Battery Stuck on Calculating Remaining Time

I've had my PowerBook for almost three years, and I haven't experienced any problems with the battery...up until now!

The battery status indicator in the menu bar is set to show the time remaining on the current charge, but the indicator is stuck on "Calculating..."

I've tried resetting the PMU and recalibrating the battery, but neither course of action does anything.

Recently, I've also noticed I'm only getting around two hours use out of a fully charged battery, so presumably battery age/wear has something to do with this (I was getting around four hours when I first bought the PowerBook)

Has anyone encountered this before? If so, is there an easy fix, or is a replacement battery the only solution?

PowerBook G4 867 Mac OS X (10.3.9) AirPort Extreme, 640MB

Posted on Jan 7, 2006 1:20 PM

20 replies

Aug 2, 2006 12:13 PM in response to Sammy7383

i'm suffering from the exact same problem. My battery is fairly new, i bought it in May of 2005.

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! 😟

elmotel

Level 1

19 points

Jan 30, 2006 5:19 PM in response to elmotel

and in addition, my batt seems to drain faster on standby/sleep than it used to. is it time to replace it?

Wytche

Level 3

970 points

Feb 4, 2006 2:47 PM in response to elmotel

Just now I seem to be having this exact same issue. I'm going to try using the battery until flat and then see what happens.

edit: there it goes it's now showing "charged"

Jun 16, 2006 6:14 PM in response to gpd209

Hi,

Did you learn anything about these problems...count me in as having the same ones, esp. the battery stuck "calculating" and a very hot computer.

Jul 5, 2006 11:29 AM in response to Michele Bowman

i too have these exact problems now.

1.33 GHz Powerbook G4 12 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Battery Stuck on Calculating Remaining Time