Battery Charge

I'm running OS X 10.3.1 and the battery won't charge above 45%. Is there a way to make the battery fully charge or do I need a new battery?
crendall wrote on :

I have a G3/700 iBook that is less than a year old. I'm running OS X 10.3.1 and the battery won't charge above 45%. Is there a way to make the battery fully charge or do I need a new battery?

Thanks, Chris

John Johnson replied on :

In article VJqsb.26996$M02.3876@redacted.invalid, crendall@redacted.invalid wrote:

I have a G3/700 iBook that is less than a year old. I'm running OS X 10.3.1 and the battery won't charge above 45%. Is there a way to make the battery fully charge or do I need a new battery?

Thanks, Chris

Some questions that will help: There is a battery calibration procedure for your iMac. Have you tried it? How long does a battery charged to "45%" last? How much do you use your battery?

Most Li-ion batteries are rated for somewhere between 500-1000 charge cycles. My Pismo's battery was rated for 500. If you have used your batteryextensively during the year (e.g. recharging at least once and often twice per day) you may have simply used your battery up. This does not seem like the most probable situation, given that your battery does not indicate full charge.

crendall replied on :

John Johnson wrote:

In article VJqsb.26996$M02.3876@redacted.invalid, crendall@redacted.invalid wrote:

I have a G3/700 iBook that is less than a year old. I'm running OS X 10.3.1 and the battery won't charge above 45%. Is there a way to make the battery fully charge or do I need a new battery?

Thanks, Chris

Some questions that will help: There is a battery calibration procedure for your iMac. Have you tried it? How long does a battery charged to "45%" last? How much do you use your battery?

What is the battery calibration procedure? My battery last about an hour when it charges to 45%. I've recharged it about 50 times. My iBook doesn't get a lot of usage since I mostly use my desktop Mac.

Chris

John Johnson replied on :

In article kKysb.29003$M02.24342@redacted.invalid, crendall@redacted.invalid wrote:

John Johnson wrote:

In article VJqsb.26996$M02.3876@redacted.invalid, crendall@redacted.invalid wrote:

I have a G3/700 iBook that is less than a year old. I'm running OS X 10.3.1 and the battery won't charge above 45%. Is there a way to make the battery fully charge or do I need a new battery?

Thanks, Chris

Some questions that will help: There is a battery calibration procedure for your iMac. Have you tried it? How long does a battery charged to "45%" last? How much do you use your battery?

What is the battery calibration procedure?

Er, I don't know offhand. The initial calbration procedure should be in your user manual. Apple's KB...[goes to look at the KB]

[gets back from Apple's KB ] Right, article 86284 has this title: "PowerBook and iBook: How to Calibrate a Battery for Best Performance"

There's more than just this there (and you should read it), but:

  1. Plug the power adapter in and fully charge your computer's battery until the battery indicator lights turn off and the adapter plug ring goes from amber to green, which indicates that the battery is fully charged.
  2. Disconnect the power adapter and use your iBook or PowerBook. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen. Continue to use your computer until it goes to sleep. At that point the battery has been sufficiently drained for calibration.
  3. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Searching with the phrase: "PowerBook Power Manager reset" returned many more tantalizing article titles that are worth a look.

My battery last about an hour when it charges to 45%. I've recharged it about 50 times. My iBook doesn't get a lot of usage since I mostly use my desktop Mac.

Does it sit plugged into wall power or unplugged? IIRC, Apple reccommends charging a battery to full at least once a month, but I may be mis-remembering. In any case, for an iBook that's less than 1 year old, this sounds odd, in general. I have no experience with 10.3, so can't say anything about whether that has had an effect.

If you purchased the AppleCare contract with your computer (I recommend it to people who purchase portable computers, but that's another discussion; it's in the archives of the .portables group if you want to take a look, or ask me in another thread/via e-mail), then call them. You are paying for free phone support with that contract, and I have found their technical support to be quite good (YMMV, it has for others).

Chris