iBook owners - inconsistent batteries?

[SusanA]

Hi all

I don't want to name the business involved, but I'd like to hear from other iBook owners if they may have had similar problems.

Recently I had a RAM upgrade done at a computer shop.  The tech asked how my battery was doing; I said fine, there was nothing wrong with it, it's worked perfectly for the last three years.  I learned later that that was that particular tech's last day at that shop.  Don't know why he left, just that he did.

Well, guess what.  Ever since leaving the shop, my battery has been *mysteriously* having problems recharging etc.  Strange eh?

So, out of curiousity, has anyone else with an iBook had similar problems? 

And, if you are a person employed by this business, I would definitely like an answer or two.  Or a new battery.

[Dan Millar]

That does sound a bit strange, did you bring it to an Apple Authorized Service centre? If so, you are quite within your rights to complain to the owner and/or Apple and have things made right. RAM upgrades are pretty straightforward and should not impact your system in any negative way. A more precise description of your iBook would be helpful, but in general the following applies.

A three-year old-laptop battery is bound to show some degradation in performance, but it should not suddenly degrade, it's more of a long, gradual process. Try a deep-discharge, i.e. unplug the charger and allow your iBook to discharge all the way to empty. Let it sit for a few hours, try to restart. Repeat until absolutely no charge remains in the battery - you may even have visual indicators on the exterior of your battery that show you how much charge remains. Then plug the charger back in without turning on the Mac for at least eight-to-twelve hours  - or overnight. If your problem remains, do call Apple and have them verify that the battery in your computer is the same one you bought - it has its own serial number. That will answer your "mysterious" suspicion. If it is the same battery, then you really have no option but to replace it. If it is not the same battery, you have an excellent case for free replacement with a new battery. Best of luck,

Dan

[ben schmidt]

Dear SusanA,

I'm sorry to hear about your ibook battery problems. But your posting at the very least serves as a timely reminder to all [power|mac|i]book owners to take a moment and remove their battery and record the battery's serial number, along with that of their laptop. Then they never need be in any doubt that their battery is their battery.

What are the symptoms of the problems you're having with your battery recharging? Does it recharge? Or is the problem that it doesn't power your iBook as long as it used to?  It's a long shot, but after repair work on a laptop, it's conceivable that the laptop's PRAM (persistent RAM0 settings, PMU (Power Management Unit) settings, or even the battery's internal RAM settings, might need to be reset:

Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance: docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM: docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

With regard to normal battery aging, a rule of thumb, and it's only a rule of thumb, is that a lithium laptop battery is good for about 500 discharge/recharge cycles.  Apple publishes that their batteries should still hold 80% of their original, brand-new charge capacity after 300 cycles: apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html.  But if you use your laptop every day on batteries, this could translate into as little as a 1-year life, which might make getting 3-years' use out of a battery sound a bit better.   Note that OS X can report the no. of battery discharge/recharge cycles. Just open /Applications/Utilities/System Profiler and then look under Hardware and then under Power for a summary of the battery's state, including 'Cycle Count', viz:

Battery Information:
  Battery Installed:   Yes
  First low level warning:   No
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   4292
  Remaining Capacity (mAh):   4278
  Amperage (mA):   0
  Voltage (mV):   12529
  Cycle Count:   104

best of luck,
...b

P.S. As an aside, I'm on my 3rd or 4th battery for my Fall-2000 vintage, $CDN 3500, iBook Special Edition Graphite G3/466 (Firewire) clamshell: www.apple.com/pr/library/2000/sep/13ibook.html