Battery life

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Level 2

323 points

Battery life

This is kind of a hypothetical question. Lets say I have a brand new PowerBook G4 1.33 Ghz with the 256MB ram that come soldered on an a 500 MB stick. A 60 gig HD set at native resolution @ 32 bit. Brand new, fresh from the factory. With a full charge. Roughly how long could I reasonably expect the battery to last. BT on, Wi-Fi on. Mostly sleeping, maybe a little browsing, check email. Rough, ball park guess. I won't hold you to it. Now let's say it's 8 years old but got a brand new fully charged battery. How would that affect it.

Posted on May 22, 2012 5:13 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 22, 2012 5:17 PM in response to Igor_G5

Well, I had an old PB G4 and the battery life when it was new under normal use may have made 3 to 3.5 hours.

I would assume that a brand new battery would provide the same if the computer's power consumption were the same as when it was measured brand factory new.

Understand, that actual usage will affect the amount of time it will run on battery. I'm sort of remembering from quite some time ago. But that's my recollection.

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Answer 2

Igor_G5 Author

Level 2

323 points

May 22, 2012 6:38 PM in response to Kappy

Yeah. It's just that I bought an old G4 PowerBook with a trashed battery from eBay. And I bought a "new" non-Apple battery from eBay for $22. I charged it up and it only went to 99 % but showed the plug. iStat says the health is at 93%. It's been mostly sleeping. Now I fired up Safari and plugged in my USB external drive. I'm doing this on my iPhone. Now I'm charging my iPhone on the book. I just disconnected the hard drive. Set the power for performance. Unplugged the iPhone so I could go out. But a few minutes ago it said 71% after 2-1/2 hours.

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 22, 2012 6:48 PM in response to Igor_G5

So, I'm not sure I understand what is the problem? The amount of time the battery will last will always decline until it's recharged.

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Answer 4

Igor_G5 Author

Level 2

323 points

May 22, 2012 7:08 PM in response to Kappy

It's not so much a problem. Just wondering whats reasonable to expect. Like I said at the beginhypothetical hypothetical question. I'm just wondering what's reasonable to expect from an after market cable.

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Answer 5

Igor_G5 Author

Level 2

323 points

May 23, 2012 10:34 AM in response to Kappy

Was sleeping when I typed that. should have said like I said at the beginning it's A hypothetical question.

And What's reasonable to expect from a battery.

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Answer 6

BGreg

Level 6

17,558 points

May 24, 2012 5:08 AM in response to Igor_G5

If you look at the Powerbook specifications, Apple says for the 1.33Ghz models:

50-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 5 hours of battery life (12-inch models) ⁽⁸⁾

50-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 4.5 hours of battery life (15-inch models) ⁽⁸⁾

The footnote says "Battery life depends on configuration and use."

Powerbook specifications are at http://support.apple.com/specs/#powerbook

Having several PowerBooks, my recollection is similar to Kappy's, that in real world use, 3 to 3.5 hours of use was typical. But your question is hypothetical (see above).

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Answer 7

Igor_G5 Author

Level 2

323 points

May 28, 2012 2:37 PM in response to BGreg

That has nothing to do with my post.

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Answer 8

BGreg

Level 6

17,558 points

May 28, 2012 3:44 PM in response to Igor_G5

That has nothing to do with my post.

You asked a, your words, hypothetical question on PowerBook battery life, given some assumptions. I told you what Apple says, which will be on the high side, and bound it with my experience. Apologies if that wasn't your question.

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