[Naplander]

Hi All,

So my new PowerBook G4 battery arrived today. My old one fell in the range of some of the 'faulty' ones made by Sony.

A few questions:

1.) Will the capacity of the new one be better than the old one?
2.) Is it still made by Sony, and will it have higher stamina
3.) Do I HAVE to send the old one back? I'd love to keep a spare battery

Many Thanks,

Naplander

[Naplander]

tumble weeds

[Dork.]

I just got the replacement for my work laptop (a Dell) yesterday. I'm still waiting for the replacement for my 12" PB.

The rated capacity will likely be no higher, but you're likely to see a battery life increase simply because all batteries deteriorate over time, so the one you have been using will have a smaller charge capacity than a brand new one.

I don't know whether the new cells are still made by Sony, but one would assume that regardless, the new cells won't have this particular problem. Big companies don't go through the expense of recalling all these batteries unless they're sure the problem is fixed.

Finally, It's probably a good move to send it back. Apple does have your address, they can probably bill you for the new battery if you don't return the old one in a timely fashion. And since the old ones do pose a fire hazard (no matter how slight), if your old battery catches fire after you recieve the new one but elect not to use it, your insurance policies would probably not cover the damage. Heck, if it catches fire on an airplane, Dubya would probably send you to Gitmo!

[Naplander]

Thanks, Dork!

Guess you're right about the battery, still it's temptiing to have another one - and the chance of it exploding are like 1 in a million (literally)

Angel on one shoulder, Devil on the other...

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by Naplander

Thanks, Dork!

Guess you're right about the battery, still it's temptiing to have another one - and the chance of it exploding are like 1 in a million (literally)

Angel on one shoulder, Devil on the other...

You can always keep both for a little while, but keep the shipping materials to return the old battery. If you get a nastygram from Apple, you can say "Oh dear, I must have forgotten to send it back to you. My bad! I'll drop it in the mail right away!"

If you do keep both batteries for a while, make sure that you go through a complete power cycle on both batteries at least once a month. The power cycle doesn't necessarily have to godown to 0% in one session: four sessions of using 25% of the battery with charging it up in between, or ten sessions using 10%, still counts. The System Profiler tells you how many of these "cycles" you have used.

Batteries are designed to be used, and a battery that just sits around and doesn't get occasional exercise will deteriorate faster, just like we do.

[Dork.]

For the record, here's what can happen if you keep the old battery (and obviously, don't do what he did):

Man saves laptop from battery blaze | Reg Hardware

[Naplander]

Damn!

You are right, it's probably just not worth it!

[tooki]

I damned well would have done what that guy did, since he obviously got to the battery before it had ignited.

Toting it outside was smart, and so was pulling the battery, since that both prevents a larger fire and saved his data.

tooki

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by tooki

I damned well would have done what that guy did, since he obviously got to the battery before it had ignited.

Toting it outside was smart, and so was pulling the battery, since that both prevents a larger fire and saved his data.

tooki

It looks smart only because nothing bad happened. It's more lucky than anything else. If his timing was just a little off and the battery exploded while it was in his hand, or if some battery residue ended up on his hand or in his face, he'd be in a heap of trouble.

[tooki]

Maybe, maybe not. Honestly, a small burn is a fair price for not losing all my data. (Of course, I now back up regularly, so it wouldn't be as big a deal to lose it now.)

tooki

[tooki]

Oh, and I'd probably take the fire extinguisher with me.

tooki