[K107]

First time MAC owner. I got my PB on Saturday and it great. I love it. Question about the battery. On the spec for the PowerBook it says it the battery life is 4.5 hours. I�m getting about 3 hours of battery life. I have calibrated the battery. Charged it, drained it charged it again. When I turn on my PB and look at the time it says about 3 hours of battery. I have used it halfway charged it and still give me 3 hours. I have the setting set on automatic. It says that on automatic when it running of the battery it gets set on longest battery life and when used of the adapter it uses high performance.

I just would like to know anybody else with a new PB 15� 1.5 what are your battery time set to the same energy saver option. I would also like to know the battery time in general for everyone for the new PB. I just want to see if its around the same number or if I got a bad battery.

I know battery time depends on what you�re doing at the time. I just want get ideas of the time people get when they just finish a charge.

[Detrius]

Remember that the 4.5 hour rating is "up to 4.5 hours." That means that if you put the display at the lowest brightness setting and let the drive spin down while you read a pdf, then you will probably get 4.5 hours of battery life. The brightness of your backlight makes a big difference (at least it does on my three year old iBook).

[vcutag]

Originally posted by Detrius:
Remember that the 4.5 hour rating is "up to 4.5 hours." That means that if you put the display at the lowest brightness setting and let the drive spin down while you read a pdf, then you will probably get 4.5 hours of battery life. The brightness of your backlight makes a big difference (at least it does on my three year old iBook).

What about those of us with the 15" 1.25 who are getting anywhere from 0:55 to 1:45? I've also been having issues with the fan and processor temp, all of this since installing 10.3.3. Is there any way to fix the problem other than going back down to 10.3.2?

[Ryan1524]

you used it till halfway and it still says 3 hours?? how long did it take you to get 'halfway'??

[Arcayx]

I just did a quick test on mine. I have the performance set to reduced on battery power, and I brought the LCD screen to its lowest setting. I am not doing anything graphical that would require heavy GPU loading. I'm just looking at Safari.
Anyways, I have the new 1.5 GHz PB with 128 MB VRAM and the 5400 rpm drive.

When I first pull the adapter cord out, it calculates the remaining time as 3:15 - this seems to be reproducable. With the backlight off, it estimates about 3:30. Needless to say, this isn't a desirable condition. I would guess that with the drive spun down, I would get some extra time out of it. Much closet to 4, I imagine.

[mrwalker]

I get about 3:15 from my new Powerbook too. It's the same model as yours - 15", 1.5 GHz, 128mb VRAM, 5400 rpm HD. It's better than the 2 hours I got from a 1 GHz 17" though

I think the 4.5 hours they claim must include you leaving to make tea a few times and allowing it to sleep in between

-mrwalker

[RooneyX]

4.5 hours means virtually leaving the machine alone, CPU running at lower speed, brightness and volume down too. Those are 'maximum' figures quoted. If you're doing real work then its always half the time.

[sbc]

I do not understand why they don't sell batteries with larger wattage or extended a version that slightly protrudes from the unit. I think, to ask for four hours battery usage isn't an unfair request.

Sometimes an outlet is not always around

[JKT]

Don't forget to switch off your Bluetooth and/or Airport cards if you don't use them - this will also boost the battery life.

I only just got mine and haven't yet calibrated it fully (I'm just recharging it after draining for the first time), but I easily got 3 hours+ out of it on its first full charge.

Also realise that the 4.5 hours quoted by Apple is for the low end model in each case.

[songoku912]

I would love for Apple or any other company to provide a higher capacity battery for the aibooks. We should have the option at least.

[JayTay]

Also remember that the battery monitor on the PB varies quite a bit depending on what you're doing, for a true test of the battery length you'd be better off using a stopwatch.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by sbc:
I do not understand why they don't sell batteries with larger wattage or extended a version that slightly protrudes from the unit. I think, to ask for four hours battery usage isn't an unfair request.

With my TiBook 1 GHz I managed to get 4 hours by turning the screen brightness down, putting it on reduced power, and turning off Airport. I was using Word, Excel, and Internet Explorer - light usage for that time.

Mind you, my TiBook has a 61 Watt-hr battery, which is bigger than any other 15" PowerBook ever made IIRC.

[nick_coday]

Also turn off any background running programs such as Konfabulator and Codetek Virtual Desktop

[dodo_nutter]

how exactly do you calibrate the battery?? my PB is so new i've never actually run the battery much below 75% is this gonna be a problem do you think? Well saying that im running off battery now @ 70% and i have a reading of 2:23 and i've got safari, activity monitor, temperature monitor and iTunes open with APE & BT both off. oh but my iPod is plugged in, dont no if that would pull some juice.

[bcaslis]

Calibrating is mentioned in the manual. To do this charge it fully, then run it until it forces itself into sleep due to low battery. Then fully charge again. This "calibration" allows the processor in the battery to now give a better estimate of battery life.

FYI, the battery in my 1.25GHz 15" under my normal usage would go 2 hours 30 minutes normally (10.3.3). The new 15" claims a bigger capacity battery, it would be interesting to see how much. Both a 1GHz rev A 17" and a 1.5GHz rev C 17" would get better battery life than my 15" did.

Originally posted by dodo_nutter:
how exactly do you calibrate the battery?? my PB is so new i've never actually run the battery much below 75% is this gonna be a problem do you think? Well saying that im running off battery now @ 70% and i have a reading of 2:23 and i've got safari, activity monitor, temperature monitor and iTunes open with APE & BT both off. oh but my iPod is plugged in, dont no if that would pull some juice.