New PowerBook battery life

jwolfe9 · September 17, 2003 5:06PM

I bought a new PB 125Ghz yesterday. Heat issues seemed to have been solved, and I'm happy with speed at most tasks. I am not a power user.

Battery life is weak. I've only gotten about 2 hours on initial charges. This is with Airport enabled.

This is my only issue with my new "Book". Love the backlit keyboard, used it last night as the missus was sleeping. Airport reception is very good.

Any other comments regarding battery life?

kecksy · September 17, 2003 5:12PM

Yeah, battery life is low because Apple is using cheaper batteries. I think the old TiBooks used 61WH batteries, the new ones use 46WH batteries. Kind of blows.

jwolfe9 · September 17, 2003 5:28PM

Thanks Kecksy, I had an iBook two Macs ago. Great battery life and Airport reception. Your 14" iBook is starting to look better and better.

ast3r3x · September 17, 2003 5:36PM

\ is there anything you can do about battery life? I'd rather be able to buy a longer lasting battery then another one I'd have to carry around and swap out.

Do 3rd party ever make bigger batteries? Haha...heck would there be any way to modify one...assuming there is still more room like i hear there was on the old PB's.

2hrs sucks! I was hoping for at least 3.5.

Oh yeah almost forgot...what were u doing? Was screen brightness up as high as possible?

machem · September 17, 2003 6:02PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ast3r3x

\ is there anything you can do about battery life? I'd rather be able to buy a longer lasting battery then another one I'd have to carry around and swap out.

Maybe OWC will produce new batteries for the 15" since they *just* announced a set for the other machines. It would be nice. Their rationale might be similar to dropping the L3 cache --- same overall on-battery time with less capacity since the HW draws less power --- but it still sucks.

If that's the only complaint I have next week when I use the darn thing though, I'll be happy.

[Edit:addition]

Actually, one odd thing --- my (new) extra battery isn't scheduled to ship until Oct. 15. This means it isn't even manufactured yet! Maybe they re-engineered them? It would be a nice bonus if so. I'll weigh them both when it arrives.

jwolfe9 · September 17, 2003 6:12PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ast3r3x

Oh yeah almost forgot...what were u doing? Was screen brightness up as high as possible? [/B]

Yes, screen brightness is high. I'm not doing any processor intensive tasks; email, Safari, etc. I am charging again and will turn brightness down. Will report here later.

machem · September 17, 2003 6:19PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jwolfe9

Yes, screen brightness is high. I'm not doing any processor intensive tasks; email, Safari, etc. I am charging again and will turn brightness down. Will report here later.

Remember to discharge that battery until the machine turns itself off, then recharge fully. This will properly set the power manager so it will properly predict usage.

ast3r3x · September 17, 2003 6:38PM

Quote:

Originally posted by machem

Remember to discharge that battery until the machine turns itself off, then recharge fully. This will properly set the power manager so it will properly predict usage.

Is that something you have to do everytime or just the first?

aquatic · September 17, 2003 6:43PM

Just the first, and it is VERY important! Also, turn off airport and bluetooth and Ethernet and modem to save battery. You can turn off ethernet and modem by turning them off in Network Prefs, or make a Location with only 1 of each like I did.

No L3 and worse batteries! These updates suck.

fuzz_ball · September 17, 2003 6:43PM

I have a Rev A PB 17" and I can tell you that 2+ hours of battery life is typical if you don't do anything to your energy settings.

However, if you do a few things:

Turn off Bluetooth (why leave this thing on unless you have devices that use it?)

Turn off Airport (unless you need to be on a network at the time)

Don't run your screen at full brightness.

Use reduced processor settings

etc...

Or you can make it easy and just go to the energy settings panel and choose "longest battery life" from the drop down and it does several of those things for you (except turning off Airport/Bluetooth).

You can then get 3+ hours from a battery.

Of course I really hope some after market vendor will come out with a better battery...

joecool · September 18, 2003 3:02AM

Sorry guys, but what do you mean by discharging the battery? Running the PB until the battery dies?

neutrino23 · September 18, 2003 4:10AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Aquatic

No L3 and worse batteries! These updates suck.

The L2 cache size was doubled to 512kbytes and the speed was doubled to 1.25GHz and the system bus speed was increased 25% to 167MHz. An L3 cache running at the speed of the system bus probably had a small impact on performance compared to the cost in money and power and space and weight.

Not to mention AE, better airport reception, bluetooth, FW800, more memory capacity, larger HD, really nice ATI Radeon 9600, etc. I hardly think "These updates suck."

The batteries are a curiosity. The Ti book had 61W-hr batteries. The 15" Al PB has 46W-Hr batteries. Perhaps they are smaller and lighter to compensate for a heavier frame? We'll have to wait a while to see if NewerTech can supply 65W-Hr batteries for this book. That would be impressive.

pb · September 18, 2003 4:21AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Joecool

Sorry guys, but what do you mean by discharging the battery? Running the PB until the battery dies?

You simply have to run your powerbook on battery until it goes automatically to sleep (you will see before that some warning that your battery is running low, but you have to wait until it sleeps automatically). Then you plug it again and you leave it until it is completely charged. This procedure calibrates the battery for optimal performance. After that, you can repeat your tests.

joecool · September 18, 2003 4:39AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PB

You simply have to run your powerbook on battery until it goes automatically to sleep (you will see before that some warning that your battery is running low, but you have to wait until it sleeps automatically). Then you plug it again and you leave it until it is completely charged. This procedure calibrates the battery for optimal performance. After that, you can repeat your tests.

Thanks PB.

Now I know what to do when I get my 15" Superdrive.

Man, I can't wait for it to arrive. Apple Australia have 15"ers initially coming into the country this week and the rest of backorders next week! I don't know what's worse....waiting for the 15" announcement or waiting for them to arrive now that they've been announced!@!!!

jwolfe9 · September 18, 2003 6:35AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fuzz_ball

Turn off Bluetooth (why leave this thing on unless you have devices that use it?)

Turn off Airport (unless you need to be on a network at the time)

Don't run your screen at full brightness.

Use reduced processor settings

etc...

You can then get 3+ hours from a battery.

Thanks for the recommendations. I turned off Bluetooth, Ethernet, reduced processor performance to Best Battery, and turned down the brightness. It looks like these changes improved the battery life to about 2 1/2 hours.

Other than the battery, I think this rev is great. Airport reception is exceptional. I compared the heat to an older Ti at the Apple Store and it runs cooler. It's been on battery power for the last hour or so and the bottom feels cool to touch.

I was one of the many that held off buying a Powerbook for 6 months as the Al Book 15" was rumored. I'm glad I waited. This PBook has better performance, better Airport reception, paint doesn't chip, it runs cooler. Not a G5, but still meets my needs for the next several years.

yevgeny · September 18, 2003 11:43AM

The lesser capacity batteries are a real dissapointment. Perhaps the new die shrunk G4's consume so much less power that Apple could get away with a cheaper battery?

The newer 65Wh batter is pretty sweet, but is essentially an extra $140. With the newer battery, you could probably get 4.5 hours of life.

jwolfe9 · September 18, 2003 11:51AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Yevgeny

The newer 65Wh batter is pretty sweet, but is essentially an extra $140. With the newer battery, you could probably get 4.5 hours of life.

Where can one find the newer 65Wh battery?

fuzz_ball · September 18, 2003 2:00PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jwolfe9

Thanks for the recommendations. I turned off Bluetooth, Ethernet, reduced processor performance to Best Battery, and turned down the brightness. It looks like these changes improved the battery life to about 2 1/2 hours.

Curious, did you run your laptop for 2.5 hours before it went into auto-sleep, or are you just reporting what your meter indicated? I mention this because sometimes my meter will indicate 2+ hours, and not drop as fast as actual clock time.

kyogen · September 18, 2003 2:43PM

On the battery condioning subject in general, is there any value in draining the battery on an old Ti500's battery? Will it help recondition it? or is it just speeding the inevitible permanent drop in time?

BTW, I'll just be selling this Ti500 when my NEW AL 1.25 Superdrive gets here late this or early next week. whoohoo!!!!

machem · September 18, 2003 2:53PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kyogen

On the battery condioning subject in general, is there any value in draining the battery on an old Ti500's battery? Will it help recondition it? or is it just speeding the inevitible permanent drop in time?

BTW, I'll just be selling this Ti500 when my NEW AL 1.25 Superdrive gets here late this or early next week. whoohoo!!!!

In my experience, nothing can help a worn-out battery.

I've found that cursing a lot helps me feel better, though.

jwolfe9 · September 18, 2003 3:00PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fuzz_ball

Curious, did you run your laptop for 2.5 hours before it went into auto-sleep, or are you just reporting what your meter indicated? I mention this because sometimes my meter will indicate 2+ hours, and not drop as fast as actual clock time.

Fuzz, I used clock time, not the time on the meter. I've been using my PBook on battery and powered all day. I just got 3 hours on my last battery with settings on Longest Battery Life and Processor Performance on Automatic. Apparently the Automatic setting powers up the disk based on demand.

Again, I was doing low processor demand computing today. The bottom never even got remotely warm.

Good enough battery performance for me. Everything else about this PBook is great IMO.

New PowerBook battery life

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