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ehwang114 · Apr 11, 2004, 01:12 AM

i just bought my pb g4 last week and today i noticed that my battery only shows a charge of 99%. it will not go above that and show a full charge. it used to. is this something i should be worried about? is this a common problem. i calibrated it and everything. ive heard about battery problems and since this is a new pb i dont know if i should try to get a new battery.

Tomster · Apr 11, 2004, 01:23 AM

That behavior is normal. To see what the exact charge is, ioreg -l | grep IOBa
and you should have the exact capacity and charge. You can always re-calibrate if it still bugs you. I am pretty sure Apple will not replace a battery that is 1% off.

rag on a muffin · Apr 11, 2004, 02:35 AM

how do you calibrate the battery?

Tomster · Apr 11, 2004, 02:42 AM

Run it all the way down until the Powerbook sleeps - basically down to the actual 0%. Then charge it all the way back up.

naphtali · Apr 11, 2004, 11:14 AM

You could

(1) run it down till it prompts you to plug in the adapter,
(2) then restart,
(3) going into Open Firmware (start up holding down CMD+Opt+O+F)
(4) till the display blacks out.

That basically ensures that it's absolutely 0% left, cos if you simply stop at (1), it puts it into sleep with reserve power.

beachmark · Apr 11, 2004, 05:09 PM

I am also having problems with my battery. And brought it in to an Apple Service Partner. After a day I got a call from the guys (as i wanted to use the computer asap again). They told me that there are more people with the same problem and apparently it has do to do something with the power supply and 10.3.3. So far Apple keeps quuiet about it until more is known.

This coming week I hear more about it and will keep you updated.

KidKit · Apr 11, 2004, 07:24 PM

ehwang114: your battery's behaviour seems absolutely normal ... do a search on this forum about battery, it has been discussed before. your battery indicatory on the menu bar will show 'charged' at ~ 95 - 100%, and it will cycle between charging and trickling down to 95%, this is an inbuilt mechanism to prevent your battery from damage by overcharging.

If you've calibrated your battery, just leave it as that. You won't need recalibration for around another 6 months. Some members on this forum have a penchant to keep recalibrating their batteries... this actually shortens the lifespan of your battery. See http://www.batteryuniversity.com/ for the details behind the chemistry of lithium ion batteries.

Meanwhile, simply enjoy your new PB

Mulattabianca · Apr 12, 2004, 12:38 PM

99 % of charge is normal.

if you are paranoid about the battery - like i am - i keep it out of my pb when i dont need it. so when im home and not needing it, i keep it away l.. and when i need to use it, i recalibrate it at least every 10 days of use.