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RodriCO2000 · Nov 4, 2003, 11:51 PM

I am not one of those people that goes around bashing Apple, but this time I have to.

We all have read the numeorus reports that the new 15" PB has a mediocre battery life.

Most of the poeple accepted it like it was no biggie, but it is!!!!!!

The batteries that Apple has been shipping on some if not most of the new PB are LOWER CAPACITY, than what they are stated to be....

Everyone who has bad battery life should run XBattery and check the battery capacity, it should read somewhere around 4.5 Whr..

MANY of the PB I have seen only report, 3.2, 3.5.. This is UNACCEPTABLE.... My friend had a defective battery and we went to the Apple Store and as soon as the genius saw that the battery time that the OS was reading was unnaceptably low, he tested his own battery. To my surprise (or not) his battery read that it had 3.5 hours left!!! and we checked the capacity, it read out 4.5 Whr compared to the 3.2Whr of my friend's battery.....

This is really bad of Apple to ship their Flagship PB with defective batteries....

If your PB has bad battery life (under 3 hours) check the battery capacity with XBattery and make sure you are getting what you paid for.........

nate_02 · Nov 4, 2003, 11:59 PM

mine is 4.481. I get about 3.5 hours on longest battery life setting.

PowerMatt · Nov 5, 2003, 12:07 AM

Mine is 4.144. I got over 3h 45m with Jag[wire]. With Panther I get about 2h 30m. I have yet to my other battery which is still unopened.

Jbroad572 · Nov 5, 2003, 12:15 AM

Where do I check my battery rating? My capacity I see is 5.588 Ah is that what Im looking for?

waxcrash · Nov 5, 2003, 12:18 AM

The new 15" Powerbooks are a rotten deal:

1. Bad or weak batteries
2. White spots on screen
3. Bad latch
4. And worse of all � we've waited all this time for the 15" AlBook and they only increase the processor to 1.25 GHz?

RodriCO2000 · Nov 5, 2003, 12:24 AM

Yes Jbroad, thats what you should be looking for. Your battery seems fine since it uses a bigger battery than the 15 Al so you are unnafected by this 15AL fiasco....

I love my 15 though.......

forcelite · Nov 5, 2003, 12:25 AM

I know this has nothing to do with the batteries currenty shipping but remeber you can always buy repacked batteries with alot more watts an hour.

There are a number of repacking sites, ill locate one when I get home and post back, if im not dead tired

RodriCO2000 · Nov 5, 2003, 12:29 AM

I beleive these re-packed batteries are currently NOT compatible with the new Pb only with the older generation PB like the Ti or the Pismo's

chipchen · Nov 5, 2003, 12:31 AM

mine says 3.0007Ah in capacity... is that right?

RodriCO2000 · Nov 5, 2003, 12:39 AM

NO, thats way too low... I suggest you do a full charge, check the capacity and time the battery until it sleeps. If after being fully charged, it says the capacity is at 3.0 Whr and when drained lasted anything less than 3 hrs with "normal" to "minimal" use with Energy Settings to Automatic, then you have a bad battery... have it changed...

BTW, how has your battery life been?????

Bruck · Nov 5, 2003, 12:59 AM

Stand up for your battery life!!! I went thru a bunch of calls and a visit to the apple store. Today they ordered me a new battery. My battery life was 2hrs 15min AT ITS LONGEST with airport on.

My capacity in Xbattery shows 3.571Ah. This is not acceptable.

I can't wait to get my new one.

-Lou

KBFinFan · Nov 5, 2003, 01:23 AM

I just ran XBattery and got 3.71
From experience I get just barely three hours with just simple Internet useage and AE turned off.

I guess I will stop by the Apple Store when I am near one this weekend. Do I just ask the person at the Genius Bar, and explain my situation?

Here's the link to XBattery just in case you want to check it out...

http://www.kezer.net/xbattery.html

RodriCO2000 · Nov 5, 2003, 01:47 AM

Explain your situation and tell them that other people's capacities are better and they should see the problem.......

Bruck · Nov 5, 2003, 01:55 AM

here is what you should do. Call applecare, tell them that you have a friend that has the same powerbook and you have tried his battery and you get the aH readout of 4500. He also gets better battery life with the exact same settings. If you have a very nice tech, they will tell you to simply take your powerbook to an apple store and that they will give you a new battery.

HAVE THE TECH write that he/she instructed you to go to an apple store to receive a replacement.

(i arrived today and my file didnt have a note on it, so i had to plead for a new battery all over again)

So to recap, call applecare until you get a friendly tech or a supervisor, then have them put a note in your file as to the fact that your battery's capacity is not up to par with other exact same models so you need a replacement.

This will expidite your apple store/genius bar experience, as it is this whole process takes a min of 10 min while the tech seemingly enters books of information just to order you a new battery.

forcelite · Nov 5, 2003, 02:46 AM

man mines 3.93

looks like I got screwed too

I get around 2.45 hours

RodriCO2000 · Nov 5, 2003, 02:50 AM

My friend had called Applecare about his battery issue and they didnt log anything in any file. When we got into the Apple store, the Tech at the Genious bar didn't even look anything up, he just saw that his battery was MUCH better than my friend's battery at the same charge level and just told him to take that battery instead..

Very nice, very helpfull guy.....

AppleCare pretty much told my friend that his battery was perfectly normal and only a TECH would know for sure if it was defective after it was "tested".AppleCare didnt beleive a word my friend was saying...

What is Apple doing lately?

RodriCO2000 · Nov 5, 2003, 02:52 AM

Maybe we should make this a poll..... to see who has a good or a bad battery????

I am not sure how to do it though... I really need to go back to studying (test tomorrow) instead of venting about Apple

ae86_16v · Nov 5, 2003, 06:25 AM

So wait. . . what should it be at again for a "Good" battery?

I got a Capacity of 3.374Ah

Spheric Harlot · Nov 5, 2003, 06:39 AM

Originally posted by waxcrash:
The new 15" Powerbooks are a rotten deal:

1. Bad or weak batteries

Warranty.

Originally posted by waxcrash:
2. White spots on screen

Warranty.

Originally posted by waxcrash:
3. Bad latch

Warranty.

Originally posted by waxcrash:
4. And worse of all � we've waited all this time for the 15" AlBook and they only increase the processor to 1.25 GHz?

Whine.

-s*

jendmb34 · Nov 5, 2003, 08:04 AM

i was thinking about ordering the 15" fairly soon... maybe i should hold off a few months until they get these issues figured out?

s0litude · Nov 5, 2003, 02:44 PM

i love my PB, but yeah, my battery sucks. I get 2:15 at the most. My airport extreme is a little stubborn bastard too. Most of the time it works like a charm though. i'm just glad i don't have white spots, after 2 months. Still crossing my fingers though.

rsabbagh · Nov 5, 2003, 03:03 PM

Hi all, I just got my Power Book 1.25 and so far cannot get better than 2.5 hours on a full charge with AE on. I ran XBattery and got 3.6 amp-hours. A collegue with an identical PB 1.25 got a 4.2 amp-hours reading from his battery.

Called Apple Care, they are having me go through the exercise of conditioning the battery (again) after having reset the PRAM. I'm skeptical of these steps and have a feeling Apple is going to have to replace the battery!

Stay tuned.

P.S. This was my first post to MacNN