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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Post-new update battery life

Post-new update battery life
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Dubya's Dealer
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Oct 3, 2003, 05:17 PM
 
Who's up-updated? Is the battery life issue fixed?

How much life were you getting and how much now?

Inquiring minds want to know.
     
darren h
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Oct 3, 2003, 05:37 PM
 
12" pb, was reading 1.49 remaining at 96%, now reading 2.37 on 91%, the figure is fluctuating a bit, it's now reading 2.53, very strange. (on full power)
     
pamelah
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Oct 3, 2003, 05:40 PM
 
yup. it's fixed.

i was at 1 hour before the RE-update...and I was plugged in so my battery was fully charged. I inplugged to get a reading and it gave me 1:03.

I then replugged right away.... installed the update right away....,and then once my computer had rebooted after the update I unplugged and the reading was back up to my usual 2.5 hours.

now I'm letting the battery run out...then i'll recharge it and see where I'm at.

Hopefully I'll have even more than before
Architecture:Design | 17" alPB | 23" cinema display etc...
     
93TT
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Oct 3, 2003, 07:37 PM
 
Before update, mine read 1:18 at 100%. After, It reads 1:47...wait 1:38...wait 2:14...now1:50...OK now it's 2:10...I think it's setteling down now at just over 2 hours @ 93%.
15" PB 1.25Ghz
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fener
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Oct 3, 2003, 07:45 PM
 
The battery reader is fixed,

the new 12'' Powerbook reads 3:00-4:00 depending on what you are doing
     
HvyMtlMdns
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Oct 3, 2003, 08:07 PM
 
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dubya's Dealer:
[B]Who's up-updated? Is the battery life issue fixed?

Woo Hoo!!!

Pre update: 2h 1min
Post update: 3h 6min

PowerBook 17 Rev A
MacMini 2.0 Ghz C2D/160GB/2GB RAM/8x Dual-Layer SD/3X 1 TB Ext HDs; iMac C2D 20" 2.66 GHz/320GB/2GB RAM/8x Dual-Layer SD/20" Display with external 20" Apple Cinema Display; PB G4 1.67 GHz 17"/250GB/1 GB RAM/8x Dual-Layer SD; 5G iPod Classic 160GB; 2G iPod Shuffle; AppleTV
     
LfGrdMike
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Oct 3, 2003, 09:26 PM
 
Mines fixed i get around 3.6 too 4 hours
MacBook Pro 15" Rev B | 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2GB Mem | 160GB HD | Display 15 Glossy Widescreen Display
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cwagar
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Oct 3, 2003, 10:44 PM
 
Originally posted by LfGrdMike:
Mines fixed i get around 3.6 too 4 hours
15" 1.25 Albook SD

Pre: 1:45-2:00

Post: 3:00-3:30
     
Waveman
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Oct 3, 2003, 10:48 PM
 
How many of you have confirmed that the battery lasts as long as indicated?
     
MacsGalor
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Oct 3, 2003, 10:52 PM
 
Just tested out my 15" AlBook 1.25GHz I charged it up to 100% then attached my Sony SRS-T100PC USB (bus powered) speakers and my smart disk Firelite Hardrive (firewire bus powered) and watched a full DVD just a little over 2 hours. Once I started the movie and had everything attached the timer was very close only a matter of minutes. It takes a little while after unplugging to stop jumping around and figure a good time.
     
Clarkey
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Oct 3, 2003, 11:09 PM
 
So you all updated to the new version of 10.2.8 and now it appears that your battery life is a little more realistic, which sounds encouraging. I have the new 15" AlBook, and I'm lucky to get 2 hours of "advertised" running time, although we all know it is merely a guideline at best...

Here's my question: what version software were you running before you updated your OS? 10.2.7? 10.2.8? When you say the battery issue is fixed, do we mean for all new PowerBook users, or just those people who tried 10.2.8 last week?
     
InterfaceGuy
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Oct 3, 2003, 11:43 PM
 
I was getting 1:50 out of the box after calibration. I updated to 10.2.8 today and after letting it jump around for about 10 minutes it settled at 1:54 and started counting down normally from there. So, that would mean I would be getting about 2:05 out of it which is 15 minutes better than out of the box with 10.2.7. I was hoping for a miracle, guess I'll have to wait for Panther.

Edit: I should add that when I first unplugged it said 2:57. So, when posting your battery time please post what it settles at after the jumping around stops not just what it says when you first unplug.
( Last edited by InterfaceGuy; Oct 3, 2003 at 11:50 PM. )
     
machem
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Oct 3, 2003, 11:47 PM
 
I appear to have gained about 25%, but I'm jumping all over the place: 1:07 to 1:23 to 1:15 over the last three minutes. I'm going to drain and refill to see if that helps it settle down a bit (1:01 now).

Was running the OEM 10.2.7.
     
Oracle
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Oct 4, 2003, 12:03 AM
 
i think the battery life is still messed up. I'm showing 5:19 left after unplugging. I wish it was that much but I doubt that's right
     
h00ligan
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Oct 4, 2003, 12:10 AM
 
you deon't have a 12" by chance do you?
     
Oracle
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Oct 4, 2003, 12:14 AM
 
if your talking to me no I have 15" TiBook
     
iDaver
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Oct 4, 2003, 12:30 AM
 
Originally posted by Clarkey:
Here's my question: what version software were you running before you updated your OS? 10.2.7? 10.2.8? When you say the battery issue is fixed, do we mean for all new PowerBook users, or just those people who tried 10.2.8 last week?
I skipped the 10.2.8 upgrade last week. Have been running 10.2.7 on my new PowerBook. The battery life reported in the menu is slightly higher now with 10.2.8. As others are reporting, it fluctuates quite a bit from one minute to the next, but seems steadily higher than before the update.

I was never really disappointed by the actual battery time I was getting, three hours or so. The reading was sometimes discouraging though. Seems those with the earlier 10.2.8 upgrade were much worse off.
     
Clarkey
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Oct 4, 2003, 01:16 AM
 
Okay, there's no reason why I can't give this a try, so I updated from 10.2.7 to 10.2.8 via the Software Update application, and 40 MB (or so) later, my battery clock increased in the amount of advertised time remaining. I can't say how much, because every time I went to enter in the number, it changed.

Let's not get too excited, but hey, it's a step in the right direction... And that got me thinking (no, it's true) that from now on I'm going to have my battery life indicator display in percentage mode, which may be a more real-world indicator of how much juice my PowerBook has left.

Perhaps there are others who can also try this method, so that we can provide additional user feedback to the others.

Metric users be damned!
     
ae86_16v
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Oct 4, 2003, 01:41 AM
 
Okay, before it was listed as 2:00 but in reality I got 2:45 to 3:00.

Now I get 3:00 to start off with. I'll repost later to see what it really is.
     
Waveman
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Oct 4, 2003, 09:48 AM
 
Originally posted by Clarkey:
And that got me thinking (no, it's true) that from now on I'm going to have my battery life indicator display in percentage mode, which may be a more real-world indicator of how much juice my PowerBook has left.
I think you make a really good point. I would think that the percentage display shows the proportion of full charge remaining, irrespective of what the computer is doing, whereas the time displays tries to take power draw into consideration, so it fluctuates from moment to moment as the hard drive spins up or down, etc.
     
Shaddim
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Oct 4, 2003, 01:31 PM
 
On my Rev A PB12 I was getting about 2:45-3:00 with 10.2.6, and the battery meter was pretty much accurate the entire time. After installing 10.2.8 yesterday, with all settings the same for display and CPU speed, my battery was reading 4:15 after I unplugged. At the time I was thinking, "great, now I need to recalibrate and reset my PRAM", BUT I kept using the machine and lo-and-behold the meter remained linear. I kept surfing and working (just typical useage) and 3 hours passed... and my battery meter said I still had and hour left! So, I kept working and after another 50 minutes my low battery warning came on. Then I saved what I was doing and stayed on it just to see what would happen. After another 10 minutes I lost power and the machine went to sleep. So, how long did it last? 4:05!!! That's far more than I've ever gotten under normal use!

Anyway, I charged the battery overnight and I'm going out and about today and I'll see how much I get so that I can confirm. As of now, I have to say I'm very pleasantly surprised.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
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gauchogirl
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Oct 4, 2003, 01:39 PM
 
Mine is fixed as well, it now reads 4:06 at 99%...don't know how realistic that estimate is..we'll see. I'm running the rev A 12" if anyone is interested
     
Dubya's Dealer  (op)
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Oct 4, 2003, 01:45 PM
 
Is it me or is this wacky exagerated wildly swinging battery life time thing disturbing as well? In trying to fix the battery management do you think the good folks at Apple overtweaked the Flux Capacitator?
     
Drakino
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Oct 4, 2003, 02:29 PM
 
Mine was reading pretty accurate last night, and in the end I got about 2:30 (as reported by XCharge). This included some heavy processor usage in the middle. It might have stretched to 3 hours, but I doubt I will ever see this 4.5 hours Apple claims on it.

Out of curiosity, how long is sleep supposed to last once the powerbook thinks the battery is almost dead? Mine lasted nearly 11 hours in this state before I woke up and plugged it in, so it almost seems like the battery still isn't calibrated right, as that is about 5-6% extra juice.
<This space under renovation>
     
KP*
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Oct 4, 2003, 03:32 PM
 
[This is not a rant] 10.2.8 (round 2) totally screwed up my Al15" when I installed it last night and it crashed during the install (after I repaired permissions right beforehand and everything), but after three or four hours of reinstalling the OS and doing the upgrade again, I seem to have successfully upgraded and nothing seems to be broken except my Palm Hotsync, which I haven't fully looked into yet.

But more important, I spent 3 hours in a meeting today, with my 'book on the whole time (lowest brightness, Wi-Fi and BT off most of the time), just using it to take notes and simple stuff like that, but when the meeting was over I still had 2:30 remaining on the battery meter. I was really shocked, I kept looking at it as the meeting dragged on wondering if I should power it down to conserve juice, but it had so much time to spare I never had to consider it.

I am very impressed!
     
beefstu01
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Oct 4, 2003, 09:01 PM
 
Just upgraded a brand new 15" Al 1.25 Ghz laptop from 10.2.7 to 10.2.8, and I get 3:30 for a 98% charge, up from 2:15 in 10.2.7. I hope it's true!

(By the way, the fluctuations were hilarious. Right when I unplugged it said 4:15, then jumped to 11:53, and no, I wasn't looking at the clock)
     
macwayne
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Oct 4, 2003, 09:12 PM
 
When I was in 10.2.7 I was originally getting 1:450 minutes of battery life on the indicator at 100% charge, though in real life I got close to 2:15 minutes. Now with the upgrade to 10.2.8, my battery life is showing around 2:45 at 100%. So hopefully my real world life will be around or a little over 3 hours. I sure hope so.
It also did do some fluctuating, from 3:15 to anywhere inbetween. It seems to be stabilizing now, so we'll see. I will update later on actual time.
     
bonk
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Oct 4, 2003, 09:23 PM
 
i've got 3:37 at 90% on my PB17 running 10.2.8

I dunno how long it will really run. I'm running reduced w/ airport on. I don't know what it really was with .7, I just got this machine two days ago.
Dual 500 G4 :: 576mb :: 180gb (120+40+20)
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adamberti
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Oct 4, 2003, 10:37 PM
 
Originally posted by Dubya's Dealer:
Is it me or is this wacky exagerated wildly swinging battery life time thing disturbing as well? In trying to fix the battery management do you think the good folks at Apple overtweaked the Flux Capacitator?
I think you're right. I unplugged my power supply and went to sit down in the living room, checked the battery time left, and I got a whopping 6:55. Wow, I wish that lasted, but it jumped back down to a more reasonable 3:20. This is after the new 10.2.8 on a 1 GHz TiBook.

One other thing I noticed, which I have never seen, was my battery indicator was showing the red battery, but I still had 47 minutes left according to that. Usually I dont see a red battery until I hit about 20-30 minutes. I dont think it lasted a full 47 either. So I guess that battery meter went from being rather pessimistic to quite optimistic.
     
beijinger
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Oct 4, 2003, 11:47 PM
 
All the talk about how the time left indication is this or that is not particularly meaningful as your processor requirements and harddrive needs are varying as you use the machine- this means that as you use it, the time left is going to fluctuate as you are doing different things. The only real gauge is to time it. I timed it twice with 10.2.7 and 10.2.8(new) and got the following with AE off and BT on (email, surfing and other non-intensive stuff)

15 inch SD PB

10.2.7- 2'36 and 2'24
10.2.8- 3'14 and 3'38

17 inch new PB

10.2.7- 3'56 and 4'15
10.2.8-4'28 and 4'20
     
Shaddim
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Oct 5, 2003, 12:05 AM
 
Originally posted by MacNStein:
On my Rev A PB12 I was getting about 2:45-3:00 with 10.2.6, and the battery meter was pretty much accurate the entire time. After installing 10.2.8 yesterday, with all settings the same for display and CPU speed, my battery was reading 4:15 after I unplugged. At the time I was thinking, "great, now I need to recalibrate and reset my PRAM", BUT I kept using the machine and lo-and-behold the meter remained linear. I kept surfing and working (just typical useage) and 3 hours passed... and my battery meter said I still had and hour left! So, I kept working and after another 50 minutes my low battery warning came on. Then I saved what I was doing and stayed on it just to see what would happen. After another 10 minutes I lost power and the machine went to sleep. So, how long did it last? 4:05!!! That's far more than I've ever gotten under normal use!

Anyway, I charged the battery overnight and I'm going out and about today and I'll see how much I get so that I can confirm. As of now, I have to say I'm very pleasantly surprised.
Well, it's confirmed, I got 3:55 tonight on a full charge (with a little CD useage which I didn't do last night). Very happy I am.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
cdhostage
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Oct 5, 2003, 12:47 AM
 
Brightness at 1 bar, minimum energy drain, typing dumb paper in TextEdit, ran my PB for 4.5 hours or thereabouts the last afternoon.

It's reporting is now accurate with 10.2.8 (2).
Actual conversation between UCLA and Stanford during a login on early Internet - U: I'm going to type an L! Did you get an L? S: I got one-one-four. L! U:Did you get the O? S: One-one-seven. U: <types G> S: The computer just crashed.
     
   
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