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jasong · Nov 7, 2003, 08:51 AM

Hi all, after reading some of the battery discussions going on here, I got paranoid about my TiBook (last model - 1Ghz, SuperDrive) battery, which never felt as strong as my Pismo when it was new (I remember getting 5 hours using aggressive power saving).

First off, I am showing a capacity of 3.936Ah (which I think is low). After upgrading to Panther I did a battery re-calibration, I got 3 hours of normal use (Energy Saver set to highest performance, screen at full brightness, using Airport), which I am pretty happy about. Any TiBook people doing better than that?

My big issue now seems to be sleep. I closed my laptop at 1 am this morning at 95% charge, and woke it up at 7:15 am with only 73% left. Is this normal? Again the Pismo used to be able to sit unplugged for well over a week, this wouldn't get me through a weekend.

Any thoughts from other TiBook owners?

-- Jason

threestain · Nov 7, 2003, 09:01 AM

I've had no problems with mine, and get about 3-4 hours with panther - I'll do a proper test and see what comes about!

jorgem4 · Nov 7, 2003, 09:53 AM

I also hgave a TiBook and I only get like 2 to 2.5 hours of battery life. (at least this is what the meter says on the menu bar) But I am using Jaguar. Does Panther increse battery life? Also I did the xBattery check and got 4.191 for my capacitance....is this ok?

Thanks.

jorgem4 · Nov 7, 2003, 10:52 AM

Is there a battery life issue with the 10.2.8 update....does anyone know about this? From what I understand there were two versions of 10.2.8 and the first one cause battery problems...I am right? Cause my battery problems could be related to the OS I am using...probably the crapy 10.2.8.

What do you think?

jasong · Nov 7, 2003, 01:21 PM

Well Apple is sending me a new battery, it just completely failed today. About 10 minutes after I posted here the laptop went to sleep without any warning, when I plugged it in, it said it had a 0% charge, in the 10 minutes it took to get an AppleCare rep on the phone it recharged 20%, and said it had 2:00 left for a full charge. By the time the rep said the battery wasn't covered by AppleCare it said 25% charged and 3:07 left to a full charge. By the time I got him to transfer me to a specialist, the battery was at 27% charged with 5:09 left to a full charge. By the time he took my information to send me the new battery it was at 40% with 7:02 left to a full charge. About 5 minutes after I got off the phone it was at a full charge.

What sucks is that the new battery won't get here until Tuesday. Good thing I am not traveling this week.

-- Jason

cowboybop · Nov 7, 2003, 01:41 PM

Hello.

I recently purchased a pb 15" from my local Mac store. After doing battery calibration, I am still only getting 2 hrs of battery life. I have noticed on this site that someone showed the terminal command to check battery power. Being a mac neophyte, however, I do not know how to get some of the characters in the command screen. Would someone be kind enough to post the key sequence for me? I would like to see if my battery is defective, and if it is, to get a new one.

jasong · Nov 7, 2003, 05:58 PM

Well, check it the Mac way. Download XBattery and get the same info.

XBattery

eightoeight · Nov 7, 2003, 06:58 PM

I called Apple Tech. Support and I couldn't get a replacement battery. My capacity is 3339 and I guess that number meant nothing to the woman I talked to.

What should I do? I already had to send my PB in because of white spots, and not to mention they didn't configure my RAM properly, 2x256 instead of 1x512. RAM and LCD are fixed now, but I don't want a subpar battery.

jasong · Nov 7, 2003, 10:48 PM

eightoeight, are you actually having battery problems, or are you just worried because of the number? I am not convinced that number means much of anything. The Apple tech's I spoke didn't know what it was either.

My battery was replaced because it can't hold a charge for more than 45 minutes and fails so quickly the OS doesn't even display a low power warning. The guy at tech support could not replace my battery either, I had to ask for someone else I could complain about their policy to.

Anyway, if something is wrong, stay polite, but be persistent. You'll get the new battery.

-- Jason

eightoeight · Nov 8, 2003, 05:06 AM

Yeah I'm not sure if anything is wrong

The number just disturbs me. It went down to 3089 now...ands thats after I calibrated it again. Oh well...

aapljack · Nov 8, 2003, 02:17 PM

I have tried to recalibrate my battery twice under Panther and both times I didn't get a low battery warning, it just went to sleep. Is this happening to anyone else?

I got a low battery warning once, when the battery was full. It came after I woke it from being recharged.

Is this normal?

-b

deathandtaxes · Nov 9, 2003, 10:03 AM

How is Apple getting away with not replacing defective batteries? These batteries are advertised as 46 watt-hours. The usage I get from a battery is directly related to the capacity listed by Xbattery or Terminal commands. A battery that is below spec is nothing less than deceptive advertising.

Do we need to start a recall campaign?

jasong · Nov 9, 2003, 10:40 PM

Deathandtaxes, batteries are a consumable item, and like hard drives, they all will fail one day. If your brand new, just out of the box laptop has a battery that is below spec, then you have a claim with Apple. 6 months or 1 year later, they will not perform at 46 watt hours. That's just reality.

Like I said, I didn't get my battery replaced because it was reading at a certain watts per hour, but because it wouldn't charge, and when it did, it was completely unable to hold it.

-- Jason

PS Batteries are not covered under AppleCare

Jeff Hull · 03:27 PM

Originally posted by jasong:
Deathandtaxes, batteries are a consumable item, and like hard drives, they all will fail one day. If your brand new, just out of the box laptop has a battery that is below spec, then you have a claim with Apple. 6 months or 1 year later, they will not perform at 46 watt hours. That's just reality.

Like I said, I didn't get my battery replaced because it was reading at a certain watts per hour, but because it wouldn't charge, and when it did, it was completely unable to hold it.

-- Jason

PS Batteries are not covered under AppleCare

My experience was different. When the battery failed on my wife's white iBook, Apple replaced it under my Applecare policy.

Add 11/10/03: The battery was over 2 years old�less than a year remaining on the Applecare policy, just to be clear. I was surprised when the dealer stopped me from buying a new battery, and scanned the serial number into the computer; Apple overnighted the replacement and we had zero downtime.

jasong · Nov 10, 2003, 05:06 PM

Wow, when did you take out your AppleCare policy? I wonder if it changed?

-- Jason

Jeff Hull · Nov 10, 2003, 09:31 PM

Originally posted by jasong:
Wow, when did you take out your AppleCare policy? I wonder if it changed?

-- Jason

The AppleCare was taken out when I bought the machine (originally for my son). It had just under a year left on the policy�machine was just over 2 years old�when the battery failed. I was surprised myself that it was covered, but Apple replaced the battery no questions asked, and sent me a satisfaction survey afterward. This transpired about two or three months ago. I was very impressed that I did not have to produce anything more than the computer (the store knows me, of course); they scanned the serial number, checked online with Apple, and that was about that. The battery was there the next day.

jasong · Nov 10, 2003, 11:05 PM

Well, my new battery arrived today. It said the capacity was 4.149 AH when I first plugged it in. I calibrated it after charging and got 3:10 out of the battery under a full blown workload (energy saver set to high, running Studio MX 2004, iTunes, and web browsing). After calibration it nows says its capacity is 4.086 AH. Again, I have no idea how meaningful that number is.

I was pretty pleased with 3:10 and no attempts to conserve power.

-- Jason