"THE" battery problem, or something even worse???

My free advice (worth exactly what you pay for
it) would be, despite Apple's conditioning
guidelines, NOT to allow the battery level to drop to
0 so that the computer goes into safe sleep. Shut
down your computer before that point and plug it in,
until Apple has a fix.

It'd be nice if someone with Apple tech credentials
could comment on this soon though, as I'm playing
detective here without access to all the facts.

I think that's a very interesting point you make lev. I'm not sure I had a problem till I tried to do a full condition on it (though I think I had encountered safe sleep before). I got my new battery today - picked up from the Apple store who said it is a known problem on the new 15" machines (mine had gone to about 1/3 of it's capacity). It seems to be just fine so far. But I'm not going to run it all the way down until I see a resolution to this!

Ian

I am chiming in with my battery problem as well. I have had the exact scenario as "azbigfella" posted above. I have a 3 week old unit (the newest Oct.05) that seemed to work great for the first week (did all my calibration like a good owner), but have noticed deteriorating battery life for last week. This morning I decided to investigate and found this thread on the discussion board. At that point my battery power reading was 1800 mAh for a full charge. I called Apple and after jumping through the hoops of resetting and restarting, etc. a new battery is on the way.

But, after I hung up with them, I restarted the computer and unplugged the ac plug and then plugged it back in and now my power reads 4588 mAh full charge and I seem to have all this new stamina in the battery (it read 4 hours at first, which I haven't seen in a two weeks). I'm thinking maybe the jiggle trick is really something! I'll still take a new battery and send this one back to them, but I worry that it could be something else.

Hello azbigfella

I have the battery problem mentioned in several contributions: after ~5 weeks the Full Charge Capacity went suddenly down to about 990 yesterday. After calling Apple and now waiting for a new battery, I found your posting.
I tried to follow your suggestions, however, when I disconnected the AV adapter after resetting the PMU and recharging, the computer immediately shut off! After reconnecting the AC I could restart the machine and found Full Charge Capacity around 4500(!), but it seems not to be possible to use the battery, disconnecting the AC always shuts off the computer. The battery really seems to be charged since all the LEDs are on.

What could this mean?

Marco

New battery arrived from Apple 24 hours after my phone call (they've always been good at this). The new battery is the same model as the "bad" one and has similar serial number (only a few of the terminal digits different). I doubt this is from a whole new lot of "new" improved batteries. As I type this, I am charging the battery for the first time and preparing for "calibration". It reads 4494 mAh. We'll see how things go...

All,
I received my battery as well a few days ago, but I have yet to do anything with it yet. After I performed my little jiggle thing (let's call it the "Azbigfella Manuever" since I like to think I discovered it and I will probably never be known for anything else), my battery has been STRONG at 4600-ish mAh and running for hours on end off the battery as... IT SHOULD.
So, the good news is, my battery/power is working like it's supposed to (for now), but the bad news is there is still something wrong, and it's very likely that whatever's wrong is a bigger issue than a dead battery. Hopefully the ultimate resolution for this will be relatively simple and address all the potential issues with the power setup.
Best to all,
AZB

Thanks for the update Azbigfella.

I have to say, I tried your (patented?) manoeuvre (no apologies for Brit spelling).
I couldn't get it to work, which is why I went for the new battery.
But I have to say, while it's working fine, I don't have much confidence the same thing won't happen again.
At least in your case, you'll have the benefit of 2 batteries - I swapped mine at the Apple store!

Ian

Actually, Apple makes you return the "defective" battery in the same box that the replacement comes in, and they charge you full retail price if you keep the old one. I thought it would be nice to have a back up, but not so lucky.

Last week I got a new PowerBook 15 - inch Oct. 2005 with a dead battery that could not get any charge (no green light with the AC connector plugged in). A replacement for the battery of this new model may take months to reach the local Apple service provider (I live in Brazil).

In the meantime I am using a battery model A1045, which I do not know how compatible it is with the new PowerBook models. The only information I found at Apple was ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284) that " The battery calibration for the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) has been updated because of a new battery released with this computer."

I would appreciate any help.
VP

Powerbook 15 High Res 1.67 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

UPDATE--

Well, my battery has returned to (ab)normal -- as you recall, I had the battery-weakening symptoms, but then jiggled (the Azbigfella Manuever) the AC adapter and everything returned to normal (4600-ish MaH and 4+hour performance). BUT THERN my PBook unexpectedly died (going black while showing approx 2200 mAh), and when I inserted the AC adapter and performed the Azbigfella Manuever (no apologies for the American bastardization of the English language, i.e., spelling, as we are right about everything anyway 😉 ) but could only recover around 900 mAh and very weak ones at that.

I've inserted and am charging battery #2, so we'll see how this next step works out... By the way, I've spent SIGNIFICANT amounts of time working on my PBook, and I love this new 15" hi-res DL/SD model. Other than the battery issue, my experience on this PBook has totally exceeded my expectations as a longtime mac user (including a G5 2.0dp with dual 23 HD Cinema screens) and has impressed everyone that has seen and used it. I hope your experience is also as favorable -- once the power issue is remedied, I think this will be one sweet laptop, so hang in there everyone!
AZB

OK, my posts seem to have disappeared... Very nice, Apple.

I spoke to a bloke from Apple Australia this morning, who was very helpful. Of course, Apple Australia never seem to communicate with anyone, and somehow still sell computers despite themselves, but he did the best he could after ringing around, and pointed me to my local ASR. Said ASR was great, and now has my battery, awaiting replacement.

Yay... I guess 🙂

Buthidae - I doubt Apple deleted your posts (although I could be wrong) -- what I think is more likely that either: 1) You didn't actually post -- maybe you previewed, but didn't post the message or some such thing. The only reason I mention it is I've done that a couple of times myself, or 2) the posts are actually someplace else in this thread or even another thread. I've found these threads to be a little difficult to manage as posts end up chronologically and hierarchically, and sometimes there are so many similar threads (people just starts them without checking to see if they already exist) that I reply to a thread and then I can't find my response, but it's in another virtually identical thread. I've found participating in these threads for the last few weeks that probably half of the volume could be avoided if people would simply spend 10 minutes researching what already exists on a topic or question before starting a new thread. It just creates this huge volume of posts and duplicate threads and it's easy to lose track of them and confuse them with each other. I just don't think Apple is deleting anything as there are some highly critical posts and often totally useless comments (practically speaking) that they leave up, and some credit ought to be given that they provide this resource for users in the first place (at some expense). One thing Apple will do is close threads, but the posts remain. The experience I've had is Apple is pretty good at leaving these forums alone -- for better or worse -- they don't censor or edit, but they also don't reply or actively participate.

Cheers - AZB

fair enough - I guess I'll find them somewhere then 🙂

They have to be somewhere, because I had a breif conversation with someone in the thread!

Buthidae

It's certainly possible Apple deleted them. They can be a bit heavy handed imho, even if the posting is not especially negative. I had one post deleted once when I gave a link to another help/forum site for a particular problem that was quite well-covered there. I've known of others who've had/seen many postings delivered for comments on things like DRM or even recently Firewire. However, in those cases it is possible the comments really had nothing to do with support so did not belong there

So, if it's a controversial topic it CAN get some treatment. But really talking about problems is what this site is about. And understandably, many people visiting here have a particular problem that they might be quite upset about! So, if people report inoffensively and don't rant (too much), the comments SHOULD stay.

I'd like to second Azbigfella's points about this being a great machine other than this problem (and in my case an additional problem with audio stuttering/feedback). I hope these problems can be put to bed permanently, because this will go down as a great machine (bit like the old G3 Pismo's)!

Ian

Ian -- Well put... you're right, Apple can delete posts and probably does at times -- my point was the "SHOULD" part you described. I was taking it for granted that Buthidae's posts would hve had no reason to be deleted.

HEY (back OT): What are people's experience with battery #2? I have mine in and charged, but I haven't tested it yet -- will do in the next few days, though.
AZB

I have been using my replacement now for a week, and so far no problems. But my original battery didn't go crazy for 3-4 weeks, so I'd say too early to tell.

But one thing I have noticed: my computer has stopped doing a few very strange things that I would have never guessed were from the battery. The more obvious one was that I would put it to sleep, and when I tried to to wake the machine it would be off and would require a complete startup cycle (even with the battery still charged).