Battery Stuck on Calculating Remaining Time

This happens intermittently with me.. it fixes itself if you log out/log in. One workaround is to use a battery widget in dashboard, for some reason things like iStat Nano (http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatnano.html) display the battery life correctly.

This is normal and has been happening on lots of PBs for a bit now. I myself had the issue for quite a bit, but it was resolved when I plugged it in and let the Battery calculate. Try letting it charge, that should fix it.

PowerBook G4 12.1" Mac OS X (10.3.9) 1.5 GHz/100GB/768MB

i also have the same problem, even if i leave it plugged in for a long time the batt is stuck on calculating... and the light of the adapter doesnt turn green anymore. i've also tried the PMU and reconditioning the batt. any other solutions?

i do occassionally get 'charged' indicated but the light is still orange, then it goes back to either 'calculating time...' or shows a percentage or charge time remaining. it just won't stay 'charged' with a green light.

My problem seems related to this issue. Specifically, my powerbook is unable to determine the charge level in the battery. Sometimes the charger plug light turns green when the charge percentage reads only 80-90%, and the battery charge time only reads "Calculating....".

If I recalibrate the battery, running my powerbook on the battery until it shuts down, then recharging without turning it on again, I can get it to register as 100%.....until the next time it suddenly turns off.

However, the big problem is my powerbook now suddenly shuts down when the charge still registers between 40% and 50%, and time remaining is almost one hour, with no warning message given. I worry about my data and I am forced to constantly save my work, as if I was back in time, using OS7.5 or (yikes) Windows.

This problem started with my upgrade to OS10.4.5. My battery is not old, having gone through only 158 charge cycles, and my system profiler tells me it has a capacity of 2426mAh. System profiler also says, under Battery Information, "First low level warning: No". I don't know if this is normal and, if not, how to change it. There is no option for turning on - or off - Low Level Warning in System Preferences.

I've tried most of the suggestions listed on the powerbook forum, including recalibrating the battery, resetting PRAM and PMU, and banging on it with a ball-peen hammer. Any other suggestions? Since my warranty has expired, I don't hold out much hope that Apple will address this in 10.4.6.

Here is my Battery Info, for reference:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 2426
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 2426
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12456
Cycle Count: 158

I have the exact same problem you're having. It is the most annoying thing in the world. I've been calibrating it every day for the past two weeks and nothing is helping. Even resetting the PMU. Here is something that's even more odd with mine. After it falls asleep with no warning what so ever, if I plug in the computer for about five minutes and let it get to 5% and then unplug again. I'll get the warning saying that it's time to plug in. Great. Then when it gets down to about less than a minute, the OS gets stuck at calculating and the battery lasts me about an hour more. I think this is just a bug in the system because my computer sleeps right around an hour and then it lasts about an hour after it is not supposed to. Very weird.

I've submit several feedback forms to Apple and hopefully we will see this issue resolved in the next update to Tiger, otherwise this is just not going to work. My battery is in good shape as well, worked fine till I installed Tiger.

By the way, I forgot to post, here's what my battery info says.

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 3551
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 2388
Amperage (mA): 283
Voltage (mV): 12630
Cycle Count: 284


This is at 67% charge and showing that I need another 4 hours and 12 minutes in order to get a complete charge.

Fellas,

I have had the same problems. I have read your articles, and I have tried the same solutions. No luck. However, I noticed a few things:

Sometimes, when fiddling with the Battery icon on the top menu, the icon goes from Charging (Thunder symbol) to the charged (Plug symbol) for no reason. I have then looked in the System Profiler, and I can now see that it says it is now charging, or it least accuses so. I don't want to touch it, because I'm very inclined to believe this is a software issue, so if the software is preventing the battery from getting charged, I don't want to stop it.

So, what did I do to get it back to the Charging icon? Well, I have cleaned the power connector. I think there is some sort of serial interface between the power brick and the computer, and they might have been miscommunicating.

I hope this helps someone, and I really hope my battery is charging. This is not what I expected after only 20 cycles, So I believe the battery is still good. The bad part though, is that the LEDs in the battery are not blinking (bottom of my beloved PB), so it might be that it simply is not charging.

Cheers,
Igor.

Allright, here's more information. Since I wrote the article, I pulled the plug, and have been running the PB without letting it go to sleep.

The Battery meter icon reads 1% (0:01 left). The System Profiler reads:

Battery Information:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 3176
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 32
Amperage (mA): -1132
Voltage (mV): 10358
Cycle Count: 20

AC Charger Information:

AC Charger (Watts): 0
Connected: No
Charging: No

And has been reading that for quite a while now (~ 1 hour). I guess my battery somehow thought that the low level was much higher than it actually is. I am writing this with supposedly no juice left!

Apple, please fix this problem This is defintely software related!

Cheers,
Igor.

Hi again, everyone, I just jumped to my guns. Not even voodoo makes the battery charge completely. I tried a couple of times, and the first, the highest charge was 30 something percent. The second the highest charge was 57%.

This sure seems like a software issue.

hey, the newer power bricks only have two wires leading to the plug (mine got damaged a while back and had to get it repaired) Positive and Negative, no third wire, no comms line. The green/orange circle is directly controlled by the computer.
If there IS any comms between the PowerBook and the PowerBrick, then it would have to be modulated ontop of the DC.
On that note, I've pulled apart a dead PowerBrick and the circuitry is pretty simplistic.

Hope this helps,
Steve

12.1" Al 867mHz Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

could be a main board problem..

Main things to know are that, if you are conditioning your battery, you need to EXHAUST it after it has gone to sleep.
Unplug the machine, let it run down, let it go to sleep. Then leave it at least overnight, or over the weekend. Once the "sleep light" in the lid has stopped flashing, THEN recharge it.
Recharge it until the power plug circle turns green (best indicator I've found so far to tell if it's charging or full).

Doing this a few times has brought my batter back from 800mA (~8%) to 1704mA (40%) and that was just the experimentation stages.

For the people who are asking why it still says "calculating" after reaching 100%, my guess is that it is recharging the "reserve bit" that keeps it in sleep mode after the battery hits "0%". This "last bit" can take a fair while to recharge...

Hope this helps,
Steve

12.1" Al 867mHz Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I'm having the same problems that most of you have mentioned. I'll run through them here:

+ I too have had my PowerBook G4 for about 3 years, and my battery has worked fine. Until this week.

+ The battery status indicator is stuck on "calculating..." whenever I'm running on battery power. For days now, when the battery is 99% and when the battery is 10%, still "calculating..."

+ I've reset the PRAM, and the PMU. I've recalibrated the battery a couple of times.

+ My battery life is still quite strong. Or at least it was. A few days ago I was able to use it for a couple of hours on the battery, which isn't too bad. At its best, it only ran for about 3 hours.

+ Like someone else mentioned, my battery drains much faster on standby/sleep than it used to. I can leave it on standby nearly fully charged, and when I open it up just an hour later it is down to just 5% and it shuts down almost immediately.

+ Another really annoying thing is that the % calculation is erratic. My powerbook shuts down when the charge is 40% to 50%, and time remaining is almost one hour, with no warning message given.

+ I almost never get a low level warning before the battery dies and it goes to sleep.

I'll be calling applecare shortly and will post anything useful I learn.

PowerBookG4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

I am seeing many others on this forum having similar problems with my PowerBook's battery; nevertheless here's my situation.

I am having problems with battery power for my (2004) 12 in. 1 GHz PowerBook G4. I am living in Prague (Praha) right now and my PowerBook is my lifeline to the US and my work in Praha: your help is much appreciated.

Last Sunday (2006/07/10), I was using my PowerBook as it was plugged into the outlet. I noticed that the power percentage went from 100% to 74%. Then I unplugged the power adapter from the wall. Then the PowerBook immediately shutdown, instead of simply running on reserve battery power.

When I turned my PowerBook back on, I had to change the clock, because it started at 1970/1/1 and 1:00. I have to do this now each time I turn my computer back on. Could I fix this problem by changing the battery for the internal clock (and how do I do that?)?

So now, the "symptoms" are the following:
When I keep the power adapter plugged into the wall and into my computer, the power percentage stated by the battery status is dropping slowly, about 5% a day (so now it is at 59%), as I leave my PowerBook plugged in during use and during sleep. The percentage does not drop when I turn it off and on.

When I use the PowerBook with the power adapter plugged in and unplug the adapter from the PowerBook, the PowerBook turns off immediately.

I can put the PowerBook to sleep. However, when I disconnect the power adapter from the PowerBook, the PowerBook immediately turns off. Thus, I cannot discharge the battery (i.e. let the power percentage go to 10%) from sleep mode nor during normal use.

I have to change the clock each time I turn on my PowerBook because it is reset back to 1970/1/1 and 1:00 when it is turned off.

With these symptoms, should I just buy a new 12in PowerBook rechargeable battery and a battery for the internal clock?

12-inch 1 GHz PowerBook G4 (2004) Mac OS X (10.3.9) SuperDrive, 768 MB DDR SDRAM, Build 7W98

I'm also having the same problems as everyone and I've tried the same things, but nothing works. My PowerBook doesn't even recognize the battery right now, it has an X in the icon. It won't charge with the AC adapter, so I can't even recalibrate it. If I take the adapter out the computer shuts down automatically. I took the battery out and put it back in and restarted and it recognized the battery and said 0% and the light was amber for about 2 seconds and then changed to green and said "calculating...until full" for a while and still 0%, but then changed to the X. I'm really worried I need a new battery after less than a year of having my PowerBook! 😟