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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Howto preserve iBook battery lifetime??

Howto preserve iBook battery lifetime??
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andersbk
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Jan 7, 2003, 08:26 AM
 
How do I preserve the lifetime of my iBook battery?

I've heard that it's smart to remove the battery when the AC is connected..
But it seems the ibook works a little slower without the battery..

It could be my imagination..

Any tips on preserving battery lifetime??
     
ShotgunEd
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Jan 7, 2003, 08:37 AM
 
Originally posted by andersbk:
How do I preserve the lifetime of my iBook battery?

I've heard that it's smart to remove the battery when the AC is connected..
But it seems the ibook works a little slower without the battery..

It could be my imagination..

Any tips on preserving battery lifetime??
That would be your imagination.
To preserve the lofe make sure you you only charge when the battery is 100% flat. Also turn your iBook off rather than leaving it asleep for long periods of time.
     
reh
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Jan 9, 2003, 01:46 PM
 
DO NOT run a lithium ion battery all the way down!
     
ferg
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Jan 10, 2003, 01:48 AM
 
ok, my girlfriends iBook is claiming to be fully charged then dies after 10 minutes of being unplugged...is the battery ruined?
     
damosan
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Jan 11, 2003, 08:16 PM
 
Originally posted by ferg:
ok, my girlfriends iBook is claiming to be fully charged then dies after 10 minutes of being unplugged...is the battery ruined?
Mine does the same thing. I'm going to call apple monday to find out what's what.

I'm hoping they just send a new battery.

I've had mine since July 2002. It's time to buy applecare.

Damo
     
snct
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Jan 11, 2003, 09:57 PM
 
Mine is doing the same thing now, even if I turne down the display brightness. I think the mistake I made was keeping the iBook plugged in to AC most of the time, with the battery still installed (didn't know any better, have had the machine for almost two years now).

I did the same thing with a PC laptop I had for about the same amount of time, but that battery lasted longer. Guess it's time for me to drop $129 for a new one .
--Steve
     
mjarski15
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Jan 11, 2003, 11:15 PM
 
do most people, who leave there ibooks plugged in must of the time, remove the battery when on ac power or not? And if you are someone who does remove the battery do you really notice a longer life?
20", 2gigs ram, 500gig HD, 2.16ghz core 2 duo iMac
iBook 700 Combo/14.1
OS X
     
ccsccs7
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Jan 12, 2003, 03:59 AM
 
I leave my iBook on AC most of the time with battery in/on. I've noticed about a 25-33% drop in battery life. Doesn't last as long as it used to. Can't even get through a DVD.
12" Powerbook 1.5GHz/SuperDrive, 1.25GB Ram, 80GB HD, Airport Extreme, Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger
iBook (Late 2001)600MHz/Combo, 640MB RAM, 20GB HD, Airport, Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther — web server
     
don_thomaso
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Jan 12, 2003, 06:32 AM
 
Check this thread.
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=133353

olli2 makes some pretty good suggestions.
     
Guy Kuo
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Jan 12, 2003, 06:46 AM
 
>>>>....only charge when the battery is 100% flat.....<<<<<

Unfortunately, that is precisely the fastest way to cause a rechargable Lithium battery to deteriorate. Deep discharge down the just before cell voltage reversal IS advisable for NiCd chemistry batteries, but not for Lithium rechargables. Lithium rechargable battery electrodes degrade each time they undergo deep discharge. This is due to their more fragile electrode structure compared to NiCd cells. A lithium battery will retain more of its charge storage capability if it is shallow discharge and frequently recharged. The Lithium charging system also closely monitors the battery to prevent overcharging. That would create dangerous Li metal - a fire hazard, so designers of charging systems for Lithium packs build in safeguards. We can take advantage of those safeguards and minimize depth of discharge by keeping our iBooks plugged into the AC as frequently as possible. The battery shouldn't overcharge.

Excessively deep discharge of Li cells can also cause a fire hazard condition upon the next time the battery undergoes charging. For this reason, the Li batteries often have a monitor circuit which prevents the cells from being charged again if an excess deep discharge has happened. The circuit may also stop the discharge if it senses that the battery is in danger of overly deep discharge. So basically, a properly working Li rechargeable system monitors the cells and protects agains over charging and over discharge.

While Li batteries do provide a great deal of energy capacity if used fully, doing so much more rapidly deteriorates the cells than shallow discharges. This is the opposite of NiCad batteries, but people often learn how to take care of NiCd cells and incorrectly that knowledge to Li systems.

There is one other bad thing about Lithium rechargable batteries. Their electrodes degrade over time even if you don't use them. That means a factory packaged battery on the storage shelf is gradually losing its ability to store a charge despite never being used. Remember all those dead Li packs from Sears closeouts a few years ago?
     
snct
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Jan 12, 2003, 11:10 AM
 
Two questions...

1. Where's a good source to buy replacement laptop batteries (other than Apple)?

2. Does anyone make a "dead plug" that can be placed in the battery socket to take up the space, but not have any battery function? This would be for running the iBook on AC, without an actual battery installed.
--Steve
     
bleee
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Jan 12, 2003, 09:20 PM
 
I usually leave my iBook plugged in unless I don't have access to a plug because my power management is set to reduce CPU performance on battery it�s also for convenience sake I don�t want to be working and have my iBook goto sleep or have to plug it in again wait for it to charge and than unplug it. You should make your iBook work for you not the other way around. I would suggest to everyone that they buy Apple Care unless you want to shell out the cash for a replacement battery after your warranty runs out.

Also that 5hr battery life claim is so BS from day 1 of owning my iBook (I bought it new) it�s only lasted 2.5hrs maybe 2hrs and 45mins but no more. I even called Apple but the rep gave me this �the battery indicator is just an estimate of the time remaining� I figure if you only get 2.5hrs and they say 5hrs that estimate is pretty dam off and they should consider it a bug in the OS
     
blackmacx
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Jan 15, 2003, 11:07 PM
 
Hi everyone,

I have to say that I have rarely ever had any issue with either my former Bronze PB or my current iBook (Dual USB, 600Mhz) since I bought it in October of 2001; I don't know if any of you have tried these things, but they help me keep the battery going for 4+ hours religiously:

1. zap your PRAM and reset you PMU to correct your system and give you a fairly unfettered reading.
2. IMHO keep the iBook on mains power (using the power adaptor) and don't use the battery on a hour on, hour off basis (I know that's not exactly what a portable is for; but turning the unit on and off uses as much if not more power that leaving the unit in sleep)
3. create a startup set (if you have LocationX) that doesn't have everything running (ie. you might not really need Networking on)

I can say that using the DVD/CD will very quickly kill the battery; also, (and I can't say this really is a fact), but you might find that if your HDD is partitioned with say 2 partitions, move your Swap file to the second partition to reduce your OS/app partition from thrashing and thereby using more battery power.

Hope this helps someone.

BlackMacX
20" iMac (Intel)/2.1Ghz/1GB/250GB
     
   
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