Would you try 6L11 or something later than that to see whether it fixes it? It could screw the system- or resolve it - but I don't want archive and install, and I frankly don't want a clean install either right now - getting back Mutt, bluefish, links etc without using Fink or X11 takes some time ..
i think once your battery does this weird drop in power, it's hosed for life. you have to get it replaced, and it won't do it again even though you're running 10.2.4 still.
Agreed... I think it ends up being a battery problem, not a system revision problem. As I said before, I had the same behavior (even worse, since it was 90% --> sleep), but this was on a 700 iBook well before 10.2.4 even existed (I guess around then it was at 10.2.2). Got a replacement battery from Apple, and it worked fine afterwards.
(From the Apple docs, last link): "When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced into shutdown. At this point, any open files could be lost. Therefore, it is important that you find an electrical outlet and connect the adapter before the forced shutdown occurs."
I have been doing this and monitoring the thing with X-charge. The battery goes to forced sleep first when it was arounf 56-60% but since that also in 75%. It does _NOT_ give any kind of advice about it before doing so. Thus I can consider working on battery "safe" as long as the battery charge is over 80 %. That is 40 minutes. (And that is 3 times less than my 3 years old Linux laptop did after 3 years without changing the battery).
And worse - sometimes it goes to shutdown - also this without notice. So once I'm under 80 % I never know when it will go to sleep or shutdown.
More graphs coming, I was tempted to wait for 10.2.5 official release to see if it fixed it before getting a replacement battery but it looks I could do it now as well.
It's also possible you may simply need a new battery, especially if it's over a year old.
I had the issue with my power adapter, where I didn't think it was properly charging up my battery. I went and bought a new battery (with a higher capacity) and a new charger. My old battery was down to about 2 hours per charge, instead of 3-4 hours as before. With the new battery, I'm back to 3-4 hours.
I don't know much about LiOn batteries, but generally you need a regulated current to charge the batteries. If the power adapter isn't regulating it's current any more, then maybe it's not charging the battery optimally. As my adapter has sparked on my a few times as I plugged and unplugged it, and since the orange light stopped showing (it was always green), I decided to replace it.
I don't suddenly need a new battery beacause of the age of it.
A battery for an Apple laptop has to last over 8 months.
Mine was 8 months when I replaced it. Like I said, I think it had to do with my power adapter going bad, screwing up my battery. It happens.
You don't have to believe me, but there's obviously something wrong with your system. It could be the battery or the software. My 10.2.4 runs fine with my 600 iBook. The battery lasts about 3-4 hours. The old one would be lucky to last 2 hours. In my case, it seems to reason that the battery old battery was not as good as the old battery, eh?
Well, it started doing it after the 10.2.4 update. Suddenly. Before it it worked at least those 3-4 hours.
I reinstalled the OS X and it does it again.
I am not the only one that has it after 10.2.4, just see on those other links (e.g. Apple discussions) .. Reinstalling now was useless = once started doing it it keeps doing it.. So, the update screwed it.
It is not the 10.2.4 update. People have had problems with this through several of the 10.2 updates and going quite a bit before 10.2.4, so I highly doubt that it's tied to a particular update. I still think it's a battery issue rather than a system issue.
I did see some having the problem even with 10.2.2 update, but it seems far more common with 10.2.4 than the previous.
Just wondering if iPods could have anything to do with the battery issue. Do the others battery killed users have an iPod? Could the charging of the iPod at some point screw the normal iPod charging? I assume switching between 110 and 220 V isn't related to that - but could be worth investigating... I both use the iPod and have switched between the voltages ...
in the phone - either buy the apple care packet or they ask 50 $ for telling what is the problem (so they'd repeat my words). thus the store. i have been once, advice more or less 'wait for update' or try to install os x again and get it only to 10.2.3. tried.. the behaviour of the battery continues like this, and i'm tired of waiting for upgrade. most obvious cases have got a replacement battery when this woe occurred under the warranty period (in us, the europeans i've heard have been told to only wait for software upgrade. which i don't believe will fix the situation once the battery has had wrong behaviour for weeks or months). 3 stores around though..
(as said before, "i am not overseas", so i should get it. besides - there are NO apple stores in europe, so if i have 3 close to me, that should be anough to tell where i am not, right?)
Ah, yeah if it's under warranty in the US you can usually get a replacement battery (I got one for my iBook 700 when I had it), but if it's out of warranty or you're in Europe then I guess the situation is different.
I bought my iBook last July, so it's still under warranty.
Here's the longish story of the call I made to Apple about an hour ago...
I called Apple and told technical support (first person to come on the line) about the problem and asked if they had heard about it. The guy said, "no, doesn't ring a bell." After a bit more explanation, they wanted $49 to proceed (I was out of the 90-day phone support period). If my problem turned out to be software related, they would keep the $49, otherwise it would be refunded. I explained that the problem was the battery and that I wouldn't be sending my iBook, so there's no way it could be determined to be a software problem. I also explained that many people have had this exact problem and many have had their batteries replaced under warranty. Anyway... I could see technical support was gonna be tough on the $49, so I asked to be kicked over to customer relations. Customer relations was much better, but they still said they hadn't heard about the problem. I was put on hold while the CR guy investigated. After some time on hold, he connected me with somebody in iBook technical services. I don't know if that's the same as techincal support, but this new person didn't seem as telephone operatory. After explaining to this person that I'd zapped the PRAM and reset the PM on many occasion trying to fix this, he "did his thing" to get a new battery to me. I still had to give a CC number ("to hold for ransom until we get your returned battery").
Some time during our short conversation, I asked him if he'd heard of this problem before. "Nope. I've heard of a lot of weird stuff, though" (he told me a story about a G4 that wouldn't boot with a USB hub plugged into the second USB port). However, he then asked me this:
Him: "I'm going to ask you something and I really want you to think about this, ok?"
Me: "Ok."
Him: "Did this start happening when you installed 10.2.4?"
I actually don't know if 10.2.4 was the start of my battery problem, but the time frame, as near as I can recall, would fit with that.
Me: "Hmmm..."
Him: "Think about it."
Me: "It's possible, but I can't really remember exactly when it began. 10.2.5 hasn't fixed it, though."
If you're under warranty, call and get a new battery. If it is 10.2.4, I bet it somehow hosed the battery. Also, I wouldn't even bother with technical support. Try to steer the conversation as quickly as possible to getting customer relatations on the line.
Wow, that seeemed like a lot of work. When I had to deal with it a while back, I just called Applecare, they gave me the thing about "$49 charge, we refund it or whatever if it's a hw problem, so we need your CC"... so I said fine. Described my problem, the person I got knew about trying to reset the PMU, which I had done already and told them it did nothing, and was adamant that it couldn't be software related, that the battery was messed up. They put me on hold, two min later I was told I'd get a replacement battery (and yeah, they expect your battery within a couple weeks, otherwise they charge you for the cost of the battery).
Sorry that it took you a couple bounces between depts to get a new battery, but at least you're getting one, and it will solve your problem.
Comments
all sorts of tricks i've tried, but nothing yet. i have to find some way to keep 10.2.3 from knowing that 10.2.4 is already here.
Clean install of 10.2 (and then 10.2.3) seems to do nothing for most of the batteries that have started to do this. Argh.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
I have been doing this and monitoring the thing with X-charge. The battery goes to forced sleep first when it was arounf 56-60% but since that also in 75%. It does _NOT_ give any kind of advice about it before doing so. Thus I can consider working on battery "safe" as long as the battery charge is over 80 %. That is 40 minutes. (And that is 3 times less than my 3 years old Linux laptop did after 3 years without changing the battery).
And worse - sometimes it goes to shutdown - also this without notice. So once I'm under 80 % I never know when it will go to sleep or shutdown.
More graphs coming, I was tempted to wait for 10.2.5 official release to see if it fixed it before getting a replacement battery but it looks I could do it now as well.
I had the issue with my power adapter, where I didn't think it was properly charging up my battery. I went and bought a new battery (with a higher capacity) and a new charger. My old battery was down to about 2 hours per charge, instead of 3-4 hours as before. With the new battery, I'm back to 3-4 hours.
I don't know much about LiOn batteries, but generally you need a regulated current to charge the batteries. If the power adapter isn't regulating it's current any more, then maybe it's not charging the battery optimally. As my adapter has sparked on my a few times as I plugged and unplugged it, and since the orange light stopped showing (it was always green), I decided to replace it.
A battery for an Apple laptop has to last over 8 months.
As comparison, a 3 y old Acer laptop with Linux without ever changing the battery, still lasted 2+ hours.
Originally posted by Mulattabianca
I don't suddenly need a new battery beacause of the age of it.
A battery for an Apple laptop has to last over 8 months.
Mine was 8 months when I replaced it. Like I said, I think it had to do with my power adapter going bad, screwing up my battery. It happens.
You don't have to believe me, but there's obviously something wrong with your system. It could be the battery or the software. My 10.2.4 runs fine with my 600 iBook. The battery lasts about 3-4 hours. The old one would be lucky to last 2 hours. In my case, it seems to reason that the battery old battery was not as good as the old battery, eh?
I'm just trying to give you possible solutions.
I reinstalled the OS X and it does it again.
I am not the only one that has it after 10.2.4, just see on those other links (e.g. Apple discussions) .. Reinstalling now was useless = once started doing it it keeps doing it.. So, the update screwed it.
Will go to Apple store..
Just wondering if iPods could have anything to do with the battery issue. Do the others battery killed users have an iPod? Could the charging of the iPod at some point screw the normal iPod charging? I assume switching between 110 and 220 V isn't related to that - but could be worth investigating... I both use the iPod and have switched between the voltages ...
Originally posted by klinux
Did the 10.2.5 update fix the problem for anyone? (Not home to check it yet.)
no mention about it on the release notes.
installed 10.2.5, with "full" battery. then used to 66% where it dies ... it recharged slower, but at 38% it was "100 % charged". so, no.
so, apple store again...
(as said before, "i am not overseas", so i should get it. besides - there are NO apple stores in europe, so if i have 3 close to me, that should be anough to tell where i am not, right?)
I bought my iBook last July, so it's still under warranty.
Here's the longish story of the call I made to Apple about an hour ago...
I called Apple and told technical support (first person to come on the line) about the problem and asked if they had heard about it. The guy said, "no, doesn't ring a bell." After a bit more explanation, they wanted $49 to proceed (I was out of the 90-day phone support period). If my problem turned out to be software related, they would keep the $49, otherwise it would be refunded. I explained that the problem was the battery and that I wouldn't be sending my iBook, so there's no way it could be determined to be a software problem. I also explained that many people have had this exact problem and many have had their batteries replaced under warranty. Anyway... I could see technical support was gonna be tough on the $49, so I asked to be kicked over to customer relations. Customer relations was much better, but they still said they hadn't heard about the problem. I was put on hold while the CR guy investigated. After some time on hold, he connected me with somebody in iBook technical services. I don't know if that's the same as techincal support, but this new person didn't seem as telephone operatory. After explaining to this person that I'd zapped the PRAM and reset the PM on many occasion trying to fix this, he "did his thing" to get a new battery to me. I still had to give a CC number ("to hold for ransom until we get your returned battery").
Some time during our short conversation, I asked him if he'd heard of this problem before. "Nope. I've heard of a lot of weird stuff, though" (he told me a story about a G4 that wouldn't boot with a USB hub plugged into the second USB port). However, he then asked me this:
Him: "I'm going to ask you something and I really want you to think about this, ok?"
Me: "Ok."
Him: "Did this start happening when you installed 10.2.4?"
I actually don't know if 10.2.4 was the start of my battery problem, but the time frame, as near as I can recall, would fit with that.
Me: "Hmmm..."
Him: "Think about it."
Me: "It's possible, but I can't really remember exactly when it began. 10.2.5 hasn't fixed it, though."
If you're under warranty, call and get a new battery. If it is 10.2.4, I bet it somehow hosed the battery. Also, I wouldn't even bother with technical support. Try to steer the conversation as quickly as possible to getting customer relatations on the line.
Sorry that it took you a couple bounces between depts to get a new battery, but at least you're getting one, and it will solve your problem.