[Pogomwg]

Would it be normal to go from 4600 capacity to 4328 and lose almost a full hour of battery life after about 6 or 7 charges? i have run the battery all the way down and charged it all the way up every time, but one. This is on a iBook g4 1.42 Mid 2005

[bradoesch]

Sounds like quite a loss. Lithium batteries don't like constant full discharges. They're better off if you do constant top ups or partial charges. When the battery remaining indicator starts losing accuracy it's time to calibrate your battery (full discharge until it goes to sleep and then a full charge).

[mduell]

A change in capacity from 4.6Ah to 4.328Ah isn't going to cause a change in battery life of an hour unless you had a 17 hour battery life to begin with (haha). But that does seem like a rather large capacity drop after 7 cycles.

It sounds like your cycles have effectively been calibration cycles, so doing one of those won't help you.

[Pogomwg]

Do you think apple would replace the battery. Ive had the Laptop for about 2 weeks. I Just have not been able to use it much until recently.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Pogomwg

Do you think apple would replace the battery.

Absolutely not.

If the battery continues to degrade at this rate (which I can't imagine it will), then you should be able to get a new one before the end of the year.

[sine -''-..-]

Originally Posted by bradoesch

Sounds like quite a loss. Lithium batteries don't like constant full discharges. They're better off if you do constant top ups or partial charges. When the battery remaining indicator starts losing accuracy it's time to calibrate your battery (full discharge until it goes to sleep and then a full charge).

Bah thats a myth - Lithium Ions/polymers have no memory problems like the NiCads once did. Thats the _only_ type of cell that cared how you charged it.

From what your post says - sounds like perhaps your indicator is just calibrating based on the new data it gets after more samples... like the default capacity mightbe 4.6 then it adjusts

[bradoesch]

Originally Posted by sine -''-..-

Bah thats a myth - Lithium Ions/polymers have no memory problems like the NiCads once did. Thats the _only_ type of cell that cared how you charged it.

From what your post says - sounds like perhaps your indicator is just calibrating based on the new data it gets after more samples... like the default capacity mightbe 4.6 then it adjusts

I agree there is no memory problem in lithium batteries. I am only suggesting calibrating the battery when the indicator starts to lose accuracy.

[ghporter]

The newest issue of PC Magazine has an article on batteries and their care and maintenance. It points out that LiIon batteries have some fixed number of potential full charge/discharge cycles, and that a partial discharge followed by a full charge only counts as a partial cycle - good news! It slao points out that there's no major problem in keeping such batteries connected to their chargers, though I'll personally continue using my (my wife's) iBook on battery from time to time.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by ghporter

The newest issue of PC Magazine has an article on batteries and their care and maintenance. It points out that LiIon batteries have some fixed number of potential full charge/discharge cycles, and that a partial discharge followed by a full charge only counts as a partial cycle - good news!

Apple agrees.