Battery dead after only a year?

Question

Battery dead after only a year?

Hi there,

I bought my (at the time) brand new 15" Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz in december of 2005, this was the last model of the Powerbook to be released just before the macbooks hit the market. Now it seems the battery is completely failing me.
Because I don't know anything about batteries I'll just explain the situation:

My battery will charge to 100% just fine but then it will drain really fast and at 77% it will give me a warning that I'm running on reserve battery power. Then if I don't do any heavy computing it will give me the warning again at around 36%. Then it just jumps from about 20% to 3% and goes to sleep. This happens almost all the time. Unless I do absolutely nothing with my laptop and just leave it on, then it'll just go through the percentages until it hits 0 and goes to sleep.

Just an hour ago I had my iPod connected, an external harddrive (powered by an outlet) and a cd spinning. I was doing a lot with it running on just the battery power. Suddenly at about 70% it just shut off completely, like someone pushed the power button continuously.

I've been trying to calibrate it but I can't get it to work properly anymore. When going to the battery properties this is what I get:

Battery Information:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 644
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 123
Amperage (mA): -1545
Voltage (mV): 11217
Cycle Count: 527

What do these numbers mean and is it a bad situation? Also, what's the best way to take really good care of your battery. Can you leave the powerbook plugged into an outlet while working or do you have to go through the cycles. And can you leave the powerbook plugged in over night?

A lot of questions for someone who would like to be on the move again with his laptop 🙂

Thanks for the time!

-Pieter

Powerbook G4 1.67 Ghz 15", Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Feb 6, 2007 1:04 PM

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Answer 1

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Feb 6, 2007 3:34 PM in response to Tony Doutreligne

Hi, Pieter. You have an Aluminum Powerbook, and this is a Titanium Powerbook forum. Nevertheless, I can see from your Full Charge Capacity of 644mAh that your battery is nearly dead. Not only that, but your cycle count of 527 is an enormous number for just 13 months' use — it fully justifies the battery's deterioration. You've simply used it up.

Just for comparison, my own Powerbook is 39 months old and still has its original battery. Its current full charge capacity is 4440mAh, and its cycle count is 194. I average 15-20 hours running on AC power for every hour on battery power, so I'm very easy on my battery. You're extremely hard on yours.

Apple says a Powerbook or iBook battery should retain at least 80% of its original full charge capacity after 300 cycles in normal use, but all bets are off as to how rapidly the battery will decline after then. Even before then, abnormally hard use probably takes a heavy toll. Furthermore, once the battery declines to well below its original charge capacity, each successive charge-and-discharge cycle takes less time, so the cycles mount up faster and faster.

You need to replace your battery. When you get a new one, you should seriously consider how you might change your habits of use so as not to average 1.35 charge-discharge cycles per day, if you want your next battery to last longer. You may also want to look these two articles over:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

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Answer 2

Feb 7, 2007 11:19 AM in response to eww

Oh, sorry about that. Didn't know I had the Aluminum version...

Anyway, I understand what you're saying and I read the articles.

"Standard Maintenance
For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her MacBook Pro on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month. Need a reminder? Add an event to your desktop’s iCal."

But what if I use my laptop as a desktop computer and only rarely take it with me on the go? What should I do to maximize my battery life then?

I'm confused, I really want to make the right decisions this time. These batteries cost fortunes...

Thanks anyway for the reply!

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Answer 3

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Feb 7, 2007 2:57 PM in response to Tony Doutreligne

Hi, Pieter.

But what if I use my laptop as a desktop computer and only rarely take it with me on the go? What should I do to maximize my battery life then?

What I do is leave my Powerbook plugged in most of the time, but at least once every week or two I unplug the adapter from the PB and run the battery down until the PB goes to sleep. I normally get a couple of hours of battery-powered running time, give or take 20 minutes depending on what I'm doing. When the Powerbook puts itself to sleep for lack of power, I plug it back in and charge it up fully. This routine, as Apple suggests, "keeps the juices flowing" and has given me good to excellent battery life in three successive Powerbooks over a span of about 12 years.

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Answer 4

Feb 8, 2007 2:01 PM in response to eww

Thanks,

Silly me actually thought I had to go through the cycles as much as possible to keep the battery alive... :-s don't know why I thought that was the best way to go. I'll order a new battery from the Apple store then and do as you suggested.

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