iBook G4 battery condition says "Good" but dies within 30 minutes

Question

iBook G4 battery condition says "Good" but dies within 30 minutes

i recently bought a 2005 iBook G4 1.33 Ghz, 1.5 Gb ram, 60 Gb HDD and the battery condition in the system profiler says "Good" however the computer dies within maybe 30 minutes or so. the battery seems to be the original or at least an apple replacement. i have a new battery on the way but i want to make sure its not a power failure on the part of the machine. heres the specs from the system profiler.

Charge Information:

Charge remaining (mAh): 114

Charging: Yes

Full charge capacity (mAh): 205

Health Information:

Cycle count: 479

Condition: Good

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 486

Voltage (mV): 12540

System Power Settings:

AC Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Dynamic Power Step: Yes

Reduce Processor Speed: No

Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No

Wake On AC Change: No

Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes

Wake On LAN: Yes

Wake On Modem Ring: Yes

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

Battery Power:

System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5

Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10

Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 1

Dynamic Power Step: No

Reduce Processor Speed: Yes

Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No

Wake On AC Change: No

Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes

Wake On Modem Ring: No

Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes

Reduce Brightness: Yes

Hardware Configuration:

Clamshell Closed: No

UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

AC Charger (Watts): 65

Connected: Yes

Charging: Yes

iBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 12 inch, 1.33Ghz, 1.5Gb Ram, 60Gb

Posted on Dec 23, 2014 6:59 AM

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Answer 1

K Shaffer

Level 7

34,978 points

Dec 23, 2014 1:03 PM in response to applecore power pc

The battery needs replaced. A few sources online offer a quality battery,

one of them is OWC macsales. They likely are one of the better ones...

My iBook G4 (mid-2005) 12-inch 1.33GHz model has fewer battery cycles

than yours by far, of two batteries, one says 64 cycles. The other, says 40.

Both of them suggest they are fine, but are Not.

Unlike later batteries and more recent OS X versions in newer hardware,

these older batteries rarely work if under 80% of Original Capacity. The

numbers your System Profiler energy/battery spec says, is a small fraction

of the original full capacity. So if you look at the laughable side of this, it is

easy to see why it may erroneously suggest "Good" going by the numbers.

If your iBook G4 has a 14-inch display, it would or could use a different battery.

The specs for the iBook G4 with 12-inch display originally were not the same

as those for the 14-inch model...

Reference example of battery product for 12-inch iBook G4 (or G3 white)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAPIB1V54RS/

Example of product for 14-inch iBook G4 (or G3 w/ 14") in replacement battery:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple_laptop/batteries/iBook_G4_14

100% of 5% -is not really- 100%... The mAh total numbers should much higher.

Since I've done things such as reset PMU and PRAM, mine are true.

Mine are very much in need of replacement in the iBook G4, also...

A quality battery may set up back as much as $100. though questionable

clones or half-life/half-cost ones may be found online for less money.

There are pages in the Apple Support database about these vintage Books

and some are helpful. With a truly-good battery, occasional calibration may

be necessary or is recommended (newer Macs, not so much) & etc.

•Mac notebooks: All about batteries - Apple Support

•Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance - Apple Support

Older technologies offer a challenge when faced with newer product advice.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/

•Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU) - Apple Support

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

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