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A slow death

So, I’ve figured out that my iBook’s battery is dying. I’ve tried recalibrating it (several times, in fact) with no luck and I’ve even tried resetting the PMU and that doesn’t help either. I get about 2 hours of battery life in OSX and 1 1/2 hours in Linux. When I first got it I was getting around 4 1/2 to 5 in OSX and 3 1/2 to 4 in Linux. If my battery isn’t covered under my AppleCare Protection Plan, I’ll have to use $127 from my tax returns to buy a new one. Hopefully a dying battery isn’t an act of God (see section 2.e.ii).

Posted in Computers.

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4 comments

By Bryan Forbes – April 14, 2005

4 Responses

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  1. rwg says

    http://www.mitt-eget.com/so...

    …may be useful for figuring out exactly how dead the battery is. Run on recent Apple laptops, the script will show a "charge" percentage and a "capacity" percentage. If the capacity is low, your battery is toast.

    April 14, 2005, 7:28 PM
  2. EW says

    I’ve had some luck with a suggestion someone made once – short it out. It can "reset" some batteries.

    April 14, 2005, 8:32 PM
  3. AdamW says

    How old is the battery? Li-I batteries live for two to four years then die, and there’s nothing me, you or Apple can do about it. I’d be surprised if they cover it under warranty, but you never know. This happens even if you _never use_ the battery, which makes getting working batteries for old laptops a horrible pain, as it relies on someone actually still manufacturing new ones. An Li-I battery that’s been in its box for five years will be exactly as dead as one that’s been in use for five years.

    April 14, 2005, 9:29 PM
  4. ricardo says

    Act of God? Is that a real license?
    This is bizarre. I wonder if that clause could bring the license void in some sane countries.

    April 15, 2005, 5:54 AM

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