Horrendous iBook battery life

daver

I've had my 500 MHz iBook for a little less than a year now. Running OS 9, my battery life on a full charge has always averaged more than three hours under typical use. Now, it's less than 1.5 hours.



I'm aware that my battery might just be going bad, but I had an Apple service rep check it out when the iBook was in having its trackpad replaced. He said the battery was fine.



What gives? My OS install isn't mucked up, either.

alcimedes

well Daver, i would say that your OS install is mucked up, or you're doing some unusual stuff on your iBook most of the time. the reason i say that is that i have the exact same model on my lap right now, and it get at least 3-4 hours in OS9.



what kinds of things do you normally do with your computer?



are you burning cd's, watching dvd's? you ripping mp3's the whole time, or copying massive amounts of data?



the only things that should drain the battery life that fast are things that require parts to be in motion the entire time, or a laser beam burning data to a cd.



if you're getting those times out of your battery when word processing, there is something wrong.



-alcimedes

eman

I recently had that problem with my 500MHz iBook. I could get about an hour and that was it, just with IE and AIM open. I called Apple and they sent a new battery and it's been fine since then.

daver

Thanks for the replies.



EmAn, it sounds like you had the very same problem that I'm experiencing. Starting with a fresh charge, my battery gauge will indicate less than 1.5 hours while sitting idle in the Finder!



I'll give Apple a call.