on etc) I usually get 3.5-4 hours...on a ibook 800 12.1" screen...will try the 1 bar thing and see how that goes though..

[Mulattabianca]

i got up usually 4:30-5:20 with new battery.

new 12" pb: about 4 - 4:30. light on 1 bar.

[Big Mac]

Anyone else wish to cast a vote?

[miket3315]

I get 3.5 with full screen brightness

[bleee]

I just got a brand spanking new battery for my 600Mhz iBook I'll report back in a day or 2 of usage.

[bleee]

Originally posted by bleee:
I just got a brand spanking new battery for my 600Mhz iBook I'll report back in a day or 2 of usage.

Ok so the meter says 4:35 with a new battery but I think that meter is a bit fast so I'm going to say conservatively 3.20 hrs. This is with the screen at full brightness.

[ravenfan]

I usually get about 3:30 to 3:45 with near-maximum brightness levals. One important issue to consider is if you have the prcessor "toggle down" option enabled. That is so the CPU doesn't go full out unless the AC adapter is plugged in. Also, the hard drive seems to heat up noticably less, so it must go into econo mode, too. IMO, doing this seems to save a lot more battery juice than tweaking the screen brightness.

[ryaxnb]

Good to see such long battery life times. It backs up my frequently spoken "3-4 hours" statement.

[Cadaver]

I used to get long battery life when my 600MHz iBook was new. However, after two years, the battery will not make it over an hour when the AirPort card is on (even with the screen near the lowest brightness setting). Even tried to 'recalibrate' the battery a few times. It just was too old/used to hold much of a charge any more.

So, I just ordered a new battery from apple.com. Ahhh... new battery.

[Centris650]

I have a 466 (graphite) with the original battery. I get the "Using reserve power" message as soon as I unplug it. I really need to get a new battery but hoping I wont need to in few months.

[wertwert]

i get "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=3712,"Amperage"=923,"Current$
when using the commnad ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo in terminal on an ibook 800mhz cdrom drive.

Is that good or should i be getting a higher capacity?

[TeknoTurd]

Has anyone noticed that since they have upgraded to panther that their battery life has significantly decreased? Maybe it is just a coincidence, but after my batter gets to 20% my computer will randomly go to sleep, and i cannot wake it back up. When I plug it back in i find that the batter life meter says 0% and all my prefs are deleted! anyone else experience anything like this? especially the prefs being deleted?

[sniffer]

Recently new battery. The old one only lastet for about 45 minutes. With the new one in Jag I got about 3 hours, which I actuallu have messured. With Panther I probably get around four hours for some reason. I never bother to dim the screen since I only rarely is to far from an outlet.
Nice to see Panther improving the battery life like that.

[sniffer]

Originally posted by TeknoTurd:
Has anyone noticed that since they have upgraded to panther that their battery life has significantly decreased? Maybe it is just a coincidence, but after my batter gets to 20% my computer will randomly go to sleep, and i cannot wake it back up. When I plug it back in i find that the batter life meter says 0% and all my prefs are deleted! anyone else experience anything like this? especially the prefs being deleted?

Wow. That's serious!
If you just took the upgrade from Jag, I suggest you to create a new account on your machine. Use the new one. Dry the battery out. Recharge it all up. And do a test if the problem still exists, i.e. let the iBook play in iTunes until the battery is drained. Install an app called x-battery or something (forgot the name of it, but you'll find it on versiontracker)to measure actuall time it takes for the battery to dry out.

[TeknoTurd]

Thanks for the suggestions I will surely try them out and report back. But if I have the Extended Apple Care shouldn't this be covered? Wouldn't it be easier to just send in this battery for a new one? Or have they since put an end to that policy?

[bleee]

Originally posted by TeknoTurd:
Thanks for the suggestions I will surely try them out and report back. But if I have the Extended Apple Care shouldn't this be covered? Wouldn't it be easier to just send in this battery for a new one? Or have they since put an end to that policy?

Depends how long you've had your iBook. Apple Care considers the battery a consumable as stated in your Apple Care agreement booklet, which is not covered. I talked to an Apple Care rep and they said that it's only covered for a year, although I've heard success stores from people who are willing to call/complain and go through all the test procedures etc... it also depends on the rep you get some are nicer than others. I just ended up shelling out cash for a new one.

[TeknoTurd]

OK so, I did some diagnostics and turns out its the battery, it lasts for about 20mins on a single charge now heh. So I called Apple Care and told them my sob story, they said that this was obviously something wrong and that they would replace the battery, of course i had to go through a bit of beaurocracy, but who am i to complain, i doubt most companies would give a damn, so yay apple, i hope their tech support always stays this good

[bleee]

A better poll question might have been how long have you had your battery for and how long does it last. That way we can gauge how often we need to buy new batteries.

[ccsccs7]

I'm surprised. My iBook's battery lasted for 2 hours and 13 minutes! Earlier (under older versions of Jaguar), I was getting in the hour plus range. This means my battery is as good as half what it was new. It is about two years old now.


Programs running: Mozilla 1.5, Fire, X-Charge, Preview, TextEdit

[rytc]

Originally posted by TeknoTurd:
Has anyone noticed that since they have upgraded to panther that their battery life has significantly decreased? Maybe it is just a coincidence, but after my batter gets to 20% my computer will randomly go to sleep, and i cannot wake it back up. When I plug it back in i find that the batter life meter says 0% and all my prefs are deleted! anyone else experience anything like this? especially the prefs being deleted?

I've found the complete opposite, my battery last LONGER since I upgraded to Panther on my 3 yr old iBook 466Mhz. Weird : /

[sniffer]

Originally posted by TeknoTurd:
.. So I called Apple Care and told them my sob story, they said that this was obviously something wrong and that they would replace the battery.

Nice to hear you'll get a replacement.

Actually there have been a few upgrade patches in Jaguar that reportedly have shortened battery life when users have upgraded the OS in a few cases. I suspect that is what happened to my old battery. Made me a little cautious, so I actually removed the battery when I upgraded to Panther just to be on the safe side.

[TeknoTurd]

Yea after talking to AppleCare I proved to them that it was most likely not a OS issue because the battery fully discharged within 20mins hehe