[penmanila]

this used to be a "feature" of a later generation of tibook batteries, and i'm seeing it again in the 12" battery: despite being plugged in, the battery level on the menu will be stuck at, say, 97% or 98%, even if in fact (or i presume) it's 100% full. in other words, the battery seems to stop charging in the high 90%-range.

in the tibook, this minor annoyance was cured by unplugging and letting the battery go down to around 94%, and then plugging in again--the display moves up to 100%. has anyone had this problem as well, and does anyone know the "threshold" at which the battery will fully recharge? thanks!

[sensorfreaky]

Relax guy.

It's not a problem. It's normal. It's a perfectly logical feature that was designed to prolong the ultimate operational life of your battery. When plugged in to the power adapter and the charge goes above 95% (usually 96-98% YMMV), the system will no longer charge the battery but instead route power to the system while you are using it. The battery simply stays at 96-98% because it is not being charged anymore so as to prevent repeated topping-off which in the long-term can decrease the battery's operational life expectancy. At that 96-98% level, the battery will simply discharge over time (as any idle battery would) or start discharging when you unplug the power adapter.

If you really wanted to get 100%, simply charge your PowerBook to full during sleep or when the system is powered down (assuming you're below 95% before doing so). To actually witness the 100% charge reading, simply wake from sleep or power-up while the adapter is still connected.

[craigthomas]

Simple solution: go to the menu, click on battery icon, pull down to "Show Neither": Problem solved. The battery is working fine and is charged enough.

[sensorfreaky]

Originally posted by craigthomas:
Simple solution: go to the menu, click on battery icon, pull down to "Show Neither": Problem solved. The battery is working fine and is charged enough.

Brilliant! Simply brilliant.

[canonelan2]

I bought a 12 inch PowerBook today and on its initial charge it stopped at 76%. It would not go higher than that even though it was plugged in for several hours. The plug light remained orange.

I figured it just needed calibrating so per the manual, I unplugged the cord and I drained the battery till it slept.

Once it was asleep, I plugged it back in and it charged up to 88% and is now stuck at 88% and will not budge. Also the plug light is still orange.

If it's full at 88% I wish the plug would turn green. It sort of defeats the purpose of a light if it's always orange.

Do I have a problem?

[sweatervest]

Originally posted by canonelan2:
Do I have a problem?

Try resetting the PMU, and if that doesn't work, talk to Apple. I calibrated and it went to 100, then I went down to 9%, and it stuck at 96%..went down to 0%...stuck at 97%...so I reset and am calibrating again...if it doesn't work I'm going to try again tomorrow. We'll see...

[eevyl]

My PowerBook 12" is doing this: it says that the battery is charged, and the menu bar icon shows a battery with the plug, but the led in the conector stays orange and the battery keeps recharging to 100%.

Is this normal or should it stop charging before reaching 100%?

[icruise]

canonelan2 -- My plug light also remains orange almost all the time, even when the battery is charged. How about other people?

[CyberPet]

Absolutely normal!

It goes down to 95% then recharges up to 100% again. It cycles like this to keep the battery in good shape.

[Hozie]

For those whose PB's show a full 100% charge but the power connector stays amber:
unplug the power, push the battery status indicator button at the bottom of the case and then plug it back in. The power connector should tunr green.... worked for me and a couple of guys over at the Apple support forums...


By the way, as a OS X newbie: how do I reset the PMU?